It’s something you’ve seen on this blog tens, if not hundreds of times before; a small bar of chocolate fresh from its mold. Except this time, it’s not Callebaut or Valrhona chocolate that I’ve melted down, tempered, and reformed in the mold. On Friday, this bar was still just a pile of cocoa beans, which I roasted, pulverized, and turned into chocolate by grinding them down for just under 24 hours. For the first time, I’ve made a chocolate bar almost entirely from scratch, just in the way it was done in the 19th century.

Though I did have a VitaMix to help out. And the melangeur was mains-powered. But still.

A single origin, Venezuelan 60% dark chocolate bar created over a weekend. Tempered and cast.

I feel like I can call myself a chocolatier now.