In a treehouse on a cacao farm in the middle of a Hawaiian jungle, Aaron Koch, owner of Treehouse Chocolate Co., came up with his idea for drinking chocolate — a better, richer, creamier version of hot chocolate. Aaron explained to us in the interview below that once you understand — and taste —the difference, you’ll probably never go back to hot chocolate again.
Stop by our Portland store (415 SW 13th Ave) as we kick off our Portland Maker Pop-Up Series this weekend April 30 from 12-6 p.m. and May 1 from 12-5 p.m. Aaron will be there to let you try all the flavors of his Treehouse drinking chocolates.
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Treehouse Chocolate comes in a variety of flavors.
How did you end up in Hawaii living in a treehouse?
Aaron: I grew up in Singapore and then when I finished high school I moved to Oregon for college. I learned to surf when I came here and the friends that I learned to surf with moved to Hawaii and I was kind of missing the island. I got into an exchange program where I could go to Hawaii and I stayed in Hawaii after that. I ended up moving to Kauai and got really interested in permaculture farming and just kind of bounced around to different styles of farming like coffee farms, or veggie and fruit farms, different things like that. I would work different jobs like landscaping or carpentry and then go to Indonesia and surf and then come back Hawaii and look for a job and place to live.
One time I came back looking for a place to live and there was a spot on a cacao farm and part of the rent was to work on the farm so I just got really interested in cacao farming as a result.
What is the difference between hot chocolate and drinking chocolate?
Aaron: Hot chocolate is just cocoa powder. It doesn’t have any cocoa butter in it and drinking chocolate is actual melted chocolate. The main difference between cocoa powder and chocolate is that the chocolate has retained the cocoa butter and in a cocoa bean there’s 50 percent cocoa fat, which is cocoa butter. That’s what gives it that smooth mouth feel and it stores all the flavor. All the flavor is stored in the cocoa butter so if you ever try putting cocoa powder on your tongue, you can’t taste almost anything because there’s no fat for it to retain the flavor.
Where do you source your chocolate?
Aaron: From northern Peru. Our guidelines are, ‘as long as it’s organic and it comes from a farmer-owned cooperative’, because in my opinion that’s beyond fair trade, when a farmer actually has stake in the cooperative. We source directly from a broker via the cooperative in northern Peru and it’s called Oro Verde. Green Gold.
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Aaron created his drinking chocolate to be easy to travel with.
How did you expand this love for cacao farming into your drinking chocolate company?
Aaron: I can remember sitting in the farm kitchen with my friends and we had a packet of drinking chocolate and we were trying to make it, but it was so complicated. I remember the recipe had five steps and a diagram with the whisk and sauce pan, and we didn’t know what temperature you’re supposed to put the milk at, and seemed almost more work than it was worth.
In the end you have all these things to clean up in the end and so I thought this is something I can fix. I’m really into drinking chocolate and I didn’t see any products where it was super convenient to make it and have it be the best option, so I just started tinkering. The way it started I came back to Portland and was making chocolate bars for a while, but what I found was when I would clean out the stone grinder, the best way to do that is just to put hot water in the stone grinder and let it run for a while. It kind of cleans itself and you’re supposed to pour it out, but I would save it in these gallon jugs and it’s pure, rich drinking chocolate. Now that didn’t have any milk in it, but it got me started on playing with this idea.
I kept trying to make it convenient for people. I wanted it to be just three steps, all you need is hot water because that way if you’re camping, in an airport, hotel, anywhere, you can make this product and it’s super easy. I think it’s still better than any product on the shelf that you have to add milk to.
Upcoming Maker Pop-ups in our Portland store:
May 7-8 | Taiga Press: A design and letterpress print studio specializing in stationary and branding.
May 14 | Folk: Makers of well-crafted furniture, lighting, and goods to last.