CHOCOLATES & CORDIALS
Abstract
This project focused upon creation of recipes for 7-12 chocolates and 7-12 cordials and the creation of curriculum for my chocolate studies to share with others. There was abundant active experimentation within the fields of chocolate making and cordial/medicine making. I created a structure (a curriculum) designed to facilitate my growth as a chocolatier. I now feel confident calling myself a chocolatier after establishing the skills I set out to accomplish. There was significant documented growth within my cordial making as well. Although with the monthly cycles standard for cordial making, this may be a several year process before I anticipate selling my cordials. The creation of the curriculum was paramount for me in developing as a designer and self-directed learner. I spent 2+ years with an intense focus in the past 3 months actively experimenting with chocolate creation, cordial creation and curriculum creation and learned much about the process of all 3. Primary outcomes include a curriculum for my own personal chocolatier program, 13 favorite chocolate recipes, 8 cordials that I am inspired to continue to refine.
Who is doing What, with Whom, When, Where and Why
Who: Me and some friends -- learning from Brian Wallace, teaching friends interested in chocolate. Talked to various cordial makers as well.
What: Creating a small chocolate making business including writings on aspects of chocolate, marketing materials, products I like and a curriculum that others can follow to become chocolatiers. Exploring the edge between medicine (tinctures) and after dinner cordials.
Why: For fun and more businesses that are product rather than labor based and to eat chocolate and drink cordials.
When: This year, many new moons, I started new batches of cordials, primarily January - April, 2015 for chocolate play.
Goals Articulation
My overarching goal is to improve my skills as a designer, a chocolatier and a cordial maker. I can over-intellectualize projects so grounding myself in two physical arts feels like a great opportunity to explore passions around food, medicine and fun. The design aspect of this project and in conjunction with designing a curriculum for others to study chocolate feels like the perfect things for my brain to chew upon.
CHOCOLATE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
- Brainstorm and evaluate the fundamental aspects to be a chocolatier.
Write ARTICLES
- Health Benefits of Chocolate
- Superfood
- History
- Processing -- Tempering, Ganache, Mousse
CHOCOLATE PLAY
- Fill chocolate molds with special fillings including cordials
- Temper Chocolate
- Make chocolate turtles
- Make a good mousse recipe
- Good Ganache/Truffle — roll-able
- Understand why sometime mousse separates
Create 7 CORDIALS
- Medicinal Circulatory Cordial
- Create a tasty adaptogenic whiskey
- Create a bitters formula i like
- Create a pastis with many different licorice style plants.
- Chai flavored whiskey
- Chocolate / Vanilla Cordial
- Gran Marnier special infusion style
- Play with Kava that I grown
- Explore other garden stuff : passiflora, holy basil, grapefruit, pomegranate, rose, sour cherry
- Lemon Verbena hopefully green with gentian
- Play with what gives color to vodka
- Explore various sweeteners: infused syrups, honey, maple, agave, fruit, dried fruit
- aphrodisiac: maca, damiana
- elderberry wine
Report on the Drunken Botanist
Interventions
I am a learner. This OP offered me the wonderful opportunity to create my own curriculum. The greatest awareness, intervention, while doing this OP was to embrace failing as an aspect of the path of knowing. I even intentionally did things "wrong" several times to witness how chocolate responds to imprecise temperatures. Another intervention was that the concept of infusion became more than just alcohol; I infused vinegars and honey (which I then filled inside my chocolates.)
Other interventions of an anticipated curriculum happened many times over and displays how we can alter a plan with each successive implementation and knowledge gained. A self made curriculum should be embraced as an optimally changeable design -- with each successive iteration.
The Field
Define
The field of specialized chocolatiering is growing in the early 21st century. Local entrepreneurs recognize chocolate as an opportunity for high value added product. There are a growing number of specialized herbal infusions and flavors in addition to RAW chocolate. Home cordial making with a medicinal twist is growing as well. All of these are parts of the Do-It-Yourself ethic burgeoning in the 21st century. I am particularly interested in high quality ingredients, locally and responsibly sourced (including wild-crafting). And ultimately mixing my culinary and herbal traditions with home school chocolate making and cordial making is wonderful.
Contributions
I have created videos and writings that I think are quite valuable as an overview of the nature of chocolate and tempering. When I first got into chocolate, there was so much material about tempering and everyone insisted everything is so precise without much explanation as to the why's or how crucial different techniques are. I demystified aspects of chocolatiering that other sites propagate and made a wonderful tempering page that brings tempering to a simple level. My hope is that my explorations will continue into medicinal uses of chocolate fillings and play with Raw chocolate and using cacao butter in homemade salves.
The field within context of permaculture
I create businesses with the focus upon fair trade practices and using local ingredients when possible. A primary aim of permaculture is to shift the mass scale industrialization to more resilient smaller and local systems. Both of these businesses follow this practice in their harvesting and distribution. As a designer, perhaps the most important aspect of this project was the design/creation of a curriculum.
