For the Love of Chocolate

Tom Pedersen: Chocolate Explorer

Talking to Tom Pedersen, it becomes obvious that he's a man of insatiable curiosity. When chocolate piqued his curiosity, he immersed himself in the subject, reading about its history, archeology, and agronomy. He spent countless hours in UT's Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection researching the origins of chocolate and its cultural significance to such pre-Colombian native cultures as the Olmecs, the Mayas, and the Aztecs. The more he learned, the more he wanted to know. It wasn't long before he developed a desire to do something with chocolate besides read. "I grew up with a family tradition of respect for fine foods. I didn't start out with a specific product idea in mind, but I knew I wanted to do something new and unique with chocolate," Pedersen explains. "Being a 'whole' foods kind of guy, I began to focus on the most basic element, the chocolate beans."

Chocolate beans aren't exactly easy for the average person to come by, but Pedersen was able to find chocolate "nibs" at Central Market. The intense flavor of the nibs inspired him. He eventually found a source for raw chocolate beans and began to play around with them, in search of something new and unique. Much trial and error ensued in the Pedersens' home kitchen. "I played around with them for quite a while until I came up with a formula that worked," he recalls. He starts with criollo and trinitario beans, prized for their strong and distinct flavors. First the beans are roasted, a delicate process that can change subtly from batch to batch. Once they've cooled, Pedersen uses an ancient technique called "panning" to coat the beans in successive layers of the finest quality milk, white chocolates, and dark chocolates, drying after each layer. When the coated beans are dry, they are rolled in cocoa and ready to eat. The rich, creamy outer coating gives way to a wonderful roasted crunch. It's a very distinct, pure, and remarkable taste sensation, about as far from traditional American chocolate candy as it's possible to get. The next thing Pedersen was curious about was what the public's reaction would be.

"I took a big batch of the beans to my brother's house and put them out on the table while lots of people were around," he says. "They raved about them, could not stop eating them. That seemed like a good sign to me." Pedersen christened his new product Kakawa Pure Whole Bean Chocolates, choosing an ancient Mixe-Zoquean word for the name and the drawing of a cacao tree for his logo. He packed up small foil bags of the chocolate-coated beans and rented a booth at the Downtown Farmers' Market in October of 2004. Every bag he had sold that first Saturday, causing a chocolate frenzy at the market. Media attention soon followed, and Pedersen's fledgling new business was up and running. He rented commercial kitchen space at Gina's Kitchen and began calling on local retailers to place his product. The Christmas season was busy and left Pedersen contemplating what his next moves should be: Should he purchase a roaster, find his own commercial kitchen space, adjust his packaging?

"I'm still pretty much driving in the dark without headlights," Pedersen admits. "Just finding my way along in the business, still doing everything myself at this point." He's yet to produce and sell his chocolates during the blast furnace of an Austin summer and he'd like to bump his production up to the point where he could pay himself a salary. All in good time. After all, chocolate beans have been around thousands of years.