Crow & Moss Chocolate
Crow & Moss's Story and Philosophy
Like many businesses do, Crow & Moss began in a basement. One day, driving home from work, owner Mike Davies was overcome by the desire to learn how to make craft chocolate. It was a sudden and all encompassing feeling, a life changing moment — and one he knew he couldn’t ignore. Over the next few months, he put together his initial set up (a small coffee roaster, a Champion juicer for cracking and pre-refining, a Diamond melanger, a small tempering machine and a neon pink hair dryer for winnowing that he stole from his wife) and got to work. It was a rabbit hole he never crawled back out of (his wife has since had to get a new hair dryer). Now, Crow & Moss is making artisan chocolate in one hundred pound batches in our 2000 square foot factory in Petoskey, Michigan, trying to bring out unique and true-to-bean flavor experiences to share with chocolate lovers everywhere.
Crow & Moss's Bean-To-Bar Process
Crafting Excellence
Weighing + Hand Sorting
All of Crow & Moss’s beans are lovingly picked through by hand, removing any undesirable beans (over/under fermented, combined or mutated) that may affect the overall batch quality.
Whole Cacao Roasting
Crow & Moss uses a double turbofan convection oven with perforated sheet trays to give their cacao a slow & low subtle maillard reaction to keep their chocolate as true-to-bean as possible.
Cracking + Winnowing
To separate the cacao nibs from the husk, Crow & Moss uses the Aether Winnower from Chocolate Alchemy with a Champion Juicer for cracking, all hooked up to a 2 hp dust collector.
Refining + Conching
Twin Diamond 45 kg Melangers grind Crow and Moss’s cacao and organic sugar for 4 days, slowly reducing the particle sizes in the cocoa liquor for a true artisan texture while mellowing volatile organic compounds through its gentle process.
Vibrating Filtration
It wouldn’t be artisan without the need to filter out some solids that made it through the refining process. Crow and Moss cycles all their cocoa liquor through a Eco-Worth Vibrating Sifter with a 60 mesh screen.
Tempering + Vibrating + Molding
Once Crow and Moss’s cocoa liquor has had a chance to mellow and solidify, they melt it down and temper it in their Savage Bros 150 lb workstation before vibrating out any air bubbles, then onto the speed racks and into the walk-in fridge for a 20 minute cool down before demolding and packaging.
Distinctive Flavor Profiles
Rich Dark Chocolate
Creamy Mylk Chocolate
Exotic Infusions
What Our Customers Say
– N
May 2022
– SB
November 2024
– AB
March 2024