A Trip of a Lifetime to Tanzania to Study Chocolate at the Source

Yes, the title is a mouthful, but the following post is by Lawren Askinosie (seen above in patterned pants) of Askinosie Chocolate and her company does indeed have a Chocolate University. Years ago her then new company came to my attention as a small player making quality chocolate. Time has shown that Askinosie is here to stay – they have established themselves as a key chocolate producer in the U.S. – they are making amazing chocolates and chocolate products that we love. They also happen to have a very socially conscious approach. When Lawren told me they were about to leave for a trip to Tanzania, I asked her if she would write about the adventure for us. In this Bakepedia exclusive, learn what happens when you attend Chocolate University.

Last week, I returned from the trip of a lifetime: a cocoa origin trip to remote southwestern Tanzania, involving 12 high school students. I was there for my family business, Askinosie Chocolate, for which I am the Sales & Marketing Director; traipsing across the globe to buy cocoa beans direct from small farmers is something integral to our company since my father, Shawn Askinosie, founded it 7 years ago. The students were there as part of our local youth community engagement program we call Chocolate University.

Born of a desire to engage youth in our community and supported by funds from our factory tours and generous donations from across the nation, Chocolate University is an experiential learning program with a global reach for local students. The goal is to inspire students through the lens of artisan chocolate making to be global citizens and embrace the idea that business(es) can solve world problems. We involve neighborhood elementary and middle school students in various capacities, but it’s the local high school students who compete for the opportunity to journey with us to cocoa farms of Tanzania. The application process is rigorous and hundreds of students apply each session for a very limited number of spots.

Taking place every other year, this summer’s trip marks the third Chocolate University origin experience. The students spend a week on a local university campus taking intensive courses on Tanzania culture, Swahili, social business, cacao, and more; then they accompany us on a 10-day cocoa origin trip to Mababu, Tanzania, one of our cocoa origins whose cocoa beans are used to make our 72% Tanzania Dark Chocolate, as well as other products.

As our founder and CEO and also our unofficial “Chief Bean Buyer/Farmer Visitor”, my dad, Shawn, visits each of the farmer groups we work with yearly in Ecuador, Honduras, Tanzania, and the Philippines to inspect beans, worth with farmers on post harvest techniques but also to share profits as part of our unique Direct Trade business model. We translate our financial statements into whatever language the farmers need, explain them, share the cash, then hold a full chocolate tasting, as most of these farmers had never tasted chocolate before they began working with us. These Chocolate University students therefore not only get to witness and participate in international business transaction, they also work with us on various community development projects we’ve initiated.

Here are my 5 favorite moments from our 2014 Chocolate University Tanzania Origin Trip:

1. Our first couple of days in Tanzania we spent at Mwaya Secondary School. Aside from the most energetic and heartwarming greeting imaginable upon our arrival at the school, we met with the PTA to discuss them taking over the Sustainable Lunch Program by 2016 (in which we sell a bag of Premium Kyela Rice, harvested by the Mwaya PTA and return 100% of the profits to fund lunches for all 1,000 students every school day), participated in the vibrant graduation ceremony of 13 young women in the Empowered Girls club we sponsor, and checked in on the success of the Saturday tutoring program for girls that we started recently.

2. We then journeyed to Mababu, where we began our time with a visit to the primary school. The 1,400 students greeted us with singing and dancing and led us to a shady grove where they treated us with more elaborate performances but most importantly, where we gifted them 1,200 textbooks, purchased in Tanzania and provided by Chocolate University donations and a grant from the Southeast Springfield Rotary Club. Prior to our arrival, they had none. The excitement of the students and teachers was palpable and they all couldn’t wait to crack them open and begin learning.

3. Earlier this year, the Mababu farmer group sent us a draft of their 2023 Vision, which Shawn had worked with them on last year. Visioning is the practice of articulating dreams and goals, written in the present but at a future date. During a 2-hour session, we worked with the farmers to polish their Vision and make it “official”. During the session, one farmer was so impassioned while contributing to the discussion that he wept joyful tears. We will never forget it.

4. On what was perhaps our favorite day, our group divided into 3 teams who were assigned to various Mababu farmers and we visited their farms to help them harvest cacao. Chocolate University students had never really done this before and it was endlessly educational and inspirational, because the intimate setting allowed for truly getting to know one another, as well as some good old fashioned hard work. Some groups even had chai with the farmers inside their homes, asking each other questions about daily life and more.

5. On our final night, we hosted a luau for the farmers! Our hotel was located on the beach of Lake Nyasa and the sun set on scenes of students and farmers playing soccer together, the adults passing babies back and forth, and everyone sharing a delicious meal of slow-roasted goat. It was a night to remember.

