Raaka Chocolate

Love this place! The chocolate is amazing and they have a great deal on bars.

The space looks great and it's super cool to see a "bean-to-bar" factory.

Good♡♡♡♡♡

Lapin and I came here for the bean to bar chocolate making class. I been to a couple of classes and since he never been to one, we figured it would be a fun way to spend a day. The classes are located in the Raaka’s factory in Red Hook. The place is pretty much out of the way, we would have never thought to walk down this path. The class also included a tour and our guides, William and Christina (if I am not mistaken) were nice. At first, I must admit they didn’t seem as friendly but as the class lingered on, they were nicer. The tour began with video but the projector wasn’t working and apparently, either was the fridge and chocolate tempering machine (I am sure there is a better name than the one I am using). The tour itself was very informational, fun and interactive. We got to taste a couple of cacao beans. The best part was using the tempering machine to pour our own chocolate into the 3 chocolate bar molds. They set out an array of standard toppings - dried blueberries, sesame seeds, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, sea salt, black pepper, cacao nibs, coconut flakes, rice krispies, and two other toppings that slipped my mind I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have any of the toppings in their bars that you could buy. After creating our three bars, we were able to have a tasting of all the chocolates Raaka have available for sale. I literally found like 5 bars that I NEEDED in my life. After the tasting was done, I made a bee-line right for the store (it’s the same spot you check in) and purchased 5 bars and a box of 4 truffles. The chocolates are a bit pricey but if you buy from the factory, you can get 3 bars for $15 instead of the standard ($8 per a bar).

My only qualm is that the class was supposed to start at 5pm but it started almost at 5:28pm because they were waiting for latecomers. We took a taxi and ran there (the taxi-man got lost) just to be on time. It was quite annoying that they made the entire class wait for people that never showed up. Also, be sure to pack water as they do have water available but towards the end of the tour is it available.

Divine!! Take the tour: it's so fun and informative. You get to taste a variety of different chocolates and you get to craft your own chocolate bars!

Somehow I've never been fond of coconut, probably due to the early version - that sweetened, semi-dry, shredded stuff in the supermarket. So, I've skipped over the whole recent coconut-water craze. But I've always been a fan of dark chocolate! I never, ever thought the two things would work together for my palate.

Then visiting California vegan cousins got me to try some of Raaka's dark chocolate coins made with coconut milk. WOW! Incredibly, I think it's better than when made with milk solids. BETTER! You could knock me over with a feather.