Shivalik Bakshi -September 17, 2016:

I bought my first melangeur from Cocoatown in the summer of 2015 and experimented with it by producing a couple of batches of chocolate from raw beans. Although I had figured out the basic process, i felt the need to meet a professional to get
a bearing of where my chocolate ranked amond artisinal chocolate makers. So i was thrilled to learn that CocoaTown was offering a Bean-to-bar workshops in October-2015 and signed up right away. And I sure was not disappointed.
At first i was was pleasantly surprised to see how far people had flown in for the workshop. I thought I was the one to fly the furthest (Boston) but there were people from all over the country and also from Sount America (Columbia and Argentina).
The workshop had two instructors – Chloe Doutre Roussel and Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe. Chloe is a world renowned expert in all things chocolate while Maria is a hand-on chocolatier from venezuela. So between the two we got a well rounded introduction to chocolate theory (from Chloe) and the practical side of making chocolate (from Maria). It was a weekend long workship but after attending it I felt I had taken a leap from being a chocolate novice to someone who belonged in the artisnal chocolatier community.
Needless to say – I highly recommend this workshop.