Nestlé debuted their semisweet chocolate morsels 75 years ago, which is cause for a celebration in my book. Recently, I became a bit obsessed with recreating the original chocolate-chip cookie recipe that started the craze. Back in the 1930s, Ruth Wakefield whipped these cookies up in the kitchen of her restaurant, The Toll House in Whitman, MA. Carolyn Wyman, author of The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book, presents some splendid background on the history of the cookie’s origin, which you can read in our interview with her. What I wanted to do was recreate the cookie that Ruth actually baked. The recipe on the back of Nestlé’s morsels bag has its roots in Ruth’s recipe, but I wanted to follow her own words. I used Ruth’s cookbook (24^th printing), Toll House Tried and True Recipes (M. Barrows & Co 1947). She calls her recipe Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies – and you will soon see why they are aptly named. You might be surprised at the evolution that little treat has taken since her original recipe. Much of my findings and the recipe have been published in our recent article in The Boston Globe, where I discuss the proper butter, flour and eggs to use as well as how to measure the brown sugar and chop the chocolate, among other things. Newspapers have limited space, but we don’t, so here is even more information about what went into Ruth’s cookies so that you can make them at home. Use the Globe article and the information here for a complete picture.

That Baking-Soda-Dissolved-in-Water Trick

Ruth calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda to be dissolved in 1 teaspoon of hot tap water, and for years this technique was suggested in the recipe on Nestlé’s morsels package. I wondered why she would have called for this step and whether it made a difference. I checked in with two experts. Cindy Manzo, a representative for Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, had this to say: “Pre-dissolving the sodium bicarbonate would remove any possible issues related to inappropriate [too large] particle size and slow dissolution in a dough with low water content. Pre-dissolving the bicarbonate would [also] cut down on the ‘bench tolerance’ of a mixture – wetting bicarbonate will tend to accelerate the release of CO2.” This means that the leavening action of the soda is triggered more quickly. Perhaps this is why Ruth, in her book, recommends dolloping and baking her cookies immediately, as opposed to suggesting a chilling time. There is some research that suggests that they chilled the dough at her restaurant, but again, I was working with Ruth’s own words in this edition of her book. According to food historian Paula Marcoux, there could also be another reason. Proofing the baking soda in water gives visual evidence that the leavener is working. Decades ago, there was much less standardization of ingredients than there is now. Perhaps Ruth wanted to make sure her “soda” was going to give her cookies the lift they needed.

That’s a Tiny Crunchy Cookie!

In the edition of the book I used, Ruth’s recipes are presented with the ingredients and directions intertwined – very similar to the classic Joy of Cooking cookbook approach. Many details are left out. For instance, she calls to bake the cookies at 375°F for 10 to 12 minutes. The dough has been doled out by half teaspoons. She gives no visual cues. I have my ovens calibrated and let me tell you, this is a crunchy cookie – side and middle and all the way around – and well browned. No doughy, chewy aspects at all. And tiny! When was the last time, if ever, that you saw a chocolate-chip cookie the size of a quarter?

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Phenomenon

Friends who knew I was doing this research have asked me if I think this cookie was amazing enough to start such an enduring passion. We have to put it all into context. These days, whether we are gazing upon the ice cream or cookie section of the supermarket or perusing a restaurant menu, it is not unusual to see candy combined with a baked good: turtle cheesecakes, cookie dough ice cream, etc. Ruth Wakefield was the first to combine candy with another dessert and it was truly an inspired innovation. Chocolate had been incorporated into dough before (as in a chocolate cookie), but not strewn throughout. To take two beloved American sweets – cookies and chocolate – and to combine them in a way where the chocolate remained in individual chunks was wholly original. The cookie is small, but it is filled with crunchy, toothsome texture. The butter and sugar caramelize in the high heat, giving the cookie a butterscotch flavor. Her egg amount, along with the high heat and baking time, gives the cookie its crispy texture. She packs in a generous amount of chocolate. All in all, this is a great cookie. It might be diminutive and easy to look over when compared with the typically larger chocolate-chip cookie of today, but it has plenty to satisfy kids and adults. It is also easy to make. As Carolyn Wyman commented, the thing about these is that an 8-year-old who has never baked before can make them or an experienced baker can apply their techniques and you will always get something tasty to eat. So now that I know what Ruth’s cookie was, will I be baking it regularly? The answer is no. But then again, even before I went through this fun and enlightening exercise, I have always been a bit fickle when it comes to chocolate-chip cookie recipes. Sometimes I like them crunchy, other times chewy; 60% cacao chocolate chips one day, white chocolate chunks the next. Nuts come and go. Perhaps the one consistent thing I can comment on is that I am not partial to recipes that include baking powder. Many modern variations that are trying to replicate a thick, doughy texture will include baking powder. I am definitely a crispy edge, chewy center kind of girl; but that is what is great about this all-American cookie, there’s one out there with your name on it.

_{Image: Peter Muka}