It’s been a while
I know, I know, I have not posted in some time. Life has been a bit chaotic. For us all and for me personally. It isn’t like any of my life really affects any of you folks reading this, but I’m still going to give you a run down why I’ve been a bit quiet and will be a bit more quiet for some time to come.
Back in December 2025 I realized I just had too much on my plate. Too many clubs in the air. Too many plates spinning. Too many irons in the fire. Carrying too much on my back. Take your pick of colloquialism. I was not sleeping well, and hadn’t been for way too long. Teasing apart some data and this scientist is wont to do, stress seemed to be a key component and so I had a really great talk with my team and passed some of what I do to them, keeping only what I could do for myself. Evaluating cocoa was and is high on that list.
Along came January, we are doing some great transitioning, I’m feeling a bit better, I’m sleeping a bit better. I’ve started working on completing some projects I’d not had time for, and overall…. and I get a text that my father in law’s wife has unexpectedly died. Since family comes first, I make sure the team is good and fly out to help him. There is no real reason to go into all that I and other family members did to support him. The end result is I’ve picked up a lot of what his wife was doing (and not doing). All that open project time suddenly got filed up. I did get some great batches going; makgeolli, sake, Japanese dried persimmons and I started building a cedar koji incubation chamber.
In December I also booked a March 10 day meditation sit to find more of that inner zen alchemist. I didn’t cancel that and I’m off to that for my own mental health starting day. After that I’m back for a few days and again out to support family, with a trip to Florida for another 10 days. I will be 100% out of communication for the Sit, so please write to Patrick at support at chocolate alchemy dot com if you need anything.
All this is by way of saying I both won’t be around much in March and the universe can be perverse (oh, you have some empty time, here, let me fill it up for you). It’s all good though. I’m still doing what I do, i.e. bringing in new beans and products.
New Beans:
Tanzania Kokoa Kamili Direct Trade Organic 2026
Chocolate fudge comes charging out with of the gate. It is thick and fudgy with a solid but soft acidity. The bitterness and astringency are so restrained as to be virtually below notice if you are not looking for it.
Testing and Evaluation Cacao Beans - I have something a touch novel, and I hope helpful. Whole, raw testing beans. These are vastly inexpensive, and perfect for getting your feel for roasting, experimenting and whatnot.
The testing beans are perfect to pair with the Modified Behmor 2000 as you learn to use it.
We have three new bar molds in stock:
Geometric Bar Mold
Hexagon Bar Mold
12 Piece Break up bar
Geometric Hexagon Design Bar - Goodness I like the pattern on this one. It is really nice to be able to present someone with a classic bar of chocolate, and then tell them it is homemade.
Geometric Bar Mold - I love the geometric pattern on these. It makes my brain happy with in woven detail. Each mold holds over 1/2 lb of chocolate.
12-Piece Break Up Bar Mold - This 12 piece break up bar mold is elegant and a lovely way to finish your chocolate for a nice professional look.
Upcoming we have some more Mexican Camino Cacao 2025 on the way and there will be larger amounts available wholesale at some really great prices. Stay tuned for that.
