By Daphne Berberyan for the Feeding City Lab in dialogue with Dr Michael Sacco
ChocoSol produces ethical and ecologically-sustainable chocolate in a bean-to-bar process. ChocoSol sources cacao beans from small farmers in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Ecuador. It roasts, winnows, and grinds them into chocolate in its Toronto production facility. A rustic approach of using volcanic stone wheels instead of industrial steel to produce chocolate allows it to keep a rich flavour, and to better retain the nutritional benefits that are found in the cacao such as antioxidants.
The ChocoSol boutique is located in Toronto’s St. Clair West neighbourhood. This used to be the primary location where ChocoSol produced their chocolate, staring in 2014. Today, their primary production takes place in North York, at a huge facility that features innovative and sustainable technologies such as stone grinders and winnowers that operate using gravity. ChocoSol sells its chocolate at multiple farmers’ markets, at its own shop at the St. Lawrence Market, at local sustainable food shops such as the Big Carrot, and through its online store.
During the summer of 2023, a University of Toronto Excellence Award provided me an opportunity for a community-engaged placement with the Feeding City Lab led by Professor Jo Sharma. During this internship, I witnessed the inside workings of ChocoSol. I was able to observe and document the everyday practices of chocolate production, from the grinding process to the final packaging. These videos are the result of that opportunity.
I first visited the St. Clair West location to see how bean to bar chocolate production first unfolded at the shop. While the ground level of the store serves as their storefront, the upper floor still serves as a small producCon space with ovens, where ingredients such as jaguar cacao are roasted. Then, I visited their expanded production facility, 16 kilometres away. Walking into the North York facility was quite a shock given the significant change in the scale of production. ChocoSol’s production shifted to this facility during the pandemic, leaving the St. Clair location mostly for the boutique, as well as the green roof where the ChocoSoil Project now takes place. On the day of my first visit to the North York facility, I was lucky enough to engage with several members of Chocosol’s team who were involved in different parts of the chocolate-production process. They showed me how the various steps of the process work—from how the machinery operates to how the chocolate is ultimately packaged in sustainable and compostable wrappings.
Dr Michael Sacco, the founder of ChocoSol, talked with me about how ChocoSol started, the original goals behind the project, and how it’s come to take the shape it has today. Michael and I talked about the ChocoSol’s roots from his work in Mexico with community elders, and how the process of chocolate-making was at first a surprise for him. He told me how ChocoSol grew into the company it is today, as well as how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their operations. Overall, ChocoSol’s story and their ability to produce such high-quality, ethical, sustainable, and delicious chocolate is inspiring. Documenting all of this was a unique and incredible opportunity.
As a culmination of my work with ChocoSol, we produced nine videos that document the process through which ChocoSol sources, produces, and packages their chocolate. They also highlight the inspirations for and origins of ChocoSol Traders through conversations with ChocoSol founder Michael Sacco.
Each video seeks to display a specific theme or part of ChocoSol’s chocolate conception and production process:
1) ChocoSol Origins describes where the name ChocoSol comes from and the inspiration behind the creation of ChocoSol Traders. (0:50)
2) ChocoSol Origins Part Two: Roots and Revolutionary Chocolate is an explanation as to how ChocoSol’s founder, Michael Sacco, was introduced to traditional cacao and chocolate making in Oaxaca, Mexico. Michael explains how chocolate making is a “medium for the message,” which embodies hopes for a more ecological and regenerative approach to food and community. (3:56)
3) Cacao Bean Economics explains cacao’s various uses—as a spice, a drink, a source of protein, and a catalyst for medicinal purposes. Michael explains the place of cacao in Mesoamerican culture and cacao’s uses as a gifting “currency” that grew on trees. (2:12)
4) Eco-Gastronomy explains ChocoSol’s aim of making products that are expressions of eco-gastronomy, thus trying to draw from forms of agriculture that are sustainable and regenerative. (2:09)
5) Bicycle details why ChocoSol workers called themselves “chocolate pedallers,” and how in the early days of ChocoSol bicycle technology was used to grind cacao. Bicycle technology is community-scale and can be combined with the new highly efficient motors to create small-scale artisanal production capacities. (2:12)
5.1) Food, Fuel, Fibre, Flowers, Family displays ChocoSol’s green roof on top of their St. Clair location. Michael discusses their forest garden, and the importance of food, fuel, fibre, flowers, and family. (1:41)
6) COVID-19 takes the viewers to ChocoSol’s main production facility, which they’ve moved to since the COVID-19 pandemic. Founder Michael Sacco discusses how the new production facility allows ChocoSol to produce over 40 tons of chocolate a year. (1:59)
7) Gravity displays the methods through which cacao nibs are separated in the ChocoSol facility using air to separate the cacao from the seed using gravity. (1:31)
8) Chocolate Production shows how ChocoSol produces its chocolate at low heat temperatures, using stone grinders. Unlike steel industrial machinery which cuts the cacao, ChocoSol uses stone to grind it. Up to 400 kilos of cacao can be ground within an hour, which are then fed into a secondary grinder to make the chocolate smooth. From there, chocolate is placed into stone molds which allows for there to be zero waste from the process. (1:54)
9) Chocolate Packaging shows the final step of the ChocoSol process, the packaging. Michael discusses how one of the first pieces of disposable packaging in history was the chocolate bar wrapper, and how ChocoSol seeks to reduce their packaging and make it as ecologically friendly as possible to reduce food garbage. (2:06)