Frame at 7.9 s of the hero clip: the open pod with its column of white, pulp-covered beans.

A dark chocolate tasting club.

We taste bars from small chocolate makers, learn where the cacao grew, and give each bar its own page.

Ask to joinFor chocolate makers

We taste dark bars from small makers. First we hear where the cacao grew and how it was made, then we taste and score.

We hear who made each bar first. Then we taste slowly, lowest percentage to highest, and score.

  • WhereWashington, D.C.
  • Next tastingThe next date is not set. Ask to join and you will hear when it is.
  • Invite listAbout a hundred people are on our invite list.
  • Write tojacob@cacaoclub.org

From pod to bar

  • 20 to 60beans in one pod
  • 5 to 6 monthsfor a pod to ripen
  • 2 to 7 daysof fermentation
  • About 70%of the world's cacao grows in West Africa
  1. Ripe magenta-red cacao pods growing straight off the trunk, with young pods and flowers, at the Maison du cacao, Guadeloupe.
    01

    Harvest

    Pods grow straight off the trunk and are cut by hand.

    5 to 6 monthsto ripen

  2. A red-and-yellow pod split open: pink-purple fresh beans under translucent white pulp, among whole yellow and dark pods. Phone photo with camera metadata.
    02

    Opening the pod

    Inside: purple or ivory beans wrapped in sweet white pulp.

    20 to 60beans per pod

  3. Fresh cacao beans fermenting in a wooden box, banana leaves pulled back from the top (thermometer in the beans per the source).
    03

    Fermentation

    Beans and pulp rest in wooden boxes. Chocolate flavor starts here.

    40 to 50 °Cinside the ferment

  4. Hands spreading fermented cocoa beans on a raised drying mat in Ghana.
    04

    Drying

    Spread in the sun and raked for a week or more.

    60% to 7.5%moisture, wet to dry

  5. Roasted Brazilian cocoa beans on burlap, some cracked open with loose shell and nib pieces.
    05

    Roasting and winnowing

    The maker roasts and cracks the beans. Air blows off the shells, leaving nibs.

  6. A working chocolate melanger: two heavy granite rollers grinding liquid chocolate in a round steel pan, at the Ghirardelli shop, San Francisco (no shop branding in frame).
    06

    Grinding and conching

    Stone grinders turn nibs and sugar into smooth liquid chocolate.

  7. Solid dark chocolate bar snapped into clean pieces on white paper and marble. Glossy, no melting or bloom. Unbranded.
    07

    Tempering and molding

    Melted, cooled and rewarmed so it sets with gloss and a clean snap.

    About 31 °Cworking temperature

Frame from clip-1: a heap of dried cocoa beans.
Fermented, dried cocoa beans tumbling onto a heap outdoors, trees behind.

What to know before you taste

  1. Source label: cacao criollo porcelana, Slow Food, La Guajira, Colombia. A pile of harvested green and purple-brown pods in shade.
    01

    Criollo

    The original cacao. Pale beans, gentle and nutty. Rare and fragile.

    30 to 40seeds in a pod, usually

  2. Source label: Trinitario (one of the three pod groups after Lachenaud 2014). A ridged pink-orange pod on the trunk. Only 820x1154 px, below the size target; kept because it is the only variety-labelled Trinitario found.
    02

    Trinitario

    A Criollo and Forastero cross from Trinidad. Often fruity, like sour cherry.

    1727the blight that led to it

  3. A heap of ripe yellow and orange cocoa pods, smooth and rounded, at a cocoa farm in Ghana (World Cocoa Foundation African Cocoa Initiative), the Forastero/Amelonado type that dominates West Africa.
    03

    Forastero (Amelonado)

    Round, smooth pods and dark beans. Bold, classic cocoa.

    Mostof the world's cacao

  4. Pickers with long-poled knives gathering cacao pods in Ecuador, c.1907, when Ecuador's crop was the native Nacional (Arriba) cacao. One half of a stereo card, black and white.
    04

    Nacional

    Ecuador's floral cacao. A pure stand turned up in Peru.

    2011found again in the Marañón

  5. A single red, deeply ridged CCN-51 (Colección Castro Naranjal 51) cacao pod on a pale background, Muséum de Toulouse specimen.
    05

    CCN-51

    A high-yield clone bred in Ecuador. Farmers rely on it. Makers find it hard.

    About 70%of Ecuador's cacao land (2018)

  6. A fresh cocoa bean cracked between fingers to show the purple cotyledon inside (photo by Irene Scott for AusAID).
    06

    Fine flavor

    The trade's name for beans with complex flavor. Mostly from Latin America.

