How Marsatta Makes Chocolate

From cacao bean to finished chocolate in Torrance, California.

Marsatta Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. We begin with cacao beans and transform them into finished chocolate inside our Torrance chocolate kitchen.

We do not purchase ready-made chocolate, melt it and place the Marsatta name on it. We make the chocolate itself.

Chocolate Maker Versus Chocolatier

A chocolate maker transforms cacao beans into chocolate.

A chocolatier generally begins with finished chocolate made by another manufacturer and uses it to create bonbons, truffles, molded bars and other confections.

Both require skill, but they are different crafts.

Marsatta does both. We create bonbons and confections, but we also make the chocolate used to create them. Our work begins with cacao beans, not blocks of imported, ready-made couverture.

Our Bean-to-Bar Process

Cacao Selection

Every batch begins with cacao. We evaluate beans for flavor, aroma, balance and how they respond throughout the chocolate-making process.

The cacao we use may change according to harvest, quality and availability. We select cacao based on what it can become, not simply where it comes from.

Sorting and Inspection

The cacao is inspected and prepared before roasting. Quality control begins before the beans enter the first machine.

Roasting

We roast the cacao in-house.

Roasting develops flavor and helps determine the balance, aroma and finish of the chocolate. Small changes in time and temperature can produce dramatically different results.

Our roasting profiles are developed for the cacao and the chocolate we intend to make. We do not believe every bean should be treated the same way.

Cracking and Winnowing

After roasting, the cacao beans are cracked and their outer husks are separated from the cacao nibs.

The nib is the heart of the cacao bean and the foundation of every Marsatta dark and milk chocolate bar.

Grinding

The cacao nibs are ground until their natural cocoa butter is released. What begins as solid nibs gradually becomes a flowing cacao mass.

This is the moment when the cacao begins its transformation into chocolate.

Refining

The chocolate is refined to develop its texture and mouthfeel.

Refining reduces the particle size of the cacao and other ingredients until the chocolate reaches the smoothness required for that particular recipe.

Conching

Conching develops the chocolate’s balance, aroma and finish.

Acids and volatile compounds naturally found in cacao can strongly influence flavor. Patient chocolate making allows those characteristics to be managed without burying the cacao beneath unnecessary sugar or flavorings.

We do not rush this stage. Some Marsatta chocolate spends days being refined and developed because the chocolate decides when it is ready, not the clock.

Resting and Aging

Depending on the chocolate, a batch may be allowed to rest or age before it is finished.

Time allows flavors to settle, integrate and become more balanced.

Tempering

The finished chocolate is carefully heated and cooled through a controlled tempering process.

Proper tempering produces the shine, clean snap and smooth melt people expect from properly made chocolate.

Molding and Wrapping

The tempered chocolate is deposited into molds, cooled, inspected and wrapped.

Only then does it become a finished Marsatta chocolate bar.

One Ingredient. Two Ingredients. Nowhere to Hide.

Two Marsatta bars clearly demonstrate our chocolate-making philosophy: the 100% Crystal Bar and the 74% Sapphire Bar.

The 100% Crystal Bar

Crystal contains one ingredient: 100% cacao.

There is no sugar, sweetener or added flavoring to cover the natural character of the chocolate. Every decision involving cacao selection, roasting, refining, conching and tempering can be tasted in the finished bar.

Most people expect 100% chocolate to be harsh, sharply acidic or overwhelmingly bitter. Crystal challenges that expectation.

It is bold, remarkably approachable and crafted to allow the cacao to speak without punishing the palate.

We call it:

Bold, but not bitter.

The 74% Sapphire Bar

Sapphire contains only two ingredients:

74% cacao

26% organic sugar

Nothing else.

There is no added cacao butter, vanilla, soy lecithin, emulsifier or flavoring.

The organic sugar does not bury the chocolate. It opens the flavor and makes the natural characteristics of the cacao more approachable while preserving its depth and identity.

Sapphire demonstrates that exceptional dark chocolate does not require a complicated ingredient list. It requires carefully selected cacao, organic sugar and a chocolate maker who understands how to bring the two into balance.

Crystal is cacao completely exposed.

Sapphire is cacao given just enough sweetness to reveal a different expression.

One ingredient. Two ingredients. Both made from the bean by Marsatta Chocolate.

Transparency and Trade Secrets

We believe customers deserve to know whether a company actually makes its chocolate.

That is why we show our cacao, our equipment and the major stages of our bean-to-bar process.

Transparency, however, does not require surrendering every supplier relationship, roasting temperature, processing time or proprietary technique developed over decades of chocolate making.

Those details are part of our craft and intellectual property.

We will show you what we do. We will tell you what is inside every bar. We will not hand competitors a formula for recreating what took us decades to develop.

Founder-Led and Family-Operated

Marsatta Chocolate was founded in 2003 by Chef Jeffray D. Gardner, who began working professionally with chocolate in 1994.

Chef Jeffray remains directly involved in selecting cacao, developing recipes, roasting, refining, tasting and producing Marsatta chocolate.

Marsatta is not merely a name printed on a wrapper. It is a working chocolate kitchen, a family business and the result of decades spent studying what makes chocolate extraordinary.

Taste Where the Difference Begins

Terms such as “artisan,” “craft” and “bean-to-bar” appear on plenty of packaging.

The real distinction is what happens before the wrapper goes on.

At Marsatta, we begin with cacao beans and make the chocolate ourselves.

Visit our Torrance chocolate kitchen or experience the difference through our 100% Crystal Bar and 74% Sapphire Bar.

Let the chocolate speak for itself.