C16/25b ‘Shamanic Chocolate’ guilt and sugar-free & Vegan

Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest John Troy. On air from June 21st

My name is John Troy. Some of my friends nicknamed me “Wizard” many years ago. I use it as a trade name, too. I am the formulator of Macalat. I am a native of and still live in North Carolina with my wife of 36 years, Carol. We live in Northern Orange County, North of Chapel Hill in a rural area of North Carolina.

Two years ago, an idea emerged while on my daily walk. It was an inspiration for a sugar-free Shamanic Chocolate for those of us that want the very best superfoods in our diet, yet, still enjoy treats like fine chocolate that taste delicious, too. I no longer eat sugar, cheap vegetable fats, dairy or gluten. Instead, I look for pure, organic, nutrient dense, good fat and low carb ingredients that have the benefits that serve the body, best. I couldn’t shake this inspiration and eventually started playing with it. One thing leads to another.

The elephant in the chocolate room is sugar. Why does such a healthy super food like Cacao need to have so much sugar to taste good? Surely, there is a better way that does not include artificial sweeteners and without resorting to ingredients like Stevia that have off-flavour notes that are somewhat unpleasant. This included not using any pseudo sugars like Agave and Coconut sugar, which are still sugar with a more pleasing name. This idea stayed put, wanted to happen and coaxed me out of retirement. I accepted the challenge and began the R&D.

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A little bit about my previous journey in food… I love all aspects of food, from growing to dining. Preparing and sharing food have been at the centre of fellowship all my life. I actually began my first real food company 35 years ago as a cottage industry. It was one of the first power bars, called, Wizard Baldour’s Power Pac. That was the beginning of a wonderful career in natural and organic food. I am a pioneer of many natural and organic flavour profiles in the marketplace today and was the originator of Honey Mustard dressing that is now global in scope. I developed, sourced and produced the many organic dressings, sauces, and condiments under the Whole Foods 365 Organic label that is in distribution nationwide at all Whole Foods Markets. I consulted with and produced many brands including The Wizard, Premier Japan, Whole Foods 365, Annie’s, Central Market, Spectrum, Litehouse, Simply Delicious, Earth Fare, Charlie Trotter, OrganicVille and Kraft Foods. I consulted with the state of Vermont and their collection of artisan food producers. I also developed and produced sugar-free products for Dr. Atkins. When I retired, I was CEO of the largest certified organic bottles of sauces, dressing, and condiments in the world. I have been fortunate and blessed.

That inspiration bloomed and I found myself doing what comes naturally and the brainstorming, conjuring, and tweaking started to fill my time. I found myself panning for gold, so to speak, in the emergence of a sugar-free dark chocolate that is sweetened and balanced with superfoods instead of sugar. Exploring and collecting many ingredients and recipes, mixing them together in different versions, carefully tasting and then omitting the ones that didn’t fit and sync, perfectly in balance. A real chocolate lab/shop laid claim to my Wizard’s Den, with five artisan stone grinders, a tempering machine, many chocolate tools and accessories.

My wife, Carol, is totally into it, as well. She is my silent partner. We love to work together, especially with food. We used the new equipment and tools to hone our skills in artisan making chocolate, comprehension, tweaking and innovation. We saw a chocolate that is a delicious delivery system for nutraceuticals. Nuances in the alchemy of chocolate with grinding and tempering opened a whole new culinary world for me with an insight into fine-tuning the subtle flavours and how they marry. It is a mesmerizing art. A year of intensive research, conjuring, tinkering, tasting, tweaking different ingredients, listening to critical feedback and drawing on years of experience in organic flavour development, led to the emergence of Macalat.

To get the results of a fine chocolate without sugar meant that we had to look at the recipe, systemically, to do away with the need for sugar. It was a reinvention that challenged the status quo. It started with the finest recipe for coverture chocolate and then blending in other superfood ingredients like Lucuma, Maca, Matcha Green Tea, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, Organic Maize crystals and Andes Pink Salt, along with a bit cinnamon. The ingredients are stone ground with the fermented maize, producing an exotic dark elixir. it takes many hours with the stone wheels rolling over solid granite, generating the warmth needed to keep the Cacao butter fluid while the ingredients are conching, refining and equilibrating. The smooth exotic Macalat flavour manifests in this phase. When the grinding is finished, the warm elixir is critically tempered, cooled and hand poured into their forms to set up.

The warm Cacao elixir sets fully in three to four hours, releasing itself out of its form. Eight little pillow squares make up a single bar. Macalat is hand wrapped in a colourful metal foil to prevent the Cacao Butter from being absorbed into the outer wrapper as well as preventing the Chocolate from picking up outside ambient flavours. The outer wrapper provides additional cushioning to protect the moulded form of couverture chocolate.

Macalat brightens your day with peace, alertness and deep sense of well-being with an unexpected exotic taste sensation. It does so without the need for added sugar or anything else the least bit questionable. It is important that Macalat be a perfect fit for Paleo, diabetic and insulin resistant dieters, those on sugar-free and low carb diets, Vegans, and those who are gluten intolerant. The kids love it, too, without ever missing the sugar.