    Under 5%of world cacao

What we taste for

  1. 01Clean fermentation
  2. 02Origin character
  3. 03Gloss and snap
  4. 04Smooth melt
  5. 05Fruit, acid and bitter in balance
  6. 06Long finish
Frame from clip-2: stone roller turning chocolate in a melanger.
Grinding: a stone-roller melanger turning liquid chocolate in its steel drum.
Pink and cream cacao flowers growing straight from the bark of the trunk, Cau chocolate village, Bali.
Ripe yellow, orange and red cacao pods lying on green grass. Phone photo with camera metadata.
A pod cut across, its white pulp-covered beans standing up out of the orange shell, El Trapiche, Costa Rica.
Cross-section of a cacao pod on black: thick orange-yellow husk, five rows of pale beans in white pulp around the centre.
A yellow cacao pod resting on a tarp of beans drying in the sun, Colombia.
A farmer holding a green-and-yellow pod cracked open to show the white pulp (Raymond Vava, AusAID photo).
Pale green cacao pods hanging from a mossy trunk, La Chonita Hacienda, Tabasco, Mexico.
A whole fermented, dried cocoa bean beside one split open to show the dark purple-brown cotyledon, on blue cloth.
Frame from clip-4: chocolate stream filling a mould.
Tempered chocolate flowing from a tempering machine's spout into the cavities of a red mould.

Journal

Every piece
Goodnow Farms' Mexico Almendra Blanca 77% bar standing on a bed of cacao beans
October 29, 2026

Goodnow Farms makes single-origin bars on a 225-year-old farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts

Tom and Monica of Goodnow Farms source beans directly in Latin America, press their own cocoa butter, and wrap every bar by hand. Their Almendra Blanca 77% comes from a single family farm in Tabasco, Mexico.

Askinosie's 72% Mababu, Tanzania bar in its kraft sleeve with a farmer's portrait, two bars of chocolate beneath
September 24, 2026

Askinosie Chocolate shares its profits with the farmers who grow its cacao

Shawn Askinosie left a law practice to make chocolate in Springfield, Missouri. His company imports its own beans, pays farmers directly, shares profits with them in cash, and publishes every contract price in a transparency report.

Markham & Fitz 70% Dominican Republic bar half out of its patterned wrapper on a sage background
August 27, 2026

Markham & Fitz makes its 70% Dominican Republic bar with cacao from Öko-Caribe

Markham & Fitz is a woman-owned bean-to-bar maker in Bentonville, Arkansas. Its best-selling dark bar starts at Öko-Caribe in the Duarte province, where the owners know each of the 165 farmers who supply it.

Frame from clip-3: scraping chocolate off a mould.
Moulding: a chocolatier scrapes excess tempered chocolate off a polycarbonate mould with a steel scraper.

For chocolate makers

Send us a dark bar you are proud of. We taste it, score it and give it a page.

  1. 1Write to us
  2. 2Send a couple of bars
  3. 3We taste and score it
  4. 4Your page goes up, whatever the score
  • A page for your bar, with photos and your story
  • Links to your shop
  • Written so Google and AI tools can read it
  • Your story told at the tasting

SampleA couple of bars of one dark bar. Each breaks into enough squares for everyone.

What chocolate makers getSee a sample page

Who we learn from

Questions

What does bean-to-bar mean?

The maker starts from fermented, dried beans and does the rest: roasting, winnowing, grinding, conching, tempering and molding.

What is inside a cacao pod?

Twenty to sixty beans in white, sweet-tart pulp. Fresh beans are purple or ivory and taste bitter.

Does a higher percentage mean a better bar?

No. It is how much of the bar is cacao. It tells you how sweet it is, not how well it was made.

Why did my chocolate turn white?

Usually fat bloom. Warmth melts the cocoa butter and it sets as a pale film. It is still fine to eat.

Do you sell chocolate?

No. Every bar page links to the maker, so you buy straight from them.

How can a chocolate maker take part?

Write to us from the page for makers. A couple of bars is enough, and every bar gets its own page.

What is Cacao Club?

Cacao Club is a dark chocolate tasting club in Washington, D.C. Jacob presents each bar, who made it and what is special about it, and the room tastes and scores it. Every bar gets its own page here, win or lose.

When is the next tasting?

The next date is not set. Ask to join and you will hear when it is.

How big is it?

About a hundred people are on our invite list.

Want a seat at the next tasting?

Tell us who you are and what dark chocolate you have liked lately.

Ask to join