Moonbean chocolate started with one modest ambition – to make chocolate from bean-to-bar using ingredients we could find readily available in East Africa. James was working as social responsibility manager for a large cocoa exporter at the time, and based in Bundibugyo, the most productive cacao growing region in Uganda.
After researching the basics of chocolate making online we felt confident we could tackle most of the steps in the process – pan or oven roasting the beans, cracking and winnowing by hand, then grinding them into chocolate liquor and adding sugar. Getting smooth, melt-in-the-mouth chocolate, however, we knew would be a bit trickier – we lacked a method of refining our chocolate paste. This is Africa though, and we have become used to improvisation and making-do. So it was that our first batch of chocolate was refined using multiple passes through a meat grinder!
With the help of a good friend and colleague, Irene Echelai, we fed the chocolate paste through the hand-cranked device over and over, checking the incremental improvement in mouth-feel. After twenty or so cycles we lost count, and there didn’t seem to be any significant improvement anyway. We tempered the chocolate, and moulded it into rudimentary bars, before inviting farmers and staff at the cocoa factory to try it with us. The meat grinder has done little to improve the texture of the chocolate, but what impressed everyone was the taste – rich, fruity and unmistakably chocolate – it left us thinking we really CAN do this!
The idea developed quickly from that revelation. We would invest in the minimum specialist equipment required to make premium quality chocolate in Uganda, and offer cocoa farmers access to a value-chain that has heretofore been the monopoly of middle-men, exporters, and big companies in the economic north.
With the support of close family and friends we purchased our initial kit: a drum roaster to help our beans develop a consistent flavour, a juicer to grind the beans into chocolate liquor, and we’ve replaced the meat-grinder with a Spectra 11, which produces a beautifully refined and conched chocolate. Our chocolate making experience is growing daily, and our chocolate improves with every new test batch, but to scale our operations and bring moonbean chocolate to market we require additional funding.
We launched our Kickstarter to coincide with the full moon on the 3rd of December, and now have just a couple more weeks to raise the money required to reach our target. If successful, we will use the money pledged to buy the first bulk of ingredients directly from the farmers we work with; to formally register as a company in Uganda so we can begin creating much needed jobs; to develop our eco-friendly packaging materials with a local paper-making enterprise we have identified, that supports young women in Uganda, and begin offering training sessions to farmers to increase the quality of harvest, fermentation and drying of the beans we use.
Adding value for farmers and creating jobs is just one of the ways we hope moonbean chocolate can help make a difference in East Africa. In the future we envision a facility where we can guide school-groups and other would-be chocolate makers in the process of bean-to-bar chocolate making. We are developing a cross-curricular syllabus for Ugandan primary school-aged children focussing on cocoa – the history, geography, science and art of chocolate making. We’d like to introduce more farmers to agricultural best-practice, and support local organisations who are working towards a shared goal of poverty alleviation through financial literacy training, healthcare, and education initiatives. Above all, we hope to put Uganda on the map not as a mere exporter of commodities, but as a producer of fine chocolate… it’s high time east Africans got to taste of the fruits of their labour!
Moonbean chocolate was founded in 2017 to provide artisanal chocolate with a focus on helping educate, support and promote direct trade with East Africa cacao farmers.
If you’d like more information on moonbean chocolate or it’s co-founders, or to reach out to schedule an interview with James, please email at info@moonbeanchocolate.com or send a WhatsApp message to +256775187883.
