Some friends were in town visiting this weekend with their children and we took them on the Theo Chocolate factory tour. Theo is a fair trade organic beans to bars chocolate producer located in Fremont. They have public tours daily at 10 am, 12, 2, and 4 pm. Tours are $6 per person, ages 1 and older. Be sure to phone for reservations, though. Spaces fill up quickly. Call (206) 632-5100 to make a reservation.
Hairnets are required.
?All of the cacao beans used at Theo are cut open and examined before they are used.
Here are some bags of cacao beans:
This machine cleans the cacao beans. I think they call this the destoner. Almost all of the machinery is vintage chocolate manufacturing equipment from Europe.
The cacao beans are roasted:
And then they are winnowed (the outer shell is removed from the cacao beans):
This is what comes out of the winnower. You can buy bags of this to add bags of this to add to your compost.
At this point, the activity moves to the main part of the factory where the cacao starts to transform into chocolate. The roasted and winnowed cacao is ground and heated making cocoa liquor. This part of the process can take up to five days.
These are the molds for chocolate bars.
This is the custom made cooler. It is the only new piece of equipment in the factory and it was made for Theo in Michigan.
After the tour. No more hairnets.You can buy Theo products in the store after the tour. The kids picked up a few “souvenirs”.
I totally want to buy some of the husks to put in my garden!