The Producers, a Food Podcast. · A Deep in the Weeds Production

Debb Makin (Ratio Cocoa Roasters) - chocolate lover

·24 min·1 clip

Deb says 70% of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa, where child slave labor remains an issue.

1. The Producers profiles Deb Makin and Ratio Cocoa Roasters, a bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Brunswick, Melbourne. 2. Deb Makin is the owner of Ratio Cocoa Roasters, and Dani Vallant hosts the episode for The Producers. 3. The episode asks what bean-to-bar chocolate changes about flavor, ethics, and consumer understanding. 4. Deb says she was a zoologist, then a wedding planner, before becoming a chocolate maker in her third career. 5. She describes starting work at 15, waitressing to fund low-paying jobs like zookeeping and wedding planning. 6. Her brother is a coffee roaster, and his buyers kept returning with single-origin chocolate that pushed her toward cacao. 7. Deb spent about two years researching, visiting chocolate makers in America, and visiting cocoa farms in the Solomon Islands before opening in 2017. 8. She says cacao from Solomon Islands was the first place she saw a real cocoa farm and the first place that made the work feel concrete. 9. Deb argues that cacao tastes like coffee and wine because origin, terroir, rainfall, altitude, fermentation, and drying all change flavor. 10. She says the bean-to-bar movement combines ethical sourcing with education about why a chocolate can taste fruity, rum-and-raisin-like, or completely different from commercial bars. 11. Deb describes hand-sorting beans for foreign objects and faulty beans before roasting them at lower temperatures than coffee. 12. She says Ratio Cocoa Roasters uses a glass-built winnowing system so visitors can watch the skin being removed from the nibs. 13. She explains that the factory uses only cocoa beans and raw cane sugar in stone grinders for 24 hours before tempering. 14. Deb says tempering is the “evil part” of chocolate making because it determines snap, shine, texture, and shelf stability. 15. She gives tempering ranges of 30-32 degrees for dark chocolate and 28-30 degrees for milk chocolate. 16. Deb says her favourite beans include Zorzal cacao from the Dominican Republic, Solomon Islands beans, and Vanuatu beans. 17. She says the open factory, tours, and tastings are designed to show people where chocolate comes from and how it is made. 18. The interview has a practical, explanatory tone, with Deb moving between sourcing, production, and consumer education. 19. Listeners interested in chocolate, food ethics, and small-batch making will get the most from it. 20. Listeners looking for celebrity gossip or a light general chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded chocolate story that keeps process, ethics, and flavour closely linked.

The episode follows Deb Makin from zoology and wedding planning into a Brunswick bean-to-bar business, where sourcing, tempering, wrapping, and tasting all sit in the same frame.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want chocolate explained by someone who makes it, not markets it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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