Two-Week Cacao & Chocolate Apprenticeship

Most people encounter cacao as a finished product—a chocolate bar, a hot drink, or a dessert. Our apprenticeships begin much earlier. They begin with the tree, the people who cultivate her, and the countless decisions that transform fresh cacao into chocolate.

Over two immersive weeks, you'll step inside a working chocolate house where learning happens through participation rather than observation. You'll ask questions, work with your hands, visit farms, taste thoughtfully, and discover that understanding cacao is about far more than following recipes. Whether you're here to master the craft of bean-to-bar chocolate or to explore cacao through scientific, historical, culinary, ecological, and mythic lenses, you'll leave with a deeper relationship to one of the world's most extraordinary plants.

Rhythm of Learning

Mornings might begin opening fresh cacao pods or evaluating a roast. Another day may take you to a nearby cacao farm to walk beneath the canopy and speak with growers. Back at the workshop you'll roast, crack, winnow, refine, temper, taste, and ask questions as they arise naturally through the work.

No two days are identical because no two batches of chocolate—or two harvests of cacao—are ever exactly the same.

Throughout the apprenticeship you'll work in a small group, allowing plenty of time for conversation, individual guidance, and reflection. There is structure, but also room for curiosity. Some of the most valuable lessons happen around the tasting table, while cleaning equipment after a production run, or during a discussion sparked by something unexpected.

By the end of two weeks, you won't simply have completed a course. You'll have experienced the rhythm of a working chocolate house and gained the confidence to continue your own journey with cacao.

Choose your Apprenticeship:

Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Apprenticeship

Master the craft of making chocolate from tree to bar.

Work alongside experienced chocolate makers as you learn fermentation, roasting, refining, tempering, sensory evaluation, sourcing, and chocolate confections in a functioning bean-to-bar workshop.

→ Explore the Chocolate Apprenticeship

Cacao Studies Apprenticeship

Discover cacao through science, history, ecology, culture, and lived experience.

Explore the cacao tree from many perspectives while visiting farms, studying traditional and contemporary uses, and gaining hands-on experience making chocolate in a working chocolate house.

→ Explore the Cacao Studies Apprenticeship