WASHINGTON — When Kristen Kavalier met her now-husband, Adam Kavalier, it was love at first bite.
On their first date, Adam handed Kristen four chocolate bars and asked which she liked best. Adam鈥檚 hobby was making his own chocolate, and he was testing roasting profiles on a number of cacao beans to see which combination worked the best.
鈥淎nd that鈥檚 what really hooked me,鈥� Kristen says.
Several years later, Adam has turned his hobby, and Kristen鈥檚 turned her love of chocolate, into careers, with their new D.C.-based business — .
Adam鈥檚 journey into chocolate didn’t begin in culinary school — he studied cacao while pursuing a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry.
鈥淚t intrigued me as a medicinal plant, as a plant that鈥檚 rich in antioxidants,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like none other, really. It just has a tremendous complexity, chemically.鈥�
As Adam studied the plant more, he became interested in the process of chocolate making — from sourcing cacao beans to tempering the finished bars.
鈥淚 really have always loved to use my hands and build things, and in chocolate making there are so many steps to go from a bean all the way to a chocolate bar,鈥� says Adam, who has been making chocolate for about seven years.
Before he knew it, Adam鈥檚 Manhattan apartment was transformed into a small-scale chocolate factory. Bean grinders that were left running for days at a time, hand-made equipment and storage bins full of beans took over his tiny space.
鈥淭here was a time when we couldn鈥檛 find a place to sit down because there was just chocolate equipment everywhere,鈥� says Adam, who grew up in Chevy Chase.
So the two decided to find a bigger space — one that would allow them to make chocolate for the masses. They packed up their equipment, relocated to D.C. and moved into a production space at Union Kitchen.
鈥淲e decided D.C. needs some chocolate,鈥� Kristen says.
鈥淐raft chocolate making — there鈥檚 a consciousness and awareness picking up in the D.C. area, and it鈥檚 just fun to be on the ground and be a part of it,鈥� Adam adds.
Adam and Kristen take a unique approach to chocolate making. For starters, they only use two ingredients: organic cacao and organic cane sugar.
鈥淏y only using two ingredients, we actually have more cacao, or more cocoa nibs or more chocolate, and it鈥檚 shown that the chocolate is what actually has all of the health benefits in it,鈥� Kristen says. 鈥淪o just by virtue of us not adding more stuff to our chocolate, you鈥檙e getting more of the potency of the actual cacao.鈥�
Producing the healthiest chocolate possible is a priority for Adam and Kristen. When selecting their beans, Adam takes the various cacao beans聽to a lab and puts them in a mass spectrometer to find out their chemical composition. The one that tastes best and has the most antioxidant properties is often the one picked for their bars.
鈥淐acao is one of the most potent sources of antioxidants,鈥� Adam says. 鈥淲e talk about them as having antioxidant activity, but they鈥檙e much more than just that. The health benefits are not just because of the antioxidant activity; it鈥檚 because of other mechanisms.鈥�
Most notably, the antioxidant properties in chocolate increase the body鈥檚 blood flow.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really good for cardiovascular health,鈥� Adam says, adding that the theobromine in cacao beans raises the body鈥檚 levels of HDL, or good cholesterol.
鈥淪o it鈥檚 like this creative/artistic side of chocolate making and the scientific/analytical side of what we鈥檙e making and how we can benefit people as well.鈥�
Undone Chocolate may only contain two ingredients, but that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 easy to make. Once Adam and Kristen receive the cacao beans (they source from small farms and co-ops in Central and South America and the Caribbean), they lightly roast them, so as not to alter the beans鈥� chemical makeup.
Then they crush the beans to get to the nib, or meat, of the bean, and use a vacuum-powered tool to remove the shell. The nibs and the organic cane sugar go into a spice grinder, where they grind for three days.
Adam and Kristen then pour the chocolate into blocks and age it anywhere from one week to a few months, depending on the origin of the cacao and the flavor development needed. After the chocolate ages, it is tempered to give it a shine and a snap before it is hand-wrapped into bars.
Undone is sold in , including , and . Both Adam and Kristen say one of the biggest challenges they face is educating consumers on craft chocolate — and explaining the $8 price tag of their bars.
They say while some customers balk at the price, most understand that the cost is associated with the amount they pay for the beans and the time that goes into the process.
鈥淔or a two-ingredient chocolate maker like ourselves, the bean is everything. We don鈥檛 have anything that we hide behind, so there鈥檚 no extra cocoa butter or soy lecithin or milk that can mask our flavors,鈥� Kristen says.
鈥淐hocolate for us is a form of communication; people get really excited about it and we鈥檙e really able to connect with so many people through it — everything from farmers all the way to our process and the health benefits of it, to consumers who love to taste chocolate and learn about it,鈥� Adam adds.
鈥淧eople light up. It is the most fun part about being a chocolate maker — sampling and demoing with people. Because our first question is, 鈥楧o you want to try some dark chocolate?鈥� And the answer is always yes. And then we tell them our love story with chocolate. We鈥檙e really here to tell the story.鈥�
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