Bean-to-Bar Chocolate
Bean-to-bar manufacturers take great care in selecting their cacao beans with many traveling to plantations in tropical regions to meet with growers in order to establish direct-trade relationships, some have managed to gain access to control the fermentation process. Over 2,500 bean-to-bar manufacturers have emerged in less than 20 years in Canada, Europe and the United States, entrepreneurs inspired by science, technology or culinary arts have all proven to be successful as chocolate makers.
What is Bean-to-Bar?
Bean-to-bar is a trade model that was born from the artisan and craft chocolate movement representative of an individual company buying ethically sourced cocoa beans to make high-quality integral chocolate. The term refers to the upper portion of the cacao to chocolate supply chain, it is a legal labelling concept for many chocolate brands and is clearly defined as the consistent manufacturing process of taking whole cocoa beans to make chocolate bars that are ready to eat. Bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers control the roasting time, sugar content, fat content, additives, flavor ingredients, texture and can even enrich the flavor sensory experience through adding essential oils to create hundreds of flavors, types and classes of chocolate through their businesses.
From an economic perspective bean-to-bar represents the upper portion of the cacao to chocolate supply chain, it has become a legal, marketing and technical labelling concept for many chocolate brands who define themselves within terms of the bean-to-bar industry. Bean-to-bar can be generally defined as the consistent manufacturing process of taking whole cocoa beans to make chocolate bars that are ready to eat, by a single company or in a kitchen. Manufacturers that start with chocolate liquor instead of beans are cheating consumers, many Big Chocolate manufacturers imitate the bean-to-bar process.
Bean-to-Bar Introduction
The term "bean-to-bar" emerged from the artisan and craft chocolate movement around 2010 - 2018 from which several hundred small chocolate manufacturing companies were started to meet the demand for bean-to-bar products and the infinitely wide variety of flavors based on new consumer requirements leading to value-added terms like nutritional value, organic, vegan, slave-free, single-origin, fair-trade, sustainable, no additives and carbon-negative complimenting chocolate product descriptions. Bean-to-bar manufacturers take great care in selecting their cocoa beans with many traveling to plantations in tropical regions to meet with growers in order to establish direct-trade relationships, some have managed to gain access to control the fermentation process. Over 2,500 bean-to-bar manufacturers have emerged in less than 20 years in Canada, Europe and the United States, entrepreneurs inspired by science, technology or culinary arts have all proven to be successful as chocolate makers.
As a result of the rise in consumer demand for fine and aromatic dark chocolate created by bean-to-bar (craft chocolate movement) and the idea of small batch recipes, new types of processing equipment and machinery have been developed facilitating small business development. Schools and universities have developed courses in bean-to-bar chocolate making and entrepreneurial workshops have popped-up inspiring new chocolate makers. New certifications, endorsements and labelling schemes based on ethical consumer values have also appeared.