Fruition Chocolate Works is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Shokan, New York, founded by pastry chef Bryan Graham, which opened its doors in November 2011.
It makes single-origin bars from the bean, pays two to three times the average commodity price for its cacao by its own account, and has won more than 75 awards.
Fruition Chocolate Works is a bean-to-bar maker in Shokan, New York, and its founder Bryan Graham does every step from roasting the beans to molding the bars. The story of how it started is one of the best in American craft chocolate. As Fruition tells it on its own site, someone walked onto the porch of a small guest cottage in Woodstock and found Bryan with a bowl of nibs and a hair dryer. He was winnowing, blowing the papery husks away from the broken beans. The grinder was a lentil grinder from India. It is how a lot of good makers began, with kitchen tools and a stubborn idea.
| Detail | As Fruition lists it |
|---|---|
| Bar | Dominican Nacional Dark 77% |
| Origin | Duarte, Dominican Republic |
| Sourcing partner | Rizek Essentials |
| Ingredients | Cocoa beans, cane sugar |
| Maker's tasting notes | Walnut, tobacco, fudge |
| Price listed | $14 |
From pastry kitchen to chocolate maker
Bryan came to chocolate through pastry. Fruition's story page credits his grandmother, a fine baker with a farm in upstate New York, for teaching him to pick ripe fruit and turn it into pies and jams. At 16 he apprenticed at the Bear Café in Woodstock under pastry chef Heather Haviland, and at 18 he took over as the restaurant's baker. He later trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and did his externship at Jacques Torres Chocolates in New York City. The turn came when he made a tiny batch from bean to bar with Chef Peter Greweling. From then on, by Fruition's account, he taught himself the science and craft of making chocolate.
The cottage years came after a long honeymoon road trip through the national parks, Samoa and New Zealand. In each city they passed through, a notebook filled with pros and cons for where to open a chocolate business. They chose home. In the summer of 2011 they took a space in the Olive Plaza in Shokan, the gateway to the Catskills, built a counter out of repurposed pallet wood, and opened that November. At the time they knew of only about a dozen bean-to-bar makers in the country. Two years later, in 2013, Dessert Professional magazine named Bryan one of its Top 10 Chocolatiers in North America.
The Dominican Nacional bar
Nacional is the traditional cacao of Ecuador, prized for floral, fruity beans. Fruition's product page explains that this lot was carried from Ecuador to the Dominican Republic in the 1970s and planted in colonial gardens in Duarte. Fruition says it is honored to be among the first chocolate makers in the US to make chocolate from it. The bar is 77% cacao and the only other ingredient is cane sugar. There is no added cocoa butter, vanilla or emulsifier, so what you taste is the bean and the way it was roasted. Fruition describes it as walnut, tobacco and fudge.
For a non-expert, a two-ingredient bar is the clearest way to learn what origin does. With nothing else in the recipe, the differences between a Dominican bar and a Peruvian one come from the cacao's genetics, the fermentation and drying on the farm, and the maker's roast. Fruition's own process page notes that the seeds are fermented in bins under burlap or banana leaves for three to eight days before they are sun dried, which is where much of that character begins.
How Fruition sources
Fruition calls its sourcing transparent trade. On its origins page it borrows Uncommon Cacao's definition, which is verifiable, published pricing for every transaction in a cacao purchase, with the name of who produced it and where. Fruition says it pays double to triple the average commodity price for its cacao. Its first bars used Costa Rican beans, and it soon moved to Peru, drawn to the fruit-forward flavors and to a country that already felt like a second home to the family.
The awards have followed. Fruition's awards page lists Good Food Awards, Academy of Chocolate awards and International Chocolate Awards, more than 75 in all by its count. The Good Food Foundation, which runs the Good Food Awards, judges for taste and for how responsibly a food was made, which suits a maker who prints its sourcing partner on the product page.
Where to find it
The Dominican Nacional Dark 77% is sold on Fruition's site, and the cafe and gift shop in Shokan is open every day. If you are near the Catskills, it is the kind of shop where the chocolate is made a few steps from the counter.
Questions
Where is Fruition Chocolate made?
In Shokan, New York, in the Catskills. Fruition moved into a space in the Olive Plaza in the summer of 2011 and opened to customers that November. The shop and cafe are open every day.
Who founded Fruition Chocolate Works?
Bryan Graham, a pastry chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America. He made his earliest batches in a guest cottage in Woodstock, winnowing nibs with a hair dryer and grinding them in a lentil grinder from India.
What is in Fruition's Dominican Nacional Dark 77%?
Cocoa beans and cane sugar. The beans come from Duarte in the Dominican Republic through Fruition's sourcing partner, Rizek Essentials. Fruition lists its tasting notes as walnut, tobacco and fudge.
What is Nacional cacao?
A cacao type native to Ecuador. Fruition says this lot was brought to the Dominican Republic in the 1970s and planted in colonial gardens, and that it is among the first US makers to work with it.
Is Fruition chocolate ethically sourced?
Fruition says it is committed to transparent trade, meaning published pricing and known producers, and that it pays double to triple the average commodity price for its cacao.
