Bean to Bar Chocolate Maker Location: Lynden, WA
Chocolate Makers: Amy and Rob Anderson
Website: Fresco Chocolate
Date Established: July 2010
Ingredients Used: 3 - Organic cocoa beans, Organic cane sugar, Organic cocoa butter
Allergen Information: Nut free, dairy free, gluten free, soy free

Raised in Southern California, Amy and Rob Anderson met as teenagers and dated on and off into their twenties, knowing that they wanted to spend their lives together. With careers in engineering and accounting, they were ready to start a life together.

Fast forward to 2003 when their chocolate journey began during a trip to San Francisco. A love for all things chocolate was the couple’s incentive to sign up for a factory tour at Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker in nearby Berkeley. From that point on, they knew that chocolate would be in their future.

As an engineer, Rob thought, how hard could making chocolate be? After endless experiments learning how to make chocolate, and after manufacturing and revising homemade roasters, winnowers and a conche, they converted a home garage into a commercial kitchen, and Fresco Chocolate was born in 2010.

Each Fresco bar features a recipe number. Each recipe includes the region and often the co-operative of farmers producing the cacao. Recipe numbers also include the cacao roasting profile. A light roast is just enough to soften raw cocoa’s acidic or green edge. A medium roast develops balanced flavors. A dark roast is full bodied, bold and intense, and new flavor notes can develop while others may be subdued.

Recipes also describe chocolate conch levels. Through conching, heat, motion, aeration and time develop each chocolate’s final flavor. Changes in time and temperature can result in dramatically different chocolate flavors. A subtle conche softens the cacao’s primitive edge while retaining aggressive flavor notes. A medium conche level can create balance between aggressive and subdued notes. During a long conche, flavor peaks and valleys softened to a melodic harmony.