Lillie Belle Chocolate: Bean to Bar
“All I can ever hope for, doing what I do, is to make people
happy with my creations. To brighten their day, even if it’s for only a moment,
with something I made with my hands. People always ask me, “Is it fun?”. Let me
assure you that making chocolates is a lot of fun.” -Jeff
Shepherd, owner and chocolatier
We recently had the opportunity to talk with Jeff
Shepherd, the brilliant genius behind Lillie Belle Farms. He has made it his
life’s mission to search the world for the most precious, tasty beans the
planet has to offer. These 5 bars make up our current Lillie Belle line-up.
The Perfect Illusion *Jeff Shepherd’s favorite*
This 65% dark bar is a recent winner of the 2012 Good Food
Award. Rare White Beans from the remote valleys of Peru are delicately roasted
and conched for a total of 70 hours to produce this exquisite
bar . As told by Jeff, the beans in this bar really set the bar. By
conching for 70 hours, as opposed the usual 12-24, any bitterness is eliminated
to create a nice velvety smooth finish.
Ocumare
Made in micro-batches with hand selected organic cocoa beans
from the Ocumare Valley in Venezuela, this 70% cacao bar is sorted, roasted,
cracked and winnowed by hand. As Jeff says, “Our small stone mills work their
little mechanical hearts out for up to 4 days to get just the right texture and
mouthfeel.”
Purple Haze
Purple Haze is the first true blend that Lillie Belle has ever
experimented with. This cacao hails from the Dominican Republic and
Venezuela. By barely adding any sugar, Lillie Belle is able to create a
bar with dark, earthy notes followed by a mellow finish. “This one will
make you want to kiss the sky.”
The Wild Thing
Truly wild, this bar is composed of completely wild cacao beans,
harvested in the jungles of Bolivia. Roasted at very low temperatures and
carefully refined for almost 3 days to achieve the right balance of taste, this
criollo bar is described by Jeff himself as “Perfection.”
The Other One
This 74% dark bar is truly for the dark chocolate fans.
These bio-organically certified beans come from a very small plantation in the
Dominican Republic, and do not give off the acidity of most high cacao content
bars. “From the moment you unwrap this bar your senses will reel from the
intensity and character that lies within,” proclaims the wrapper. Clearly
an understatement.
We love Lillie Belle Farms and their lovely chocolate. For the
devotees of the Smokey Blue Cheese Truffles–we have just restocked and added a
duo-collection of Lillie Belle’s Marzipan Fig Truffles (rum poached Mission
figs, wrapped in marzipan, and rolled in toasted almond) and Fresh Lemon
Coconut Butter Creams. Wow.
Bye for now... and see you soon in the chocolate room!