Burnt Fork Bend Chocolate

04/21/2023

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Burnt Fork Bend Chocolate located in Stevensville, Montana

12/01/2021

Check out the latest edition of Big Sky Journal featuring 3 bean-to-bar makers in Montana: Burnt Fork Bend Chocolate, Bear Basecamp and Ducrey Chocolate Maker.

Jennifer Wicks places two bars of chocolate in front of me and my 14-year-old daughter Tessa. “These are each made with the same recipe of 72 percent cacao and 28 percent sugar,” she tells us. “See if you can tell the difference.” As fellow chocoholics,...

01/19/2021

What an excellent email to receive this morning - I was informed that Burnt Fork Bend Chocolate is included in the 2021 edition of "Grahame's Guide to Chocolate Around the World."

There is a book https://www.grahameschocolateguide.com/book

And a digital version online: https://click.mlsend.com/link/c/YT0xNjAyMjQ1NzU1MjU3NDkzNDg5JmM9djFwNCZlPTIxNDYmYj01MDM1MjA4NzQmZD1kOW02czhp.FwdB_CIB4m86rOH2yd-K-KK4kBRXChYHy__CNQ8fWkA

Grahame's Chocolate Guide is a comprehensive resource to some 300 chocolatiers in more than 60 countries across six regions around the world.

12/01/2020

Tried to add both videos to the first post about the mill. Here it is in action.

12/01/2020

About 2 months ago, I added a new roller mill to my collection of chocolate making tools. It serves to crack the beans after roasting to facilitate winnowing the shell. Two weeks ago, I ordered a motor for the mill and this past week my son Zach helped me build the wooden base. I spent yesterday and today, mounting the mill and motor and connecting the drive shafts. My first trial run this evening resulted in efficient and continuous cracking of the beans. The new motor sure beats the hand crank or the cordless drill I was using (the battery died pretty quickly and it was a good arm workout handling the drill).

02/05/2020

Thanks to the Missoulian for today's article.

Jennifer Wicks has been making artisanal bars of dark chocolate for more than 10 years.

01/28/2020

I may not be headed to Argentina any time soon (although I would love to visit)however Burnt Fork Bend Chocolate recently made the trek thanks to local friends Claudia and Francesco. They shared a bar with Florence (in the photo), a younger generation owner of Chocolates Fénix in Buenos Aires, the largest chocolate makers in Argentina since 1936. How exciting! I'm hoping Claudia will take me along next time.

12/07/2019

Had the opportunity to revisit with the wonderful folks at Grain Maker in Stevensville. My first visit was 10 years ago. I asked them if they could modify the auger for grains to work with cocoa beans. I spent a few hours with them back in December 2009 as Randy patiently kept modifying the auger. It didn't quite work but I did get the mill to grind my own flour. Flash forward 10 years. I peeked at their website and noticed they had many more accessories and options available. So I visited them a few days ago and picked up an auger that is now specifically made to work with cocoa beans. Yeah! The plan is to start using the grain mill to crack whole roasted cocoa beans as well as to use it to grind cocoa cake (the cocoa butter has been removed from the cocoa beans) into cocoa powder.
Photo is of the the original grain auger (far right), modified auger in 2009 (middle) and cocoa specific auger 2019 (left). Second photo is grinding the cocoa powder.

Bonnie was telling me last week that they had wanted to contact me in the last 10 years but lost my contact information. 10 years ago Burnt Fork Bend was just in the planning stages and not officially a business so Bonnie was not aware of the business name to track me down. She was so glad I reached out so we could reconnect and share the new things they've been working on for cocoa. AND it was almost 10 years to the day that I called her! December 11, 2009 - December 3, 2019.

05/24/2019

Missoula's first chocolate and coffee festival is happening Saturday, June 1 at the Edgewater in downtown Missoula. Stop by and say "Hi!" Hope to see you at Choffee Con.

Premium Coffee and Chocolate Tasting and Buying Event

04/16/2019

Burnt Fork Bend Chocolate rolls out a 72% dark bar using enliven cacao. Thank you for making chocolate cure poverty!
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