Condor chocolates cracked#
Condor chocolates series#

Lean into the UGA community for advice, support and a very loyal customer base. What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur from UGA?

We tell stories through food and beverage rather than the written word. ThereвЂ™s still a storytelling piece of what we do, which relates to my experience at Grady College.

I graduated with a journalism degree before realizing my passion for food. His expertise has been invaluable in sourcing beans directly from Ecuador. Nick worked in agriculture after graduating from UGA. WeвЂ™re brothers, born, raised and educated in Athens. In honor of World Chocolate Day (July 7), the UGA Alumni Association sat down with Peter Dale to learn more about this alumni-owned chocolate shop. Visitors can witness chocolate production while indulging in handcrafted desserts. Brothers and co-owners Peter Dale, who graduated from the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1999 and Nicholas Dale, who graduated from UGA's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2004, opened the cityвЂ™s first specialty chocolate shop in 2014 as a homage to the world-class cacao of Ecuador.

Located in the historic Five Points neighborhood of Athens, Georgia, Condor Chocolates produces bean-to-bar chocolates, confections, gelato and beverages. The raw chocolate is then goes through a tempering process of heating and cooling itвЂ™s what produces a chocolate barвЂ™s shiny surface, and the sharp snap when you break off a piece or bite into a bar.The Condor Chocolates storefront on Lumpkin Street in Athens, Georgia. ItвЂ™s the flavor development aspect,вЂќ said Nick Dale.Д«ut thatвЂ™s still not the end of the process. вЂњIt doesnвЂ™t take it that long to grind it smooth. The nibs are then ground between stone wheels along with cane sugar for three or sometimes more days in a machine called a melangeur, which also aerates the mixture as it grinds.

Condor chocolates cracked#

The roasted beans are cracked to remove the shells from the insides - the вЂњnibs.вЂќ You can tell when theyвЂ™re ready by the delicious aroma. Once the beans make it to Five Points, they go into the oven. On last monthвЂ™s trip down to Ecuador, the brothers were ordering for this summerвЂ™s chocolate and they were thinking about what theyвЂ™d need for the Christmas season nearly a year away - the busiest season - and then ValentineвЂ™s Day, also a busy time. вЂњItвЂ™s not just, вЂFed-X, take care of it,вЂ™ вЂќ he said. The beans can be in transit for a month or more, and just the logistics of it takes a lot of planning, said Nick Dale. Packed in big burlap bags, the dry beans are shipped on freighters to Miami, New York or a big West Coast port such as Seattle before theyвЂ™re transferred to freight trucks that eventually bring them home to Athens. The transformation of cacoa beans into chocolate begins down on the farm in Ecuador, when the big seeds are fermented to intensify their flavor, then dried in the hot equatorial sun.

Condor chocolates series#

Their talk was one of a series about local businesses sponsored by the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library. вЂњWe need the older forests to remain intact We feel like older pods have a more interesting flavor,вЂќ Peter Dale told an interested audience recently at the Athens-Clarke County Library. The brothers arrange directly with farmers, village cooperatives or intermediaries to buy the cacao they want, which comes from old growth trees. Chocolatiers create things such as truffles out of chocolate they do that at Condor Chocolates, but they also make the chocolate itself.) (Actually, theyвЂ™re more than chocolatiers. ThereвЂ™s also a marketing aspect - the brothers figure theyвЂ™re the only craft chocolatier in the country specializing in Ecuadoran chocolate. The condor is the national bird of Ecuador, and the cacao beans that is the raw material for their chocolate bars and truffles all comes from the equatorial South American country. вЂњWeвЂ™re choosing to kind of showcase our motherвЂ™s homeland,вЂќ Nick Dale said one day as he poured sugar into a chocolate-making machine called a melangeur. The cafeвЂ™s customers not only get to partake of the storeвЂ™s chocolaty delights, but can actually see (and smell) the creation of chocolate bars and truffles.ДЄthensвЂ™ Dale brothers, Peter and Nick started Condor Chocolates two years ago, to create a viable business but also to honor their mother, a native of Ecuador. Walking into Five PointsвЂ™ Condor Chocolates is like stepping into some imagined warm comfort zone of smell, taste and sight.