Kumara

Kumara

Kumara - Milk Chocolate

Like Cacao, Kumara originally came from South America, travelling west across the Pacific after being traded through the islands and landing in Aotearoa (New Zealand) with Maori.

In this chocolate we have used Kumara crisps from our friends Ned and Mina at Proper Crisps. Proper make their crisps using seasonally selected varieties, mostly Red Kumara (Owairaka), Gold Kumara (Toka Toka) and Orange Kumara (Beauregard).

We have paired the Kumara with our Peruvian criollo cacao which highlights the caramelisation of the crisps, adding caramel and fruit notes to a deliciously smooth Kumara Milk Chocolate.

Ingredients: Cocoa Beans, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Milk Solids, Kumara Crisps

Weight 70g

Regular price $9.99

Unit price per 

PIURA | PERU

Our 66% Gran Blanco is made with Criollo cacao from the Norandino Cooperative of Piura, Peru.

Norandino Cooperative is an association of small producers that contributes to improving the quality of life of its members, contributes to local socio-economic development, and participates in specialty markets with high quality, and value-added products, preserving the environment, promoting the benefits of group behaviour and gender equity. Norandino works with 7000 cocoa, coffee and sugar cane producers from the Piuran mountains in the northeast of Peru.

CRIOLLO CACAO

Criollo cacao is the rarest of the three main varieties (Forestero, Trinitario & Criollo). Due to its susceptibility to disease it is not widely cultivated. The beans are light in colour and highly sought after for their delicate fruit and nut flavours.

OUR FEATURE INGREDIENT | KUMARA

Like Cacao, Kūmara (Sweet Potato) originally came from South America, travelling west across the Pacific after being traded through the islands and landing in Aotearoa (New Zealand) with Māori.

Kūmara is a good source of dietary fibre and contains a significant amount of potassium (they are one of the highest potassium-containing vegetables). Kūmara is one of the highest carbohydrate containing vegetables so it makes an excellent source of energy. The coloured flesh and skin of kūmara supply an array of phytonutrients including phenolic compounds, flavonoids and carotenoids. Red or purple varieties contain anthocyanins (the stuff that makes grape skins red), and those with orange and yellow colouring are rich in beta-carotene. The richer the colour the more phytonutrients are present.

OUR PROCESS

From bean... to bar

Sort

We hand sort every batch to ensure only the best beans make it into our chocolate. We discard broken, mouldy and germinated beans, plus any other foreign matter which may have made it into the sack.

Roast

We roast batches of 10-15kg in our modified coffee roaster according to a roast profile we have developed for that particular bean. We roast to tame acidity, develop chocolate flavour, evaporate moisture and puff the husk away from the bean centre to allow easier winnowing.

Crush and Clasify

To successfully winnow (remove the husk) the bean needs to be broken apart and the pieces sorted into different fractions according to size. We do this in our home built classifying machine that vibrates the pieces through a series of sieves. 

Winnow

Winnowing is the process for separating the husk from the bean’s meat, which is known as Nib. We use a system we built ourselves where the broken beans are allowed to fall through an airstream going in the opposite direction, the light husk is pulled up the airstream to be removed while the heavier nib falls to the bottom.

Grind and Conch

The goal is to grind the nibs and sugar until we reach our desired texture and the cacao’s inherent acids left over from the fermentation have been released (conched), being careful not to over grind or over conch.

Age

Once the grinding/conching process is complete the chocolate is poured out into blocks, wrapped and stored for a minimum of 1 month. Ageing allows the remaining acidity in the chocolate to mellow, it is an important and unique step in our chocolate making.

Melt, Temper and Mould

The aged chocolate is re-melted and tempered. Tempering is a complicated process of heating and cooling where we force the chocolate to set in the correct crystal structure that will give the best shine, the loudest snap and longest shelf life. The tempered chocolate is deposited into each of our custom moulds.

Hand Wrap

Once taken from the moulds, each bar is sealed in a gold foil pouch, then enclosed in one of our beautiful colourful envelopes, all by hand.
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