A good temper can make or break a fine chocolate (and I’m not talking about disposition). Tempering is the process of precisely controlling the temperature of chocolate as it cools and hardens to achieve the best shine, color, snap, and texture. Perfectly tempered chocolate has a uniform shine and color, a good firm snap, and melts smoothly in your mouth. Untempered chocolate has a gray, mottled appearance, is soft and crumbly, and melts too easily. No matter how good the flavor, crumbly gray chocolate won’t deliver the luxurious experience we all crave in our favorite craft chocolate. Chocolate is Persnickity...

Harper Macaw fans: we have heard your requests! In the following blogpost you will find many fun and unique possibilities for using our cocoa nibs. As we didn’t want to lead you astray with any faulty recipes, we tested out the one that seemed the most challenging (read: delicious) to ensure that you would have complete success in all your cocoa repurposing endeavors: the Orange Olive Oil Cake. And since we didn’t want to be greedy we only ate some ourselves (the restraint!!) and are baking and selling the rest to you this Saturday only. Come on by our factory for a tour,...

Valentine’s Day: the phrase itself invokes quite a few different reactions depending on who you’re speaking to. Many people brush it off as a commercialized holiday where you get overpriced mediocre meals at fancy restaurants. Other people, of course, enjoy the chance to celebrate love or something to that effect. I do not claim to be an expert on either category since, for me, the holiday has been a rather tumultuous affair over the years. Planning for this day for the last eight years has filled me with more stress and anxiety than my own wedding did. That is, of...

Indulge your senses while enjoying some local DC love. Curated and hosted by Harper Macaw, DC's new chocolate factory in Northeast, this incredibly unique collaboration pairing of local eats and drinks includes 15 local makers and purveyors in a 4 course fixed pairing menu. Local purveyors include Atlas Brew Works, Baku Beverage, Capital Kambucha, Compass Coffee, Dangerously Delicious Pies, DC Brau, Element [Shrub], Gordy's Pickle Jar, Harper Macaw, Leonora Bakery (Northside Social), On Rye, Pie Sisters, Red Apron, True Tonics, Sona Creamery, and wines provided by Schneider's of Capitol Hill. Menu Amuse-bouche Milk chocolate - Harper Macaw Cranberry Hibiscus Spritzer...