The Terroir of Chocolate: April 3

When is the last time you ate chocolate? Last night? Last week? If you are anything like the typical American -- who eats roughly 9.5 pounds of chocolate a year -- it probably wasn’t that long ago.

Cocoa pod growing in St Lucia
(photo credit Tee La Rosa)

Chocolate begins as the beans within the fruiting pod of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which is native to Central America and parts of Mexico. Gardeners in Cottage Grove probably aren’t growing their own cacao (if you are, let us know!), because cacao trees grow in the tropics, within 20° to the north and south of the Equator. Today, while cacao is still grown in Central and South America, nearly 70% of the world’s crop is grown in West Africa.

Luckily for us, some of those cacao beans are making their way to Cottage Grove and into the hands of Mike Caven, owner of Sanity Chocolate. Mike began making chocolate from cacao beans more than 5 years ago as a hobby. His passion for “bean-to-bar” chocolate got out of hand and last fall, he and his wife Bob opened a store front on Main Street (at 1280 E Main St, by Rally Coffee).

Camino Verdé from Ecuador
(Photo from Sanity Chocolate)

Mike begins with the cacao beans that arrive in large burlap bags. Through a three day process which includes roasting, shelling, and grinding, the beans become chocolate bars. However, these are not ordinary cacao beans that may also end up in a chocolate bar at the local box store. "One of our core values is working with ingredients that are not just sustainable for us and the environment, but are sustainable for the farmer, and in most cases, their community,” Mike told KLCC last fall.

On Tuesday, April 3, Mike Caven will be joining Cottage Grove Garden Club to talk about chocolate. We’ll learn how climate and the environment can impact the taste of chocolate, Sanity’s relationship with its chocolate brokers and famers, and how Mike’s hobby transformed into a business. And, of course, we’ll be tasting chocolate! 

Please join us at the First Presbyterian Church, 216 South 3rd Street. Our informal business meeting begins at 6pm, and we start learning about and tasting chocolate at 7pm.