How to Make Chocolate at Home, from Bean-to-Bar: A Practical Guide to Fabulous Chocolate (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781984049889)

I remember quite clearly when I was bitten by the chocolate bug. I was sitting in my parents' apartment in Brisbane, Australia, back in May 2007 with a computer in front of me. I had just been thinking about Dad's coffee plant, growing in a pot on the balcony. The thought of growing and making your own coffee quite appealed to me but I don't drink coffee, in fact I didn't have any vices, I am not a huge fan of tea or wine or beer or anything that might be considered something to be a connoisseur of. In any case the thought struck me, could I grow cacao on the balcony and then make chocolate? At this stage I knew I loved chocolate, as almost everyone does, but I didn't know how much and I only vaguely knew about fine chocolate, where the flavor profile is as important and regarded as a fine wine. The first two websites that caught my eye were an Australian website created by a company known as Tava, to sell their 100% cacao bars (cocoa liquor) and Chocolate Alchemy, a site run by John Nanci who made chocolate from bean-to-bar on a kitchen scale. Through his site he sold beans, grinders and all the other equipment and ingredients to make chocolate and ran a forum on the making of chocolate at home. So right then and there I decided I would make chocolate too, and it was a good decision!