The best chocolate is local! Check out the behind the scenes magic of Prescott, and global staple, Orinoco Chocolate. Learn more at orinocochoclates.com
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 Okay, here's a little secret.
00:05 We became obsessed with Orinoco chocolate.
00:08 It's for sale here in Prescott at a bunch of coffee shops.
00:12 And we just, it wasn't like any chocolate
00:16 we'd ever tasted in our lives.
00:18 So we hunted down the chocolate factory
00:21 and we are so lucky because Christian, the co-founder,
00:24 agreed to give us a tour of this magical place.
00:27 I mean, it already, it doesn't, it smells like
00:30 I'm in a Vermont maple forest.
00:33 - Yeah, we like to say sometimes that our chocolate's
00:35 a little bit of pancakes and maple syrup
00:38 with amazing cocoa beans.
00:40 - Those are a lot of my favorite things.
00:43 And here's your factory.
00:45 Can you give us a little tour?
00:47 Because your gorgeous bars are made right here in Prescott.
00:51 I see some liquid chocolate.
00:52 I mean, I feel like I'm in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
00:55 like Augustus Galoop is gonna try to swim
00:57 in the chocolate river.
00:58 - Would you like to try a little sample of this?
01:00 - Yes.
01:01 That is, oh my gosh, that is a beautiful sight.
01:06 Just, so here, this is just like.
01:09 - This is our number three chocolate,
01:11 the one that you're holding in your hand.
01:13 - Oh wow.
01:16 That is velvety smooth.
01:18 That is so good.
01:19 And it becomes a bar here?
01:22 - Yeah, would you like to make one?
01:24 - Me?
01:24 - Yes.
01:25 - All you have to do is press this green button right here.
01:27 - Okay, you're gonna trust me with this?
01:28 - Yeah, go right ahead.
01:30 - Okay, I just press the green button.
01:31 That's it?
01:32 - Yeah, that's it. - Here we go.
01:34 All right.
01:35 There it goes.
01:39 So your chocolate is dairy-free,
01:42 no refined sugar, gluten-free.
01:45 How do you make it taste this good?
01:48 - Well, we like to use the best ingredients possible.
01:52 We're a specialty chocolate maker
01:54 and one of the things we do
01:56 is we establish direct relationships
01:58 with family farmers in the Amazon rainforest
02:01 as well as other cocoa producing countries.
02:03 - And that's where you got your name, right?
02:05 - Yes, the Orinoco River is a river
02:07 that is a tributary of the Amazon in Venezuela.
02:11 And we wholeheartedly think that
02:15 it's one of the most amazing countries
02:17 for cocoa beans in the world.
02:19 We do have a bar that is from Tanzania cocoa beans
02:24 that we use, but most of the cocoa beans
02:27 that we process are from Venezuela
02:29 and come from small family farms.
02:31 - That's really important to know
02:32 because this has obviously been in the news lately.
02:34 There's some controversy surrounding chocolate farming,
02:39 but you guys just work with small family farms.
02:43 - Yeah, we think it's really important
02:44 to know the farmers that we work with.
02:47 We had one of our farming communities in Chiapas, Mexico
02:51 actually get hit by a hurricane
02:53 and we lost a whole season of that bar.
02:55 That bar is not in stock right now for that reason.
02:59 They're getting things back in order again,
03:01 but the hurricane was really difficult.
03:03 So we share with these stories with our farmers
03:06 of what they're dealing with.
03:07 It sometimes makes us have to do a little bit more
03:12 to make a difference.
03:13 - Well, it's worth it because your chocolate
03:16 tastes like nothing I've ever had.
03:18 And here we've had the liquid kind,
03:20 but I'm excited to do a little taste test with your partner.
03:23 - Sounds good.
03:24 - Rarely have I met anyone who loves chocolate
03:28 as much as I do.
03:29 But Jessica, you're a professional chocolatier.
03:32 - Yes, a chocolate maker actually.
03:33 - Chocolate maker, that's a dream job.
03:36 - It absolutely is a dream
03:37 and I'm super happy to be here and making chocolate.
03:40 Our chocolate that we make is three ingredients.
03:43 So that means we start with the cocoa bean.
03:46 And maybe you've heard the term bean to bar before.
03:49 That literally means we get in cocoa beans.
03:52 These have been pre-fermented and dried.
03:55 We roast them right here in our factory.
03:57 We crack them so we can remove the outside skin,
04:00 which is the husk.
04:01 And then we're left with cocoa nibs.
04:03 And the cocoa nibs get put into a machine.
04:05 They grind for up to a week sometimes.
04:08 The cocoa nibs get added into a machine
04:11 with cocoa butter and maple sugar and that's it.
04:13 We're a three ingredient chocolate maker.
04:15 - Okay, because when I became obsessed with your chocolate,
04:18 when I had it at a local coffee house,
04:20 I was looking for the ingredients and I was like,
04:23 where is it?
04:24 Oh, that's it?
04:25 Three things.
04:27 And that's it right here.
04:28 - It's all you need to make great chocolate.
04:30 We work really hard to source the best cacao in the world.
04:33 So when you have that good quality flavor,
04:35 you can make amazing chocolate.
04:37 - It's hard to believe that a chocolate bar
04:40 was once this.
04:42 - Yes, chocolate grows on trees.
04:44 So it's basically a vegetable, super healthy for you.
04:47 - Kids, tell your mom, it is a vegetable.
04:50 It's good for you.
04:52 But people do say that chocolate can be healthy.
04:56 It's the fillers that are harmful, right?
04:59 - Exactly.
05:00 And that's partly why we're a three ingredient
05:02 chocolate maker and we work with unrefined maple sugar.
05:04 You get all the good minerals and it tastes amazing.
05:07 So you can have your cake and eat it too.
05:09 - But yeah, you can drizzle chocolate on top of your cake.
05:11 Before I let you go,
05:13 for people who are not lucky enough to live in Prescott,
05:16 where your bars are sold, can people order it online?
05:19 - They can.
05:20 Our website is orinocochocolates.com
05:23 and we are offering a coupon code today for your viewers.
05:26 AZ2020 will get you 20% off a purchase.
05:30 So we hope you try our chocolate.
05:32 It'll be unlike anything you've ever tried.
05:34 - You want this in your stocking.
05:36 Believe me, even if you are naughty,
05:38 you still deserve some of this.
05:40 'Cause this is nice.
05:41 Thank you.
05:42 (laughing)
05:44 (upbeat music)