Patch is counting down until our free coffee event at Tifa by providing one-on-one interviews with the sweet shop's finest chocolatiers. Get a free French press coffee or Tifa's famous hot chocolate for just $1 on Saturday, Dec. 11, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"I fell into it," said Colin Gasko, an artisan chocolate-maker from Minnesota. Figuratively speaking, that is, since Gasko's every waking moment is filled with everything related to cocoa beans, that versatile ingredient that goes into every chocolate bar.

The 25-year-old is one of a handful of bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the United States who arduously roasts and grinds his own beans versus chocolatiers who use processed chocolate to create their own bars. Chocolate connoisseurs and aficionados insist that there is a distinct difference between the two.

Going Rogue

Gasko recalled how chocolate-making became an avocation. "I was working in specialty food retail and I was intrigued by those bon-bons and truffles that my boss showed me," he said.

Soon after, he was roasting beans in his house. When a grinder bought in India became too large for the house, he moved to a bigger place. "I thought that I might as well start a business," he recalled.

Armed with guts and boundless curiosity, Gasko founded Rogue Chocolatier in 2007. Some family connection definitely helped. Dad Bill is a professor of entrepreneurship and holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics.

Gasko re-purposes and re-designs some of the machinery for the complicated chocolate-making process himself. "It's not really trial-and-error. It's mostly error," he chuckled.

Aside from deferring to his dad's expertise, he consults technical manuals, books and anything else he can get his hands on "leveraging technology in whatever ways I can."

One bar at a time

Gasko considers his "chocolaterie" small-scale compared to other mass chocolate producers. In his 400-square foot factory, he only has two employees on his payroll. He routinely produces small, 60-lb. batches of those dark chocolate bars.

The selection is limited but all are single-origin bars, meaning they are made from one variety of cacao and harvested in one region. The four bars continue to earn rave reviews from discerning critics and chocolate aficionados, including Martha Stewart who featured the bars in her TV show.

With 75 percent cacao content (the rest is sugar), Piura from Northern Peru is extremely mild and buttery with hints of nuts and cocoa. Only 4,000 pieces have been produced of this "darkest of the dark" limited edition bar.

Then there's the 70 percent line, including Hispaniola from the Dominican Republic, which local specialty store Tifa Chocolate and Gelato carries. "We like it because it's earthy and woody with a subtle hint of blood orange," described Mike Ashamalla, owner of Tifa, who met Gasko at a food show.

Rio Caribe from Venezuela and Sambirano from Madagascar round up the 70 percent line. Rio Caribe has hints of oranges and spices while Sambirano has plum, citrus, berry and cedar nuances.

"I think it's better to be small and make better chocolate than the other way around," stated Gasko, who tries to maintain a close relationship with the farms that grow his cocoa beans.

Small chocolate-makers flourish

Rogue was at its infancy during the recession and being small has its own advantages. "There are tons of growth opportunities for companies like us," Gasko explained.

Even with the pressure for small businesses to pass along costs associated with the rising price of raw materials. Gasko is confident, knowing that his chocolates are in a high-end niche and the higher prices are justified.

Rogue's sales revenues come from online orders, small specialty stores and a few, small US-based chains. "Things have been really good lately," he said.

Gasko is grateful for customers like Tifa who are supportive and pay homage to artisan chocolate-making. "They really educate customers and that level of information is really hard to find right now," he said.

Diversifying

In the long run, Gasko would like to increase the types of chocolate that he crafts and maybe even make baking chocolate. "I would like to do smaller and more regular but diverse batches, similar to coffee," he said.

As for milk chocolate, he mused, "It's still possible for me to make good milk chocolate in the future with the right financial incentive."

In the meantime, Gasko is just basking in his "dark chocolate moment" and taking it all in a cocoa bean at a time.