so where does the money go? most importantly to me and eric, are we doing a good thing? here s how it breaks down. the raw cacao costs one chunk. labor, the inner sleeve, this much. design, box, packaging, this much. various sundry equipment and miscellaneous, another small chunk. chris, me and eric get a slice out of every bar. that leaves this much, which the retailer takes. chef bleeding heart hippie here has already convinced me to give whatever meager profits we make off our first bar to a local charity. what s unusual about these pods? these beans? extremely high quality flavor. thought not around for a while? this is what almost all chocolate was made of over 120 years ago. and making a guy and comeback. for a chocolatier, this is a once in a lifetime find. about 40% of the beans from these trees have white cacao
this is what the aztec kings would drink. they would be jealous right now. you ll get yours eventually. gracias. mucho gracias. salud. that s good salud. salud. gentlemen, to education. yes. so, did we do the right thing? is it all right for two new yorkers to make money, however much, or however little, off the work of struggling farmers in a faraway land? fortunada, alberto, chris, everybody down the line, all the way to the families who pick the pods off the trees, seem pretty happy to be doing what they are
to a successful harvest. [ speaking foreign language ] but we re not done. we have to transport this stuff to our trees and finish the job ourselves. i know you won t believe it but the energy has changed. i m serious, not joking. listen, i m not disbelieving. i have an open mind. eric and i are heading to the maranon canyon, eight hours by car from chiclayo, well into the andean highlands. on the way, we stop for lunch and meet up with this guy. [ speaking foreign language ] chris curtin, master chocolatier and our business partner in this knuckle-headed adventure. one of life s great joys, eating in a peruvian market. i love markets for breakfast.
okay. here s where chocolate comes from. the trees produce pods. you split open the pods and take out the beans. the buyer sun dries the beans, then roasts them. after roasting, the beans are extracted from their shells and ground up, producing chocolate liqueur. mix this concentrate with milk, sugar, cacao butter and you get what we call commercial chocolate. now, our chocolate bar sells for a nosebleed price that s high by even premium chocolate standards. so where does the money go? most importantly to me and eric, are we doing a good thing? here s how it breaks down. the raw cacao costs one chunk. labor, the inner sleeve, this much. design, box, packaging, this much. various sundry equipment and miscellaneous, another small chunk. chris, me and eric get a slice out of every bar. that leaves this much, which the retailer takes. chef bleeding heart hippie here has already convinced me to give whatever meager profits we make off our first bar to a local charity. what s unusual about
so basically, a hen soup. that s good. where in the world does chocolate come from? well, 45% from ivory coast in africa. we don t deal in those beans just because of political situations. there was this stuff, the special chocolate. yeah. which pretty much is what we re here to look at. yes. absolutely. where it comes from, what s involved. eric ate some of chris s chocolate and heard about these wild cacao trees he was sourcing from in peru and promptly got me involved in this designer chocolate bar business. i m a rather famous guy and i never cared about desserts. you on the other hand, eat chocolate everyday? everyday. so here we are, three men and a chocolate bar.