How Chocolate is Created: Tour the ChocXo Bean to Bar Chocolate Factory

How Chocolate is Created:  

Tour the ChocXo Bean to Bar Chocolate Factory

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

A chocoholic's dream come true.  Chocolate truffles, chocolate barks, chocolate bars, complete with a chocolate tour.  ChocXo (pronounced Choc-soh) was founded by Richard Foley, a seasoned chocolatier who also has a sister factory in Vancouver, British Columbia.  The name ChocXo pays tribute to the Aztec bitter chocolate drink called “xocolātl” [choco-lottle].  Foley’s chocolates earned “11 medals in...two major chocolate competitions - the prestigious International Chocolate Awards and the International Chocolate Salon Awards.”

ChocXo [Choc-soh] uses beans mostly from Latin America and the Caribbean.  This provides a more floral, gourmet aroma and flavor, in contrast to the mass market use of beans from West Africa.  Cocoa beans are seeds from pods (fruit) of cocoa trees.  Importantly, ChocXo works with farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean to ensure beans come directly from the source.  This Fair Trade practice is out of respect to the locals, workers, their communities, health, and safety.  

The Chocolate Tour and Tasting is a fun experience at ChocXo.  This “45 minute educational tour that includes samples of the full chocolate making process and three tastes from our chocolate case.  A member of the ChocXO team walks participants through the chocolate making process from the bean to the bar.  Participants will sample raw cacao pulp, cocoa nibs, cocoa liquor, and, of course, the finished product of chocolate bars, filled chocolates and chocolate bark.”

Visit Amazon to purchase your baking chocolate, chocolate chips, and other pantry staples.

Getting to taste cacao pulp is a highlight of the tour.  If you have never tasted the pulp, it has a refreshing and naturally sweet flavor—much like a starfruit (carambola) or mangosteen.  Another perk of the tour is getting to taste the chocolate and truffles.  After learning about the steps in the process of making chocolate (Growing, Fermenting, Drying, Roasting, Grinding, Refining, and Conching), getting to sample the truffles is worth the wait.   Book your tour today to enjoy the bean to bar experience.  The dark chocolate and salted caramel are delicious.

Click on the play button to watch the video below.



Cocoa Hunters in Mexico from ChocXO Chocolatier on Vimeo.

Visit Amazon to purchase your baking chocolate, chocolate chips, and other pantry staples.

Update: the ChocXo Bean Bar closed in May 2018. 

  

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Credits: chocxo.com, facebook.com/chocxochocolatier, Photo by Polina Tankilevitch: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-and-white-chocolate-bars-4110098/

Take a Tour of My Home: A Year Long Photography Project by Jesse Bluma

Take a Tour of My Home: A Year Long Photography Project

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

Photography is a powerful medium.  Photos can tell us about significant values, it reflects a legacy and story of a time and space, it is visual communication, it is artistic, and complex.  My year long photography project encompasses some, if not all of these key characteristics of photography.  The year long project began with a desire to capture my home and its surroundings.  Over time, day-by-day, photo-by-photo, the allure, history, and nature of this setting was captured.  There was no deliberate decision or bias to convey certain subjects and not others through the pictures, rather the desire was to merely capture scenes, memorable images, and an overall account of the natural environment at The Point.  For example, the ocean, people, landscape, hiking trails, and animals.  

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

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 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

A synthesis of the photos for the entire year long project led to a rediscovery of some of the areas of my neighborhood and a sharing of an appreciation with others for the power of nature.  As my distant relative Emerson observed, “Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece.  In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue.  Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.” (“Nature”)

Photography can liberate and inspire others.  You do not have to be a professional photographer to start a photography project of your own.  I do have a lot of experience with cameras and photography, yet am not a master photographer.  It takes time, education, reading books (such as The Complete Practical Guide to Digital and Classic Photography by John Freeman), experience, and practice.  If you embark on your own project you will learn about a variety of views, topics, angles, lighting, and more.  The process and result of my year long project is a treasure.  Some of the photos reveal the beauty of The Point, others tell the evocative and moody story of the seasons, while other photos capture the gorgeous sunsets, vistas, and sunrays.  

Visit Amazon for the best books in top categories. 

See photos from my home by month:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Visit Amazon for the best books in top categories. 

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: December

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: December

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: December by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from amulb

See photos from my home in November.

“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: November

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: November

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: November by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from amulb

See photos from my home in October.

“In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.  Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both.  It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: October

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: October

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home October Jesse Bluma Pointe Viven from amulb

See photos from my home in September.

“The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty.  In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages." 

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: September

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: September

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: September by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from amulb

See photos from my home in August.

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith.  There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes.  I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

Join the Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven circle:

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: August

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: August

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: August by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from amulb

See photos from my home in July.

“In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.”  

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

Join the Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven circle:

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: July

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: July
Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home July by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from Jesse Bluma

See photos from my home in June.

“Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece.  In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue.  Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.  I am glad to the brink of fear.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

Join the Pointe Viven circle

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: June

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: June

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home June by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from Jesse Bluma

See photos from my home in May.

“Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me.  Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: May

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: May

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

The following photos provide a snapshot into the the month of May.  The forging of spring and anticipation of summer at any moment in the northern hemisphere.  Along with the unpredictable light and shadow of the month.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: May by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from Jesse Bluma

See photos from my home in April.

“Most persons do not see the sun.  At least they have a very superficial seeing.  The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.  The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: April

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: April

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at my California Home April by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from Jesse Bluma

See photos from my home in March.

“When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind.  We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects.  It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet.  The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms.  Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond.  But none of them owns the landscape.  There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.  This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title.  To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.” 

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

Join the Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven circle:

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Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: March

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: March

Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.

The Pointe is a quaint, seaside community.  It is nestled in the Orange Coast of California.  The town is situated beachside along the pristine Pacific Ocean, between magnificent cliffs and headlands.  Residents have nicknamed it the “California Riviera”.  The town was established during the 1920s along state route 1, between Los Angeles and San Diego.  Kite-flying, boat races, golf, and surfing drew crowds and residents to the promontory.  Actor James Cagney was drawn here to open a movie theater.  The Pointe is bold, panoramic, and truly alluring.  

 Cooking and entertaining is an opportunity to share with family and friends.  Growing up I learned the basics of good cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and entrepreneurship.  The Pointe in the location and Viven is Spanish for living life.  And living in this fabled locale serves as a delicious bakery and idea-factory.

Take a Tour with Me at My California Home: March by Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven from Jesse Bluma

See photos from my home in February.

“The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.  Nature never wears a mean appearance.  Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection.  Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood." 

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

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