I have never really been much of a science person. However, if the guidance counselors at my high school had told me that a degree in Biological Science could lead to a career that involved traveling the world in search of the best cacao to make some of the world's best chocolate - I think I may have studied my science text books a little more diligently.
This is the life of Ray Major. A graduate of Drexel University with that Biological Science degree I just mentioned, Ray has spent the last thirty-two years making chocolate on four continents. In the past year alone he has visited Peru, China, Jamaica, India, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea...the list goes on. The man gets around in the world of cacao! Ray heads the development team at SCHARFFEN BERGER Chocolate and is responsible for sourcing the world’s finest cacao beans. The beans Ray finds are the beginning of the process required to bring SCHARFFEN BERGER Chocolate from “bean to bar”.
Though the careful selecting and blending of the world’s finest cacao beans, the flavors of each origin combine to create depth and complexity to the chocolate that ultimately produces some of the finest tasting chocolate in America. If you have sampled SCHARFFEN BERGER Chocolate you have tasted the fruits of Ray’s search - and it is truly delicious. If you have not yet tried SCHARFFEN BERGER Chocolate, why not? It does not take a Biological Science degree to recognize good taste!
I recently spoke with Ray to learn more about the process of selecting the best cacao. How in the world does he know where in the world to go to find these farms? How does he know what makes one cacao bean better than another? How many shots does he have to have to go deep into these jungles? What is the biggest snake he has ever encountered? I may have veered off topic a bit, but I had many questions - and Ray had the answers!
My less than scientific mind had a little trouble understanding some of the scientific language Ray speaks, so he compared the cacao bean selection process to the grape selection process used in wine. Now he was speaking my language! In both wine and chocolate, the distinctive taste starts with the original ingredient. In wine it is the grape. In chocolate it is the cacao bean. Sommeliers study a wine’s taste and visual cues to identify its region, barrel wood and year. Likewise, a chocolate connoisseur can identify the country of origin, cacao tree type and processing methods.
There are three varieties of cacao trees:
- Criollo - grown primarily in the northern regions of South America and Central America, this cacao has a mild sweet flavor
- Forastero - grown in West Africa and throughout the Amazon, this cacao has a strong robust bitter flavor
- Trinatario - grown throughout the world, this cacao is a cross-combination of both trees created somewhat by accident. In the early eighteenth century many of the Criollo trees in Trinidad were killed off by disease that spread through most of Latin America. In order to bolster the dwindling supply of cacao in Trinidad, Forastero trees were brought in and crossed with Criollo trees - the result was Trinitario.
In addition to the selection of the type of cacao beans to use, Ray observes the post harvesting processing techniques of the cacao plantations he visits. He watches as the farmers complete the time consuming process of fermentation and drying which is vital to the quality of the cacao beans.
Ray’s experience throughout his career gives him the necessary expertise to recognize the best practices in the post harvesting processing techniques. When he locates a cacao farm where these processes are satisfactory, he develops long term sustainable relationships with the farmers.
In order to maintain these relationships, Ray will make eight or nine trips a year to visit cacao plantations around the world with a goal of no more than two years passing before he visits. He also makes two or three exploratory trips to new regions each year to continually source the best cacao. For example, he has recently received referrals regarding possible new cacao sources in Northern Peru and Equador which he is currently exploring.
After Ray provided me with all of this information I still had questions about the snakes. How does he handle the jungle snakes? It turns out the only non-chocolate job Ray ever had was when he spent eight months working in the Snake House of the Philadelphia Zoo. Perhaps that should be required experience for someone gearing up to spend his life sourcing cacao in jungles. His largest snake sighting? A 13-foot Anaconda on a farm in Brazil. Yes, he has had all of his shots.
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