LCBO Food and Drink Holiday 2016

FIVE qUESTIONS WITH…

BY CYNTHIA DAVID  •  PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES TSE

KATIE WILSON, OWNER, SOUL CHOCOLATE, TORONTO, SOULROASTERS.COM

K atie Wilson’s mom called her the Chocolate Monster, so protective of her favourite treat that she once bit a friend who stole her last piece. In university she studied psychology then went travelling, which led to a chocolate-making certificate from George Brown College. Katie and partner Kyle Wilson now craft and hand-wrap pure, single-origin chocolate bars in the kitchen of a hip Toronto café for shops across Canada.

How did a trip to New Zealand change your life? It was raining and I ducked into an unassuming shop that smelled like rich, delicious chocolate. They sold bars from different regions of the world, each with an incredibly complex flavour. I was blown away, and decided I wanted to learn more and share that experience with everyone. Where does the soulful name come from? Our company name was inspired by early soul music singers such as Aretha Franklin, who sang with such passion. I hope to extend the same passion to my chocolate—just cacao and organic cane sugar—and delight people with the results. If I gave you pure chocolate from four different origins, what would you taste? Madagascar reminds me of red fruit and citrus, while the cacao beans in our Papua New Guinea bar were dried in a wood-fired oven, giving the chocolate a raisiny sweetness and smoky flavour like a peaty Scotch.

Tanzania is crazy, like ripe bananas with a lingering fudge brownie taste. Ecuador tastes like orange blossoms, with a smooth, creamy finish. How does the bean-to-bar process work? We source cacao beans from different countries to find the flavour we want, then sort them to remove sticks and rocks. I roast the beans in an oven, “winnow” to remove the shell, refine the nibs (slowly crushing them) for two to four days until the choco- late is liquid and smooth, then age it in blocks for up to a month. Now it’s ready to be tempered, moulded into bars and wrapped. What are your fans getting for the holidays? We’ve developed a custom Advent calendar filled with hand-crafted dark chocolates. Pre-order online and they’ll be delivered to your door. We’ve also created a cacao-husk tea blended with toasted coconut and maple syrup. It has a beau­ tiful chocolate aroma with a delicate flavour. If you love tea lattes you need to try this.

256  FOOD & DRI NK HOLIDAY 2016