10 Years of Videri Chocolate (Ep. 31)
“From the first moment I touched a bag of beans, roasted them, and winnowed them, I was absolutely hooked.”
Sam Ratto is the founder of Videri Chocolate in Raleigh, North Carolina. Videri is celebrating its 10th anniversary on December 15, and makes a full line of single origin and inclusion bars, as well as bonbons and other confections, and they also provide cacao in various forms for numerous breweries in the craft beer hotbed of North Carolina.
In this episode we hear Sam talk about his ongoing delight in chocolate and his partnerships with a number of craft breweries. We also hear from Sean Lilly Wilson of Fullsteam Brewery and Lauren Woods Limbach of New Belgium Brewing.
Episode Timeline:
:00-1:32 - Introduction
1:32-10:24 - Sourcing, tasting, & partnering with breweries (Sam Ratto, Videri Chocolate)
10:24-23:41 - Partnership with Fullsteam Brewery
- 10:24-11:53 - Sam Ratto on the source of the partnership
- 12:53-23:41 - Sean Lilly Wilson of Fullsteam Brewery
23:41- - Products for breweries & partnering with New Belgium Brewing
- 23:41-28:19 - Sam Ratto on brewer products & relationship with Lauren Woods Limbach at New Belgium
- 29:38-44:00 - Lauren Woods Limbach of New Belgium Brewing
- 44:46-45:42 - Sam Ratto on New Belgium Exquisite Extraction
45:42-46:45 - Sam Ratto on the story he’s telling through Videri Chocolate
46:45-47:50 - Conclusion
Episode Notes:
Beers discussed in this episode include Fullsteam Brewery Videri Gold, Videri Gold, Igor, and Workman’s Lunch, and New Belgium Exquisite Extraction.
Other breweries mentioned include Crank Arm, Casita, and Deep River.
Chocolate discussed in this episode from Videri Chocolate include Guatemala Lachua, Dominican Republic Zorzal Reserve, and their Peppermint Crunch bar.
Other chocolate or cacao companies mentioned include Escazu Chocolate, Uncommon Cacao, Chocolate Alchemy, and Meridian Cacao.
The music for this episode was sampled from an instrumental version of the song “Umbrella” written and performed by indie folk musician Anna ps from her 2016 album Umbrella. You can find out more about Anna and get in touch about booking her for a show at her website.
Guests:
Sam Ratto is founder and head chocolate maker at Videri Chocolate Factory. Videri Chocolate Factory takes its name from the North Carolina state motto: Esse Quam Videri - To be, rather than to seem. Since 2011 we have been making bean to bar chocolate and bon bons from organic, direct trade cocoa beans and organic local ingredients. Sam Ratto and a group of friends started the company in Raleigh, NC with the goal to create a welcoming and friendly chocolate factory. We continue to build a welcoming chocolate factory committed to making delicious chocolate.
Sean Lilly Wilson is the owner and “Chief Executive Optimist” at Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, North Carolina. After years working in fine dining, he decided to Fullsteam to highlight the agriculture and food economy of the South. He finds joy and meaning connecting people to the land and to one another. Beer is how he makes it happen.
Lauren Woods Limbach developed New Belgium Brewing’s award-winning sour beer program. She serves as its chief curator, carefully tasting and blending the barrels, recording their personalities, and bringing them to life. Lauren also built New Belgium’s sensory program and took it from a basic production check to its present-day world-class program. Lauren has served as a judge at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival and as a faculty member of Siebel Institute of Technology. In 2019, Lauren was awarded the prestigious Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing.