For our bean to bar process, we start with raw, single-origin cacao beans.

stock of cocoa beans sur de lago

The beans are meticulously sorted by hand, removing any impurities.

hand sorting

The beans gain a little bit of color after they are sifted.

Raw Sorted Cacao Beans

The beans are then roasted with a batch roaster. It can do approximately 70lbs per batch.

cacao_dropping2

Next, we crack the beans in a stainless steel machine we designed and custom built for this process. It’s a winnower; it cracks the beans and removes the husks through a mechanical process.

winnower cracking, separating and sifting the beans

Our winnower

This process transforms the beans into nibs.

cacao_nibs

Finally the nibs are conched for a long time, 36-48 hours. In the last stages, cane sugar is ground with the cacao, unless it’s our 100% bar.

conching

More to come soon!