About The Science Of Chocolate
(previously known as Bean To Bar World)
Mission
To elevate your satisfaction with chocolate by making expert-level knowledge more accessible to you.
The more you know, the better choices you can make for yourself and those around you. Choices that are healthier, more delicious, more sustainable, and more rewarding.
Cacao flowers and immature pods. Image by Geoseph.
Values
+ Fact-based and unbiased
This website is not here to simply sell product or push you to consume more. It's here to help you learn and think in hopes that your appreciation for chocolate will bloom. My background in the life sciences and curiosity to understand the natural world is what led me to create this website, including the free resources and tutoring. A website that focuses on well-referenced, factual information to inform, not to embelish. All the information here comes from nearly 20 years of studying primary research (text books, research articles) and experience as a chef working in many chocolate kitchens over the years.
+ Celebrate Craftsmanship And Artistry
Like all food and drink, creating it is an art. Through generations of tinkering and passing down knowledge and skill we have all the incredible food we have today. Science is simply a way to better understand it and perhaps make smarter choices along the way.
However, the food industry is being swallowed by big multinational companies taking over everything from farms to restaurants. Another goal of this website is to showcase and help small-scale entrepreneurs who wish to create chocolate or create with chocolate.
+ Making Quality Approachable
Many assume that the fine chocolate world is filled with snobs (those who preach vs teach; are under-informed but over-inflated). Sadly, you're not wrong. That's just an aspect of any fine food industry - it's going to attract that type. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way, and there are many people trying to make fine food more accessible to all who wish to enjoy it or create it themselves!
My approach is to meet you where you're at, speak to you with respect, and eschew the patronizing and judgemental rhetoric of the chocolate snobs. Whether you are booking a virtual event, or wish to hone in on your skills in the kitchen, I simply want you to learn, love, and enjoy chocolate on your terms. To me, fine chocolate is about craftsmanship, good ingredients, and substance, and not the hoity-toity nonsense.
+ Thinkers over Followers
The fine chocolate scene today is highly associated with online trends and buzz words that encourage people to simply follow without questioning. If you wish to be better informed and more satisfied with your chocolate, you always need to question the information thrown at you, and ask for evidence of the claims made that you can read for yourself. Really pay attention to what you're being told or sold and think logically about it. Make decisions based on what you know, rather than by what you are told to follow.
This is one reason why I eschew the concept of food awards as a way to guide or direct your purchasing decisions. Some of them even subtly or unsubtly put forth the notion that you're too ignorant or inexperienced to make good judgement calls on fine chocolate. This isn't the case for most people. Most people feel inadequate when it comes to tasting fine foods, but this is not due to something innate, but rather due to a false idea that some people are far better at it than you. Both my experience and the science on flavour suggests otherwise. There’s no capability a chocolate judge has that you can’t learn or discover yourself. So get out there and support chocolate makers big and small, and have confidence enjoying chocolate on your terms. Many people have this discerning ability already, you just need to hone in on it by practising and learning some facts along the way. Something anyone is capable of achieving if they want to.
About Geoseph
CHOCOLATE SOMMELIER · MASTER CHOCOLATIER · CHOCOLATE MAKER · INSTRUCTOR
Educating on Chocolate since 2008
Making fine chocolate approachable and satisfying.
I’m the guy behind everything you see on this website. People constantly ask me how I ended up here. The truth is, I have wondered that myself. If you can believe it, I didn’t even enjoy chocolate very much growing up, especially dark chocolate. Perhaps it was my Southern Italian heritage that made me obsessed with food. Maybe it was my curious mind that adored nature wanted to understand the world around me. Or perhaps my desire to create with my hands be it art or well-crafted products. I would say what brought me here was simply following my passions: food, biology, and art, because working with chocolate encompasses all three of these passions for me.
My studies
I graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science where I focused on biology and animal sciences, but touched on fine arts as well. My passion for being in the kitchen drew me to pastry school where I honed in on my skills in the kitchen. It was there where I came across a job posting for a chocolate sommelier assistant, and after taking on the position in 2008 I was forever dedicated to chocolate.
Developing my curriculum
A cocoa bean with part of the shell removed shown via electron microscope. Image by Geoseph.
Since there were no chocolate sommelier courses or chocolate schools when I began, I had to teach myself about all things chocolate. My approach was through what I knew best - biology and research. For years I read every text book and research article concerning chocolate that I could get my fingers on. Little did I know that I was actually developing my own chocolate curriculum. Keeping this information to myself seemed wasteful, so eventually I took it upon myself to better educate the public on chocolate through building my website, posting free information online, and hosting countless chocolate tastings, chocolatier, and chocolate making classes over the years. I was already passionate about understanding chocolate, but like anything you love, it’s always more fun sharing it with others.
Chocolatier to chocolate maker
On CBC Vancouver. Click here to watch/read media publications.
In 2009 I moved to Vancouver and worked as a chocolatier for many years creating products, developing recipes, designing new creations, and training others. In 2016 I had a short stint at a bean-to-bar maker in New Zealand hosting events and tastings. In 2017 I returned to Canada where I began focusing even more on public chocolate tastings, classes, markets, and even started up a Vancouver chocolate meetup.
Handmade bonbon by Geoseph. See more of my chocolatier work and gallery here.
This is also when I developed the very first bean-to-bar map. A tool used to help consumers locate small ethical craft chocolate makers around the world - also known as “craft” or “bean-to-bar” chocolate makers. Around this time I started making my own chocolate from the bean, and hosted bean-to-bar master classes. I created the bean-to-bar compass, a unique tasting tool that helps beginners improve their chocolate tasting capabilities and appreciate bean-to-bar chocolate. In 2020 the bean-to-bar map became an app, and I also went virtual with my tastings, lessons, and shop.
In Recent Years
My previous chocolate tasting room in BC.
Today I’m back in Vancouver educating through virtual and in-person tastings and kitchen classes. I curate a collection of unique products from around the world, develop my own recipes, and grow the Learning Center and Bean To Bar Map App.
One of my goals is to combat the fear and insecurity people feel around chocolate. Whether tasting, tempering, or making chocolate, many people feel very inadequate and reluctant to ask for help. I’ve helped countless individuals over the years from beginners to those in the industry helping them improve their chocolate skills from tasting to making and creating to understanding the science. And I would love to help you as well. Chocolate is a beautiful medium to work with and appreciate, and it’s my goal to hep you appreciate this through a practical, fact-based, and objective approach.
The Original Bean To Bar Map
While hosting my tastings, people would often ask where they can locate the makers of the incredible chocolate they tasted. It was (and is) a real challenge for people to locate makers.
I looked online to see if any bean-to-bar map existed that I could refer them to, but unfortunately none did. So I took on what felt like an impossible undertaking, and in 2017 began creating the very first map dedicated to bean-to-bar chocolate makers. I eventually added other categories such as cacao distributors, growers, equipment manufactures, and researchers. Eventually this map became an app with the help of a bean-to-bar friend, and here we are! An incredible tool that is free for everyone to use, share, and connect to.
The original map was a desktop version, which you can still access here.
If you appreciate this tool please share it with as many people as you can. The app is free to use, and free to be hosted on. You can download some free pdf marketing literature and help people discover makers! And should you feel the desire, you’re welcome to donate to help with my time and effort in growing and updating the app. Your generosity is always appreciated. A passion project from my heart to your fingertips, for the sake of bean-to-bar chocolate!
