Faraway Chocolate From Bean to Bar on Nantucket
Andre Marrero, his wife Erica, and their two children first set foot on Nantucket in 2014 when Andre was headhunted from New York to be the executive chef for a new yacht club. Chef Marrero had been raised in Virginia near the ocean, and he and his wife’s rallying cry was “we must be near water”. A yacht club on Nantucket Island fit the bill.
After serving as executive chef for seven years, Marrero said he was looking for “a sustainable hands-on niche on the island, that was interesting yet manageable.” He noted there was no bean-to-bar chocolate-maker on the island. A chocolate-maker creates chocolate from scratch while a chocolatier makes and fills bonbons and truffles. His maternal great-grandfather was H.O. Wilbur of Wilbur Chocolates (still in business today), so chocolate-making was in his DNA. He also spent some of his childhood in Venezuela and remembers how good the chocolate was. He named his new company Faraway Chocolate, a nod to the Wampanoag meaning of Nantucket, “the faraway island” or “land in the middle of the waters”.
Serendipitously, his (now former) housepainter Leo purchased an abandoned 100-year-old organic cacao farm in Beberibe, Brazil around the same time that the Marreros were starting their company. Faraway Chocolate is the sole U.S. recipient of Leo’s Fazenda Pimenteiras cacao beans from the four-hundred-acre farm. Leo and his wife learned to be cacao farmers, and the Marreros learned to be chocolate makers. “Another wonderful idea born during the time of COVID,” said Marrero. “We enjoyed the idea of helping people ‘connect with chocolate’ and its’ double meaning,” he added. The first batch of chocolate came out great. “Oh, this is easy”, crowed the Marreros, “what a great idea!” The sophomore batch, and several subsequent tries, proved how difficult it was. But they persisted.
The steps are many, and some important ones occur even before the burlap bags filled with beans arrive on-island. Chocolate begins with the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), which grows within 20° north or south of the Equator, and thrives on a mix of hot temperatures, rain and shade. Each tree bears oval fruits, called pods, which are between five and 12 inches long. Each pod contains 30-50 seeds – cacao beans. When the pods turn vibrant orange, they are harvested, broken open to release the beans, and the beans are allowed to ferment for a week or so. There are two fermentation methods, the African “heap method”, where beans are heaped in piles on the ground, or in Latin America, a system of cascading boxes. In both methods, the beans are covered with banana leaves. During the fermentation process, the beans color and flavor from their genetics and terroir, will appear. Genetics/soil/climate make up one of three distinct aspects, along with harvesting/fermentation and the roasting process, which affect the flavor of the cacao, according to Marrero.
The beans will then be fully dried in the sun, loaded into bags and shipped to the chocolate maker. Once received, Marrero roasts the beans in a small drum roaster – two pounds at a time – at 212 to 285 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes to reduce the acidity, and taste-tests to decide the flavor profile. The beans are cooled, and then cracked and winnowed to separate the husks from the nibs, the actual chocolate “meat”, using a “Crankandstein” barley mill retrofitted for cacao. The nibs are ground, and organic cane sugar and additional cacao butter is introduced according to the desired darkness of the chocolate. Marrero uses a melanger to conch (with a hard ch) the mixture that results in a smooth, velvety texture. The melanger is a spinning, aerating grinder that oxygenates the chocolate mixture to help develop its flavor profile and mellow out the acidity. Longer time in the concher means less acidity, though sometimes the goal is to leave a little acidity, so less time is needed. The term “conching” comes from the shape of the original machine which resembled a large conch or conche in French. Swiss chocolatier Rodolphe Lindt invented the process in 1879 after accidentally leaving a chocolate mixer running overnight causing the flavor and texture to change. The mixture is tempered, or heated, to a certain temperature that gives the chocolate bar “snap”, shine, and smoothness. The warm chocolate is poured into molds (an infrared thermometer keeps track of the temperature), and when cooled, the bars are wrapped.
The terms cocoa and cacao are often used interchangeably, but they are not really the same. Cocoa powder is made from cacao beans that have been roasted at a high temperature. Cacao powder, however, is made from cacao beans that are lightly roasted and cold-pressed. The final cacao product retains more minerals and antioxidants than processed cocoa powder. When it comes to flavor, cacao powder has a deeper, earthier flavor than cocoa powder. Cacao products are considered healthier than processed cocoa because the minimal processing retains more minerals and antioxidants and contains less sugar.
About 50 percent of the bean is cocoa butter, a fat that contains cocoa solids with tiny solid chunks scattered throughout the butter. Together, the cocoa butter and cocoa solids make up the cocoa nib. The rest of the bean is the husk. Milk chocolate is usually about 12 percent cacao, dark chocolate can be 50 percent or more. Chocolate makers have coined a new category: “dark 50 percent milk”. Marrero uses A2/A2 organic dry whole milk powder, made from high grade A milk that’s low heat pasteurized, for his dark milk. Dark milk has a higher percentage of cacao than traditional milk bars – usually 60 percent, rather than 30 percent. Dark milk chocolate tastes milder and creamier than a purer dark chocolate bar but still has complexity.
Many people inquire if Marrero makes covered cranberries, and the answer is not at present. It is a time-consuming process, called panning, where the cranberries, or nuts or what have you, are tumbled in what resembles a cement-mixer while chocolate is poured into it. This is repeated five or six times with a 24-hour rest in between. He would like to add a Nucita-type spread to his repertoire. According to Marrero, Nucita is similar to, but much better than Nutella, the famous hazelnut and chocolate concoction. Made from an original Italian recipe, the Nucita brand was established in Brazil in 1957.
“This business has reawakened my creative passions as well as my interest in travel to reconnect with my past, my family and my childhood years in both America and Valencia, Venezuela,” said Marrero. With his memories of the incredible chocolate from Venezuela, he strives to create his own version. The terroir of South American countries like Brazil, Peru and Venezuela often gives their cacao a delicate, floral, fruity flavor, and he is glad to have the singular Brazil connection. Over half the cacao worldwide comes from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Zanzibar. Africa has many varieties, from traditional pure chocolate flavor, to earthy flavors, and also the Madagascan beans which are renowned for their red berry and citrus notes.
“Overall, my goal is to build Faraway Chocolate into a unique bean-to-bar chocolate experience that operates year-round as a destination offering islanders and visitors a chance to connect with each other and with handcrafted chocolate,” said Marrero. It is his dream to have a full chocolate factory – one can’t help but think of Willy Wonka – where guests can see the full process, take classes, hold events, and experience a “chocolate bar” for chocolate beverages. He envisions tying Nantucket’s historical past in partnership with local museums, to create chocolate bars that reflect the exotic flavors island whalers and ship captains experienced during their world travels.
Susan Fernald washed ashore on Cape Cod 20 years ago from Nantucket and started writing for edible CAPE COD shortly thereafter. She spent her first 12 summers at the renowned India House, her family’s Nantucket summer hotel and restaurant. At summer cocktail parties for hotel guests, she earned the nickname “the anchovy kid” by age 4 for her unusual favorite hors d’oeuvre (on Ritz crackers of course!). A quilt-maker and upcycler with a Holistic Health Coaching certificate, she also co-founded the Hyannis Film Festival in 2019. She lives in Hyannis with her rescue cat, Daphne.
farawaychocolate.com
@farawaychocolate
