Our Cocoa Beantown chocolate tasting events and chocolate tours always incorporate a variety of information and education for our guests, as we always hope to deepen folks’ appreciation of chocolate, making them more empowered and knowledgeable consumers. If we’ve learned anything about the craft chocolate community, we have seen that many folks find their way to it through any number of unique and winding paths. The commonality amongst all of the chocolate makers, chocolatiers, cacao growers, importers, educators, and more, is a deep and abiding passion for all of the possibilities that are contained in chocolate–to satisfy, to inspire, to bring delicious tastes and intentional joy.
Jonathan Fasman, a former chef and restaurateur from Newton, MA, is now a very long way from home. After moving to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand in 2017, he got the idea to plant some cacao seedlings he saw at a local market as a wedding present to his wife. Now, over 7 years later, those cacao trees he planted are being harvested at Suansanook Farm. Just earlier this year, he completed a bicycle tour in Davao, “The Chocolate Capital of the Philippines”, visiting cacao farms and chocolate makers and ending in the mountains of Rizal to compete in a 70 km mountain bike race. We got the chance to talk to Jonathan about his other journey, from being a chef in Boston to becoming a cacao farmer on the other side of the world.
Cocoa Beantown: You have a unique story, with a background as a chef and restaurateur. Before leaving Newton for Thailand, and planting your own cacao, what were some of your personal experiences with chocolate?
Jonathan Fasman: Honestly very little, I never had a sweet tooth so rarely even ate dessert or candy, which was what chocolate bars were usually considered in America in the 60s and 70s. Later at the Culinary Institute of America my course of study was Culinary Arts, not Baking and Pastry, so this is a new and exciting challenge for me.
CBT: What inspired you to plant cacao?
JF: It started as a wedding present for my wife, we moved to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and bought a home that had rice paddies in back and a longan fruit orchard that had many other tropical fruits in front. So when I saw cacao seedlings for sale, which 8 yrs ago was something quite new here, I thought she’d love it. A few years later, when the longan fruit trees, planted over 30 years ago, started to produce less, I decided to prune many back and remove some others to make room for more cacao trees. The idea was, since I was 60 at the time and it takes 4 years for cacao to fruit, by then I’d be slowing down with my other hobby of mountain bike racing and spend my time making tree-to-bar chocolate. Well, now 4 years later, I’m still actively competing, actually now training to qualify for a UCI World Championship, which will of course be sponsored and fueled by my brand, Spirit House Chocolate, all the while nurturing my cacao trees which I have continued planting, some even from my own seeds. I now have over 200 trees of 4 different varieties which have been awarded national and international organic certifications. I’ll be doing all the post-harvest processing and chocolate making on premise using only ingredients, including sugarcane, from our farm.
CBT: The craft chocolate movement began in the United States almost 2 decades ago and has now expanded around the world to pay homage to the hundreds of flavor notes that cacao can present when chocolate is made thoughtfully. It still is a movement that many folks, even chocolate lovers, aren’t aware of. What would you like more folks to know about well made, bean to bar chocolate?
JF: As a chef, I have always encouraged people to taste, not only by trying new things but to pay close attention to the taste of whatever they are eating. This is how one develops a trained palate, which increases the enjoyment of the food immensely. In South East Asia, talking while eating can be frowned upon as it interrupts concentrating on the flavors. So next time you enjoy chocolate don’t just eat it but try to taste it by exploring the nuances of it’s texture, aroma and flavors.
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