Potomac Chocolate is a bean-to-bar maker in Northern Virginia, founded in 2010 by Ben Rasmussen, with a retail shop on Mill Street in Occoquan.
Its bars use only cacao and sugar, and Rasmussen has custom-built most of the equipment he makes them on, including the roaster, the winnower and the conche.
Potomac Chocolate is a one-person bean-to-bar maker in Northern Virginia, and almost everything in it was built by the person who runs it. Ben Rasmussen founded it in 2010. On his process page he writes that he has custom-built the majority of the equipment he uses, from a vibrating table and a cooling cabinet up to the roaster and the conche. Some of it he calls MacGyvered hackery, existing machines modified for chocolate, and some he designed and fabricated from scratch. The bars that come off those machines have two ingredients, cacao and sugar.
| Detail | As Potomac lists it |
|---|---|
| Bar | Duarte, Dominican Republic 70% |
| Grown by | A collection of small producers in Duarte province |
| Fermented and dried by | ÖKO-Caribe |
| Ingredients | Organic cacao, organic sugar |
| Maker's notes | Rich cocoa with notes of red fruit |
| Awards listed | Two 2017 International Chocolate Awards silvers, 2017 Academy of Chocolate bronze |
| Price listed | $10 |
The end of a 3 Musketeers habit
Ben did not grow up a dark chocolate person. In a 2010 post on Potomac's blog he admits that the 3 Musketeers bar was his chocolate of choice for as long as he could remember, and that he loathed dark chocolate. Then his brother Brett and sister-in-law Angela held a fine chocolate tasting for the family. He went in skeptical and came out converted. Four weeks later he tried a 3 Musketeers again and could not finish half of it. It was his last one.
Potomac's About page picks up from there. Ben began hosting tastings for friends, and at one of them a friend suggested they try making chocolate themselves. Within a couple of months they had a few small pieces of equipment and a batch of their own. Ben writes that from the moment he watched and smelled nibs being ground into chocolate, he was hooked. His equipment and process are radically different now, and the goal he states is the same, to make the best chocolate he can.
A roaster built from an oven and a drill
The process page is worth reading in full, because it explains each step in plain words. Ben sorts the beans by hand, pulling sticks, flat beans and clusters that stuck together while drying. He roasts them in a homemade drum roaster, a small convection oven with a drum fitted inside and turned by an externally mounted high-torque drill on a pulley. He calls roasting his first and best chance to shape the flavor, and he runs many test roasts on each new origin before settling on a profile.
The winnower is homemade too. It uses a juicer to crack the roasted beans, and a series of tubes pulls the light husks away while the heavier nibs fall into a bucket. The nibs go into a granite wet grinder, called a melangeur, where they turn into liquid chocolate. Sugar goes in at the right moment. Since the summer of 2015, Ben has moved the chocolate to a separate conche after grinding, rather than asking the grinder to do both jobs. He then ages it in large blocks, because freshly conched chocolate tastes muted and muddy until it rests. His tempering explanation, the six crystal forms of cocoa butter and why form five is the one you want, is one of the clearest a maker has published.
The Duarte bar and ÖKO-Caribe
The Duarte 70% is made from cacao grown by small producers in the Duarte province of the Dominican Republic, then fermented and dried by ÖKO-Caribe. That matters more than most wrappers let on. Fermentation and drying decide much of a bean's flavor before a maker ever sees it, and a fermentary that does them well is the reason a two-ingredient bar can taste of red fruit. ÖKO-Caribe supplies several American makers, including Markham & Fitz in Arkansas. The Duarte bar won silver in the USA and Americas rounds of the 2017 International Chocolate Awards and bronze at the 2017 Academy of Chocolate Awards.
Where to find it
The Duarte, Dominican Republic 70% is on Potomac's online shop, alongside a Duarte 100% and bars from Uganda and Colombia. Potomac's retail shop is at 304 Mill Street in Occoquan, Virginia, and its press page collects years of reviews from people who found it before you did.
Questions
Where is Potomac Chocolate made?
In Virginia. Potomac's About page says it is based in Woodbridge, and its retail shop is at 304 Mill Street in Occoquan. Ben Rasmussen makes the chocolate himself in what he calls an absurdly small workshop.
What ingredients are in Potomac Chocolate bars?
Two. Potomac's dark bars are made with cacao and sugar only, with no added vanilla, cocoa butter or emulsifier. The Duarte 70% lists organic cacao and organic sugar.
Who makes Potomac Chocolate?
Ben Rasmussen, who signs himself Chocolate Maker. He founded the company in 2010 and still makes every bar by hand.
Where does the cacao in the Duarte 70% come from?
From small producers in the Duarte province of the Dominican Republic. The beans are fermented and dried by ÖKO-Caribe before they reach Potomac.
What awards has Potomac Chocolate won?
The Duarte 70% won silver in both the USA and Americas rounds of the 2017 International Chocolate Awards and bronze at the 2017 Academy of Chocolate Awards. Potomac also lists Good Food Awards from 2013 and 2014.
