· By The Beyond Good Team
Launch Notes From Our Head Chocolate Maker
Salama!
After a few years of chocolate making, I have never been this excited to share a project we have been quietly developing: our Microbatch Collection. These chocolate bars are a reflection and a celebration of our passion as a team of Malagasy Chocolate Makers.
These four chocolate products, like all our others, are made using the finest quality of cocoa beans- three from Madagascar's ancient Criollo cocoa and one from Uganda's Trinitario. But what truly sets them apart – that incredibly rich flavor and noticeably smoother feel – comes from how we refine our process. The changes we've made might sound subtle, but we have been amazed by how much difference they make.
First, the cocoa beans were roasted for longer and at lower temperatures than usual. While our core line uses a standard roast setting to develop deeper and consistent chocolate notes, with the Microbatch line we wanted to achieve a more delicate and nuanced flavor. We hoped this change would allow the unique terroir of each origin to shine through.
The second difference lies in our conching process- the stage where we refine chocolate to achieve a smooth texture and where we develop its flavor profile. This is attained through a combination of stirring, grinding, and heating. For the Microbatch collection, we paid closer attention to each lever we could pull- temperature, air flow, pressure, oxidation- anything that affects the final flavor. The conching process for this collection lasts for at least twenty-four hours.
The result is a chocolate that melts with an almost velvety smoothness, coating your palate in a way that allows every layered flavor note to unfold slowly and completely. It's a mouthfeel that transforms the entire chocolate experience.
Each small, numbered batch represents hours of careful monitoring, tasting, and adjusting – it is craft chocolate making at source rather than mass production and I can’t wait for you to experience it.
You can find our Microbatch Collection in the specialty chocolate section at Whole Foods Markets and at fine natural and specialty grocers nationwide, or online. I hope when you try these bars, you'll notice what we've been so excited about – there's something truly special that happens when you give chocolate this kind of time and attention.
Am-pitiavana be,
Sariaka Andrianarivo