Crow & Moss Chocolate Bar

The picturesque town of Petoskey, Michigan up north has more artisan food makers per capita than any place that pretty has the right to claim. But you can't blame anyone for setting up shop in this corner of the country where the pace of life tends towards the diliberate and purposeful. That's a good way to be when you're making chocolate. 

And that's just what Mike and Danielle Davies and their small crew of passionate chocolate crafters at Crow & Moss have been doing for five years or so: making incredible bean-to-bar chocolates and confections in their small shop and bakery. Artisan chocolate making has been on the rise in America over the last twenty years and we've gotten the chance to meet some truly exceptional makers. The fact that they're right here "in our own backyard" just makes it doubly cool. 

It takes nearly a week to turn raw cacao beans into smooth, finished chocolate. For this bar, they start with beans from the Anamalai Estate in India's Western Ghats which they sort by hand to make sure no "bad beans" make it through. The beans are then roasted "low and slow"—a good way keep the delicate oils and flavors present in the beans from cooking off and being lost to the ether. Next you have to seperate the "nibs" inside the bean from the husk around it and mix those nibs with sugar to make the finished chocolate that you'll later form into bars. This process takes four days or more! They could grind faster of course, but the faster you grind the more friction you create and friction creates heat that cooks off those delicate nuances we were talking about earlier. The same thing is true for roasting nuts or drying pasta or baking bread: don't rush or you'll lose the flavors that make it special.

It's the slow mixing (called conching) that makes this bar so luxuriously smooth. How smooth would you feel after a four day massage? Exactly.

The chocolate is tempered (heated till it's more liquidy) and poured into forms that are gentle vibrated from below to get any bubbles to rise out of the poured, tempered forms before the bars cool and become solid. 

All of that effort is worth it when it comes to its taste: bright, citrusy, a bit of tropical fruit and a lusciously smooth, rich, honey finish.

Do you need to know the story of how these bars are made to fully enjoy them? No. I just think it's amazing to see what goes into making a chocolate bar worth celebrating. Like the makers, you won't rush through this bar. Don't be surprised if you linger over each bite for minutes at a time. Chocolates like this were designed for your full attention.

Gluten free
Vegan