Most cocoa farmers have never tasted chocolate, and produce cocoa beans without any idea of how they will be used, says Timothy Childs, Tcho's founder.
The luxury chocolatier sells nothing but chocolate made from superlative cocoa beans -- from Venezuela, Ecuador, the Caribbean, Africa and Madagascar -- in various guises: ganaches, pralines, tarts, cakes and their infamous chocolate eclair.
Mooncakes, a delicacy sold in the autumn, now come stuffed with chocolate as well as the standard beans and egg.
In addition, she created a "snack nut" version to show-off the flavor: chocolate-covered pieces of cocoa beans packed in unadorned glass jars.
Founded by Daniel Prieto Preston in an old parachute factory, the beans-to-bar chocolate manufacturer offers free tours and tastes of freshly cooled chocolate squares.
Or take your chocolate straight and chomp on raw cocoa beans.
Beans will be turned into chocolate on Tcho's elaborate production line, which is being used as a test-bed for remote video-monitoring of industrial processes by researchers at Fuji Xerox in Palo Alto.
Using a variety of jury-rigged spice grinders, heaters and temperature sensors, he has worked out how to get cocoa beans to reveal their complex flavours and to get chocolate to solidify evenly.
The one-hour, guided walk moves through a candy-coloured maze of equipment as a Theo employee explains how the company sources its cocoa beans and what their techniques are for turning them into chocolate.
The hotel also offers creative tours to guests, including a chocolate tasting tour of Quito (Ecuador is a top producer of cacao beans) and a culinary excursion sampling street food and visiting local markets.
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