Editors Note: This chocolate tasting took place before the COVID-19 pandemic. The article was originally published in March 2021 but has been updated.
A lifelong dream of mine came true today: I visited a chocolate factory. And not just any chocolate factory, but that of that Gianluca Franzoni who founded Domori in 1997 in the town of None, just outside of Turin.
Franzoni was the first to rediscover the ancient and particularly valuable, aroma-rich Criollo cocoa. As fragrant as it is rare and delicate, to the point of being supplanted from the more resistant Forastero, which today represents 90% of world production while Criollo represents just 0.001%. It has a quality such as limited added ingredients since it’s not necessary to "correct" its natural harshness. Instead, it’s important to preserve aromas and characteristics. This is only possible with fine cocoa such as Trinitario in addition to Criollo.
From bean to bar
Communication coordinator Roberta Giusto guides me through discovering this transformation and leads me on a fascinating and fragrant journey, from the arrival of the bean bags to the packaging and the warehouse. Knowing the entire manufacturing process is essential to understand how fundamental the role of the tasting panel is in the entire system. After farm work comes harvesting the cocoa fruits (cabosse), cutting the cocoa open to obtain the beans, fermentation (a crucial phase for the aromas), and drying.
Photo credit: CORTILIPHOTO
We then arrive at the jute sacks, which are pretty much everywhere in the Domori warehouse. The transformation begins in the factory. The beans are cleaned of bacteria and foreign bodies, roasted, and finally crushed. The grain thus obtained is "pressed" in ball mills, which reduce it to the fluid state. At this moment, the necessary ingredients are added to transform cocoa into chocolate: sugar, hazelnuts, and milk. This is where the recipe for the finished product, the chocolate, is created. We then arrive at another crucial phase, tempering, which stabilizes the sugar crystals and prevents the natural cocoa butter (Domori does not add any) from rising to the surface. Finally, the chocolate is poured into molds and molded into tablets (or tablets, for professionals).
Photo credit: CORTILIPHOTO
And the tasting panel? It is made up of internal employees who have been trained as tasters and meets approximately every two weeks. Its role is fundamental because it serves to judge the quality of the raw material that the producers send in samples. The panel first examines the cocoa beans, verifying the level of fermentation. Then move on to the chocolate sample, created in the factory with a small line of dedicated machinery.
No tool is able to replicate the multisensory analysis performed by the tasters. Chocolate is tasted with all the senses: the eyes evaluate the color and appearance, the ears listen for the so-called "snap" when it breaks, the nose gauges the intensity of the aromas, and the mouth, finally, ascertain the aromaticity and texture.
Every evaluation captures a thousand nuances, aftertaste, strengths, and weaknesses that the tasters weigh, guided by a special card, on which they mark the "votes." The promotion or rejection is debated among the internal judges, who then send the ballots to the founder Gianluca Franzoni for final approval. This is why tasting is, in reality, what starts it all. They will only buy the beans and put the chocolate into production if the panel approves.
Girl Power
In honor of Women's Month [see editor's note above], we'd like to point out that Francesca, Bruna, Barbara, Giusi, Cinzia, Tiziana, Elisa, Vilma, and Benedetta are just a few names of the many women who work at Domori, comprising around 75% of employees. “They are very good, many of them have been working with us for many years," confirms the CEO Andrea Macchione.
They expertly follow each phase of production, which hovers over five tons of chocolate a day. The artisan contribution of women and men remains crucial for perfect quality control.
Visit Domori
When the time comes to visit Italy, the factory opens on select days to the public.
Cover photo credit: CORTILIPHOTO