Six Dick Taylor chocolate bars in their letterpressed paper wrappers fanned on a weathered redwood plank, one unwrapped to show the deeply molded bar, with a hand plane and wood shavings beside them and fog outside a workshop window

Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate Guide

Published 9 Sep 20264 min read

Filed under Chocolate Bars Dick Taylor California

Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor came from woodworking and boat building, and in 2010 they bought small-scale equipment and began making chocolate. The company they built, Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate, makes its chocolate in a small factory in Eureka, the county seat of Humboldt County on California's redwood coast, and keeps its plain dark bars to two ingredients. This guide follows the maker from the workshop to six of its bars; the bean-to-bar process guide explains the steps in general terms.

The founders

"We started as carpenters, not chocolate makers," Adam Dick has said, and the company describes itself as deeply rooted in woodworking and boat building. It says it has always loved working with its hands, and that craft has been a guiding principle from the beginning. Dick has described the raw material plainly: "Those raw cocoa beans that come out of the roaster, they don't look anything like a chocolate bar and how they get there is amazing." The factory store is at 333 1st Street in Eureka.

Two ingredients

The plain dark bars are cacao and cane sugar, both organic. No vanilla, no lecithin (an emulsifier), no cocoa butter from outside sources. The company says it leaves out vanilla and emulsifiers in hopes of highlighting the subtle flavors of the cacao it sources. The milk bars add A2/A2 whole milk powder from Alexandre Family Farm and vanilla bean, and the flavored bars add their inclusions. The Vanilla Milk and Peanut Butter bars also list cocoa butter.

Dick Taylor roasts to develop the chocolate flavor and temper the bitterness in the bean, and conches for 24 to 48 hours, stirring and aerating the chocolate under heat so its flavor can develop. From bean to finished bar, the process takes about three weeks.

The molded bar

Cocoa butter can set in more than one crystal form, and tempering targets the one that gives a bar its shine and snap. Once the chocolate is tempered, it is deposited into bar molds and vibrated to drive out as many air bubbles as possible. The wrapper is the woodworker's finish: each envelope is letterpressed by hand on vintage printing presses the founders restored themselves.

Six of the bars

Shop Fleur de Sel, 73%. The maker's two-ingredient Belize dark chocolate finished with fleur de sel, the skimmed surface salt described in the sea salt harvesting guide. The bar to open first.

Shop Lemon and Bergamot, 65%. Belize dark chocolate with crystallized lemon and a hint of bergamot oil, the citrus that flavors Earl Grey. Bright and slightly floral.

Shop Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts, 55%. The house milk chocolate, made from earthy Ugandan cacao and A2/A2 whole milk from Alexandre Family Farm with vanilla bean, paired with delicately roasted Oregon hazelnuts. The bar for a Piedmontese mood.

Vanilla Milk, 55% (shop Vanilla Milk). The same Ugandan milk chocolate with Madagascan vanilla beans, which the maker calls a delicate addition to the chocolate's caramel notes. Creamy; the bar to hand to someone who says they only like milk chocolate.

Peanut Butter, 55% (shop Peanut Butter). A 55% dark chocolate from Ugandan cacao combined with peanut butter made from freshly roasted peanuts; the maker calls it its version of the chocolate peanut butter cup. The peanut butter and jelly guide would approve.

Shop Strawberries and Cream. A 72% Belize dark chocolate base topped with Peruvian white chocolate blended with freeze-dried strawberries and A2/A2 whole milk. The one to bring to a table of children and adults who pretend not to want it.

The company also makes single-origin dark bars from Belize, Tanzania, Madagascar and Vanuatu. Tasting one beside another maker's bar from the same origin is a way to taste how differently two makers can handle a bean.

How to taste them

The single-origin tasting guide covers the method at length. Break, do not bite: listen for the snap, look at the shine. Let a piece melt against the roof of the mouth instead of chewing it, so the flavors release gradually. Taste the Fleur de Sel first, then the Lemon and Bergamot, then the two milk bars, and finish with the peanut butter or the strawberries, saving the sweetest, richest bars for last.

Keep the bars cool and dry and out of the refrigerator, where condensation on the way back out causes sugar bloom, and away from strong smells, which chocolate absorbs through its fat. The chocolate bloom and storage guide covers the rest.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com. Save the wrapper.