Delicious Discoveries: Fresno company specializes in handmade chocolate

Premium dark chocolate lovers rejoice. Two longtime friends have launched a company that produces handmade, single-origin chocolate.

Molucca Chocolatier of Fresno creates chocolate bars that are meant to be savored and appreciated for their flavor notes of mocha, raspberry and citrus. This is chocolate you let slowly melt in your mouth, or drink with coffee to unlock new layers of flavors.

“It is an experience,” said Radinal Latuconsina, who along with business partner Yohanes Makmur are the founders of Molucca.

Latuconsina and Makmur, natives of Indonesia, pride themselves on keeping their chocolate as pure and authentic as possible. They make chocolate using cacao beans from a single source. So far, they have made chocolate using beans from Indonesia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

Makmur said conventional chocolate makers use beans from a variety of regions and mix in vanilla beans to help soften the sharp edges of bitterness.

Molucca said the point of single-origin chocolate is to highlight the characteristics of that region’s soil, climate and environment. Roasting of the beans also allows them to fine-tune what flavors they want to bring out in the chocolate.

Molucca’s chocolate bars, roughly the size of a Hershey’s chocolate bar, come in different percentages of cacao, the purest form of chocolate you can eat. The higher the percentage, the more bold and bitter the flavor. Their 100% cacao chocolate bar made with beans from Peru has an intense flavor with nutty overtones.

Makmur said the company’s customers enjoy learning about their chocolate and experimenting with the different percentages of cacao. They also like to share their tips for how to eat their chocolate, including adding to their coffee, in smoothies, and baking. One customer melted several chunks of chocolate on slices of a clementine.

Molucca chocolates can be found at the Vineyard Farmers Market, Blackstone and Shaw avenues, on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon. You can also purchase the chocolates online at www.moluccachocolate.com.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Delicious Discoveries: Fresno company specializes in handmade chocolate."