Ben Rasmussen is the magician behind Potomac Chocolate, starting in 2010 he was the first Bean to Bar chocolate brand in the Washington DC area. Ben handcrafts the chocolate from bean to bar in ridiculously small batches, using a hands-on, labour-intensive process with the sole goal of producing great choolate. “My process has evolved and changed—sometimes radically—over the years, as I’ve continued to learn more about chocolate and chocolate making through experience, experimentation, and study.” He custom-made the majority of the equipment he uses to make the chocolate – from simple machines (e.g. cooling cabinet) to the crazy (like a roaster or conche). “Some of this is MacGuyvered hackery—re-purposing and modifying existing equipment—and some is designed and fabricated from scratch.” The result of all of this is a chocolate making process that is truly unique to Potomac Chocolate.
We love the fish symbol – Woodbridge sits just off the Potomac river on the Virginia / Maryland boarder. Ben isn’t big on fishing but when playing with logo’s for Potomac Chocolate he realised drawing fish was fun and he’s been playing with it ever since.
We remember discovering Ben’s chocolate in 2017 and knowing we had to get this chocolate to Australia. It took us 5 years but it was definitely worth the wait.
https://www.potomacchocolate.com/Ben decided to grow a cacao tree during the pandemic - If he can pull it off in Virginia we have no excuse for our flailing Sydney specimen.
