Photo Gallery on Vancouver Courier
Sweet Spot: Better living through chocolate
On a sunny Wednesday evening, I find myself in a small back room beside a stainless steel beast radiating heat and noise, a combination of whirring and humming. The beast is a Loring coffee roaster and its belly is full of cacao beans, not coffee. It feels - and smells - like I'm standing in an oven full of brownies.
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Shelley Bolton (l) and Merri Schwartz sort raw cacao beans at East Van Roasters
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Raw cacao beans ready for roasting
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

The winnowing process: after the bean has been roasted, the husk must be removed. What's left is the cacao nib, ready for grinding.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

The winnowing process: after the bean has been roasted, the husk must be removed. What's left is the cacao nib, ready for grinding
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

The roasted cacao bean and the husked cacao nib.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Shelley Bolton (l) and Merri Schwartz sort raw cacao beans at East Van Roasters.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

One of the three women winnowing, Sri Rodwell shares a laugh with her co-workers.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Customers can sit down at East Van Roasters for coffee or chocolate.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Sugar is added as the beans are ground into a paste.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Shelley Bolton adds the sugar.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Passersby stop to take pictures.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Sugar is added as the beans are ground into a paste.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

A scale in the front window with raw beans cacao and coffee.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Finished slabs of chocolate.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Cacao beans, not coffee, cool down in the Loring coffee roaster.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Coffee beans ready for roasting.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Finished chocolares, mendiant ginger and fruit.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Finished chocolates, mendiant ginger and fruit.
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet

Finished chocoloates, pink peppercorn, nib and coconut and vanilla espresso
Photograph By
Dan Toulgoet
