Chokospice
Photos by Jesika Theos
Robert Nalbandov is an academic first and a chocolatier second. He holds a PhD in political science and a passion for meticulous research. As such, Nalbandov spent an entire year reading about chocolate before even cracking his first cacao bean in 2018.
When his wife, Seta Iskandarian, was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called phyllodes tumors, chocolate became more than just a hobby. “I turned to my first love, chocolate, as a type of creative outlet while coping with the highly emotionally laden environment,” he recalls.
As a child, Nalbandov loved flipping through the dessert section of his grandmother’s prized cookbook. “Chokospice honors my granny; she used to make jam out of white cherries with little dry cloves in it,” he says. This was the inspiration for one of his first creations, the 65% dark chocolate Mahleb bar, made from powdering the hearts of cherry pits.
While undergoing surgery and chemotherapy from September 2018 to January 2019, Iskandarian urged her husband to pursue chocolate making, assuring him that her own business and economics degrees would soon come in handy for sales and marketing. Her own love of chocolate stems from her childhood in Venezuela, one of the most esteemed cacao producers on the planet.
Nalbandov transitioned from his role as professor of political science and national security to become a full-time chocolate maker and began experimenting with spices from around the world. In his expert opinion, nothing is more cultural than food. Chokospice’s “bean-to-bar” varieties include Middle Eastern Mahleb, Indian turmeric, Szechuan peppercorn, Japanese matcha and even organic roasted seaweed.
The couple operates out of the Worcester Regional Food Hub, where they formulate dark chocolate from ethically selected cacao beans. Nalbandov begins with cold USDA-certified organic and Rainforest-certified cacao beans. He loads them—20 pounds at a time—into a drum roaster and heats them for 2 hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, he separates the husks from the nibs in a process called winnowing before grinding them and combining them with melted cacao butter in a mélanger. Nalbandov finishes by tempering the chocolate, introducing spices and setting his creation in a mold. The whole process takes about 48 hours and smells delightful.
One distinctive feature of Chokospice is the use of coconut sugar. “We’re not using any processed white cane sugar because coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index and it’s more sustainable,” Nalbandov explains, adding that this is a selling point for millennials. Chokospice is available for purchase at Acoustic Java, Electric Haze and Ed Hyder’s Mediterranean Market—all located in Worcester. Two percent of all monthly sales is donated to a charity or nonprofit organization to support cancer patients and survivors.
