Cocoa Nibs: Recipes Outside of the (Granola) Box
Cocoa nibs have become increasingly popular among a health-conscious population looking to satisfy their chocolate fix while skipping the sugar.
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Finding Balance: Double Spiral Chocolate
To an office worker, balance means squeezing in a short walk at lunch time. To a sweet tooth, it’s an extra serving of greens on a dinner plate. To Mhairi and Stuart Craig, balance comes from making chocolate in a commercial kitchen above their garage in Ardentown, Delaware. To them, balance comes from filling buckets with cocoa beans and caramel-colored cane sugar. It stems from developing the beans’ flavor in a drum roaster the size of a toaster oven. It’s waiting for the beans to cool, then placing them in a tall winnower to separate the cocoa nibs from their husks. It sounds like the humming of a stainless-steel grinder turning the nibs into a thick paste, filling the air with the smell of chocolate. It’s tempering and hand-wrapping 1,000 one-ounce bars every month of the cooler seasons. To the Craigs, balance is spelled in three words: Double Spiral Chocolate.
Their chocolate-making journey started in Somers, New York in 2014, when Mhairi and Stuart became empty-nesters. Looking for a new chapter to write together, food immediately appeared as a natural choice. “We’ve always had a strong interest in health and nutrition and the role of diet in reducing chronic disease,” says Stuart. A nurse by day, Mhairi showed interest in making chocolate, while Stuart, then and still a PhD nutritional biochemist for DuPont, was interested in incorporating unrefined sugar in their recipes. Together, they strived to make a chocolate that could be a healthy part of one’s diet. “That’s why we only make at least 70% dark chocolate and stick to two ingredients,” says Mhairi. In contrast, most mass-produced chocolate contains added cocoa butter, vanilla, and soy lecithin, in addition to cocoa beans and sugar.
Turning to the internet, Mhairi and Stuart realized they were part of a young, growing community of bean-to-bar makers. They found equipment, ingredients, and knowledge on Chocolate Alchemy’s website, a company serving small batch and hobbyist chocolate-makers. Stuart credits these online resources for getting them started. “We couldn’t have done it 30 years ago,” he says. They experimented with different cocoa origins until they identified those best suited for two-ingredient bars because of their higher cocoa butter content.
In 2015, when Stuart’s job caused the couple to relocate to the Wilmington, Delaware area, chocolate-making had already taken a large space in their lives. After building a commercial kitchen in their new Arden home, they launched Double Spiral Chocolate in August 2016, becoming Delaware’s first and only chocolate-maker to date. Inspired by a traditional Celtic sign, the company’s name is a nod to the couple’s Scottish origins. “I just loved the symbol,” says Mhairi, “and knowing it means balance summed up what we were trying to do: balancing taste and nutrition.”
After the bars successfully sold at the Arden Fair that September, the couple refined their offering to include four single-origin chocolate bars — Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Tanzania — all made of fine quality, ethically-sourced cocoa. Twice a year, Mhairi and Stuart drive to Pennsauken, New Jersey, to pick up the cocoa bean bags themselves.
Over time, the Double Spiral Chocolate line expanded. “We started adding a third ingredient for flavor bars and found they’re a popular alternative to the original dark chocolate,” says Mhairi.
Their approach to developing those bars is another exercise in balance. Stuart gives the example of their popular mint bar. “Most mint added to food is essential oil but we add the whole leaf and it’s quite a different experience. I find it’s almost universally liked.” The line of inclusions changes seasonally: the holidays are synonymous with cardamom and mint, Valentine’s Day means raspberry, and summertime is for cherry and lime. Their most popular bars today? Puffed quinoa and vanilla.
Despite temptations to veer away from their vision, the Craigs remain committed to using only whole foods in their bars. A year after their launch, they were commissioned to make an orange-flavored chocolate. Unable to source freeze-dried orange, the Craig’s used essential oil. “It was delicious!” says Mhairi. “Everybody loved it and wanted more but that’s just not our philosophy. We’re not about selling chocolate, we’re about you getting a nutritious chocolate.” Balancing the demand with their values, the couple returned to making whole ingredient bars.
To the non-initiated, biting into a Double Spiral Chocolate bar can be a surprising experience. The two-ingredient recipe translates into a drier, less creamy texture. Far from the dark, bitter flavor most of us associate with chocolate, the bars boast citrusy or fruit notes, with a slight astringency similar to the one experienced when biting into a roasted cocoa bean. The Craigs are aware their chocolate isn’t for everyone. To their surprise, their whole-food approach appeals to local food supporters undeterred from the $4 price tag of each small bar. “Our customers are people who are into authenticity,” says Stuart, “they look for food they can trust.” Their uncompromising approach to chocolate-making has attracted over a dozen independent retailers across Delaware, such as the Honeybee Kitchen, Newark Natural Foods Coop, and Highland Orchards, to name a few. The couple has also developed collaboration bars for prestigious estates, such as a lavender bar for Winterthur and a gunpowder green tea one for the Hagley Craft Fair.
The First State’s first chocolate company grew by leaps and bounds in a short couple of years. Keeping their day jobs — she as a nurse, he as a biochemist — has allowed them to find balance through chocolate. Each week, they carve out 25 hours to devote to Double Spiral Chocolate, leaving time for rest and travel, like their recent trip to Guatemala.
While their current plans include buying a larger capacity tempering machine, they have no plans of making the leap to become fulltime makers. “We still want to have a life,” says Mhairi. “We are not going to go full steam ahead and nationwide, our goal is just to be local.” With the double spiral acting as inspiration, Mhairi and Stuart have found just the right balance.
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