Bean-to-Bar refers to the steps a chocolatier takes to produce a final product from a ripe cacao pod. At its simplest, the term describes a chocolatier’s management of the supply chain of the cacao bean from its source. Converting the bean into a finished chocolate product is an intensive process. At Bixby, we source our organically certified cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala and Belize. They shipped to us in 70 kilo bags after they have been extracted from the pod, fermented and dried. Here in our Bean-to-bar kitchen, we roast small batches of the beans, run them through a winnowing machine to separate the nibs from the husks. We then grind, temper, and mold the chocolate. From roasting to packaging takes a week of time.