Dissemination
I will post many of my writings on my website. The curriculum to become a chocolatier is available free of charge now, although, I am considering creating a school from my experiences. I sent boxes of chocolates to many people which I think was the highlight of my dissemination efforts.
Design Methodology -- DRAGON DREAMING
Dragon Dreaming breaks the design process into 4 equal spaces. It encourages projects to begin with Dreaming/Brainstorming. This can be the dream of one individual or ideally the dream of a collective. This corresponds to Joseph Campell's Hero "Hearing the Call:" the understanding that there is something out there to be done. Next in the Planning stage, the hero is metaphorically setting out on the journey (and perhaps opening to unexpected assistance.) Ideally, the designer can concretely identify 6-8 objectives or goals. In the implementation phase, we may say the hero is within the "belly of the beast" -- turning their dreams into reality in the crucible of the dragon. Transformation of self and project ideally is documented as it unfolds. Lastly, we want to remember to set aside 1/4 of our project awareness for celebration. This return home, this insistence upon reflection and celebration touches the part of me that understands the value of the pause. Not immediately moving into the next thing, rather reveling and assimilating the transformation of self and context.
Personally, this design methodology helped me recognize that I am a good planner and through my life, I have become a good celebrator. I revel in both the planning and celebrating stages. I am using the energy of birth, of spring, of new moons to enhance my dreaming stage -- allowing time for pure fantasy, brainstorming without questioning the how or the why. The analogy used within the dragon dreaming model of a child standing in the park needing only to open his eyes resonates with me. Thus, chocolatiering represents to me that I can truly trust the universe and do what I love and trust that more goodness will follow. I simply need, like the child, to open my eyes to become aware and accept the infinite possibility around me. The belly of the beast/dragon metaphor helps me to understand how to embrace the doing and the implementation. Small concrete steps articulated in the planning stage allows me to be in the moment of doing. Paralysis analysis sometimes stalls me in the planning stage and the acceptance of failure as the next great learning helps me to embrace doing and become an implementer.
STAGES OF DRAGON DREAMING
DREAMING --
- I want to be a chocolatier.
- Social responsibility -- I told many friends and buddies that I was going to become a chocolatier to not let my DREAM die inside of me.
- I recruited a professional bean to bar chocolatier Brian Wallace as a mentor.
- I want to produce wonderful chocolates
- I want to understand this magical plant more fully
- I want to be able to teach myself what I want to learn
- I want to explore cordial making
- I want to discover up to a dozen cordials that I can formulate recipes for.
PLANNING --
6-8 OBJECTIVES -- GOALS
1. Create Curriculum for a chocolatiering class
2. Make chocolate multiple times per week
3. Understand Ganache
4. Become skilled at three crucial chocolate processes: tempering, emulsifying ganaching, lightening mousses.
5. Explore and become proficient in chocolatiering techniques: molding, dipping,
6. Understand : emulsions, tempering, cacao butter
7. Write: History of Chocolate, Chocolate the Superfood, Chocolate Glossary, How to Temper
8. Create cordials on the new moon and infuse for 2-6 weeks. Taste periodically to measure how quickly and strongly the herbs infuse. I am doing this for flavor more than medicine.
DOING
I made chocolate 3 times a week from January 6th through March 13th.
This doing without prior training freed my mind from fear of failure. Conversations with buddies even sat me on the edge of hoping to fail as the best way to learn and embrace this new art. This is the clearest example of active experimentation in any of my projects and I hope to carry this energy with me in many ways.
I made 5 different batches of cordials.
CELEBRATING
Both at the end and THROUGHOUT
CHOCOLATE
There was nothing I wanted to do more in any day than make chocolate. Both to become more skilled and to physically do it. The texture and beauty of chocolate inspires me. I love eating it, I love pouring it. I did experience myself the early on feeling like "I had to do this -- to get it done" I am grateul that I was able to notice this and recognize the gratitude and fortune of having the materials, the time and the ability to make my own chocolates.
Sharing chocolates with friends and family certainly aided in the joy of creation. After saturating myself and those around me, I quickly realized that if I sent packages of chocolate out, I could share the joy and the love with even more people.
The ultimate celebration perhaps came in the last week of March as my OP implementation was drawing to an initial close and for a wedding, I made 200 chocolate hearts filled with tantric ginger ganache, rosewater ganache and cherries with a port/cherry juice reduction.
Much gratefulness to those who have helped me learn, those I have taught and to myself for creating the space and time to embrace life, learning and chocolate.
CORDIALS
There was a minor celebration each night I tasted my creations. Added awareness of moon cycles and harvesting a yield after infusing the herbs.
This project also inspired me to infuse honey: elderberries, licorice, hibiscus, rosemary, citrus.
I am grateful:
Everything went well -- most of the chocolate days were highly successful
Brian Wallace -- great mentor and learned loads.
you-tube -- hundreds and thousands of people want to share what they know with others interested
Financing -- I was able to purchase ingredients and fund this learning project. Unexpectedly, I got to mail some of these to very grateful friends.