What comes to mind when you think of chocolate? Many of us associate this ubiquitous treat with indulgence. Our society treats chocolate as a decadent sweet, meant to be eaten on occasion, for dessert, and in very measured quantities. But, to Robert Campbell, aka the Chocolate Alchemist, chocolate is a superfood. His passion for cacao and its myriad health benefits is both rare and relentless, and evidenced in his entire process of sourcing, blending and crafting artisan drinking chocolate products. His gourmet delights speak for themselves, and make a compelling case for drinking chocolate every day. Who are we to argue?
Robert Campbell, aka Chocolate Alchemist
Campbell zeroed in on chocolate as a five-year-old living in Germany with his family, who traveled often. One night, he noticed Deutschmarks (cash) sticking out of his father’s jean pockets, which were laying on the floor. “I spoke five words of German, but I understood the money very quickly,” he recalls. He thieved the marks and took them to the nearby chocolatier first thing in the morning. “I got a big chocolate bar. It looked like a license plate. It had blueberries and hazelnuts in it and was very dark — no milk,” he recalls. His father caught him and gave him a whooping. “The next day, I did it again,” he says.
Chocolate stayed with Campbell, who used it to fuel his athletic pursuits. As a teen, he ran cross country before transitioning to 24-hour marathon bike racing as a young adult. He noticed he had a competitive edge.
“I was doing a form of my drinking chocolate for my racing, though way more crude than what I make now,” he says. “While my friends were drinking Cytomax and eating crazy chemical crap, I was eating fat pieces of lasagna, quiche, homemade rice pudding and drinking hot chocolate in the middle of the night. I was kicking their asses because I was eating real food. That’s a connection that most people don’t make – even endurance nutrition companies. They’re still doing sugar and goo packs and beet juice. That’s cute. But cacao is a beast.”
He’s not wrong. Cacao is a nutritional powerhouse, a supreme superfood, and, arguably, quite underutilized in America. As the key ingredient in chocolate, cacao often gets conflated with it, but is actually a raw seed (or bean) that’s harvested in football-shaped fruit pods. Cacao trees thrive near the equator in West Africa, Central and South America and parts of Asia, and its seeds are exported the world over.
Cacao seeds are fermented and roasted, then winnowed to remove the shells from the nibs. The nibs are ground and pressed into cocoa powder and cocoa butter, and turned into chocolate with varying levels of added sweeteners, flavoring, dairy, emulsifiers and preservatives. Many common commercial chocolate products contain only about 10 – 30% cocoa. The rest is refined sugar, milk and emulsifiers. As you get into gourmet chocolate, that number tends to climb into much higher percentages, indicating that you’re eating a lot more cocoa and, ergo, cacao. The benefits really translate in chocolate with 70% or more cocoa. Campbell says, “My goal is to make it as pure as possible, as healthy as possible and then also as delicious as possible.”
Raw cacao’s health benefits are staggering. Its antioxidant power is nearly unmatched, with a Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) score among the highest on the planet (95,000 units per 100 grams, if you’re counting). It’s flush with phytonutrients that reduce inflammation, fight free radicals and slow aging, while offering protection against heart disease, dementia and cancer.
Cacao contains extraordinary levels of magnesium for muscle, nerve, glucose and bone health, and a host of other beneficial minerals, like iron, phosphorus and potassium. It triggers neurotransmitters for natural mood elevation and helps to lower cortisol. It also supports cognitive function, digestion, weight management and skin health.
One common point of confusion around chocolate is its level of caffeine, which is actually quite low — often less than decaf coffee. The eye-opening sensation it creates comes, instead, from theobromine and its vasaldilation properties. Campbell says, “Caffeine constricts blood vessels. Cacao opens them up.” This widening increases blood flow and decreases blood pressure for increased clarity and calm.
Since ancient times, people have used cacao for its potent benefits in special cacao ceremonies. Rituals and rites of passage centered around this “gift from the gods.” By stripping it down to pure forms, Campbell offers a product more true to its roots.
Campbell picking up a shipment of organic cacao
Like a wine sommelier, Campbell can pick out origins by blind taste, noting differences in soil, altitude and climate. He direct-sources from organic cacao farms in South and Central America and Africa, making constant adjustments using his exceptionally honed senses of taste and smell.
“All of my recipes change from year to year,” he says. “I have a set goal of what I’d like my varieties to taste like, and I try to get there.” He achieves this through skillful, meticulous blending, which he says separates him from the pack. “I go beyond above and beyond.”
Drinking chocolate mix
Campbell’s ingredients are pure, minimal and naturally vegan and gluten free. To sweeten the drinking chocolate, he says, “I use panela [whole cane sugar] from Columbia. It’s a real, true brown cane sugar — way better than sugar in the raw. And I use maple sugar from Patterson Farms in Pennsylvania.” There’s also hazelnuts, coconut, Madagascan vanilla and sea salt flavoring different products.
Campbell offers five drinking chocolates in his online shop and at multiple farmers markets throughout the greater Philadelphia area.
The Caique mix with 90% dark chocolate is for hardcore dark chocolate lovers and inspired by indigenous Latin American recipes made with hot water. Cuaima has a kick from Mexican chiles and cinnamon and resembles a Mayan cacao drink. Clasico, the original, strikes a smooth and lovely balance with aged, 75% dark chocolate chunks, hazelnuts, coconuts, vanilla and maple sugar. It’s best when made with whole milk. Mocha is where Campbell’s blending brilliance shines. This delicate blend of (already blended) cacao and Guatemalan coffee beans achieves a fantastic coffee-chocolate flavor. And, Go! Oat is a sweet, nut-free mix made with toasted oat infused 60% dark chocolate, vanilla and maple sugar.
Will Campbell ever offer a hazelnut-blueberry tribute to the gateway chocolate of his youth? It’s not likely. “I’m so about being original; as original as you could possibly be,” he says.
We’re here for it.
Visit Chocolate Alchemist’s online shop to order drinking chocolate today or find him and his team at regional markets for a cup or mix to-go. Stay connected on Instagram to learn more and go behind the scenes. Philadelphia; no phone.
- Photos 2 - 5: Bigstock
- All other photos: Chocolate Alchemist
