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Kumara
Kumara
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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 smooth Ecuador cacao allowing the delicate, sweet Kumara flavour to shine through.

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

Weight 70g

Regular price $11.00

Unit price per 

GUAYAQUIL | ECUADOR

Our Ecuador cacao comes from Hacienda Victoria in Guayaquil, Ecuador. 

Hacienda Victoria is a 500 hectare cocoa plantation about 30 minutes from Guayaquil with ideal climate and superb environmental conditions, along with a sustainable and socially responsible crop management that begins in their nursery and ends in the drying of beans after careful fermentation. It is at Hacienda Victoria that they are bringing the lush forest back to life, bringing back the tradition of growing the world’s best cacao.

ARRIBA NACIONAL

The variety is Arriba Nacional a species whose natural home is in Ecuador where it is known as “Fine Flavour” cacao. Hacienda Victoria are experts in fermentation and have no less than 11 different fermentation protocols to choose from. We chose a protocol that gives the cocoa very low acidity and a mild fruitiness, focusing more on the cocoa flavour rather than fruitiness.  This makes it excellent for high percentage chocolate.

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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