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6:18 min October 07, 2024

Moka Origins Chocolate and Coffee Factory

Visit the newly-updated Moka Origins for public tours and sweet experiences.

Hi, everyone. It's Jim Hamill. And, boy, do we have a treat for you. Moka Origins here on the campus of Himalayan Institute in the Poconos has undergone an entirely big makeover, including its factory and its cafe at this historic barn. Come on along. We're going to say hi to Jeff Abella. He's going to take us on a little tour. Jeff, how are you, my friend? 

JEFF: Welcome. I'm doing great. 

JIM: Thanks for having us here today, man. You guys have really put a lot of effort in over the last half year or so into upgrading this facility where the secret is made, the sauce is made, the chocolate and the coffee. 

JEFF: Right. Welcome. Appreciate you coming in to check out our new upgrades. 

JIM: What do you guys have in store for people when they walk in the door? 

JEFF: Well, first of all, we're a small batch chocolate company and specialty coffee roastery, so you're naturally going to have both chocolate and coffee. This is all made here in Wayne County, here in our Moka factory. What's unique about us is that we purchase all of our beans directly from farmers, both in Africa and Central and South America, and then do all the processing right here and with that and a lot of greater quality control over that process. But when you come on in, you get to experience our shop and our product. This is some of our favorites and top chocolate bars. We call ourself a bean to bar chocolate comeback, meaning we take the raw cocoa beans and turn it into finished product all underneath one roof. And here's where you get to see that done. 

JIM: And this is the Moka insignia, the symbol of Moka that you can see not just here when you visit the Moka factory, but also in stores throughout the country, right? 

JEFF: That's right. Yeah. We're in about a thousand stores between here and in California. A lot of organic kind of specialty grocers. 

JIM: You guys have the great place where you can sample all the goods to right a cafe as well, where people can get something to drink hot or cold. 

JEFF: That's really the fun part of it. We're open seven days a week here. We have our cafe. So when you come in, you can either have coffee, drink a chocolate drink. We make in-house brown butter cookies. We have homemade ice cream, homemade waffle cones. People can sample everything right here on site. 

JIM: They can take something home from them, but they can also see where it's made. That's where you guys have upgraded your roasting capacity here to come on along. 

JEFF: Yeah. Over the last 12 months, we've really focused on quadrupling our manufacturing. So lots of coffee and chocolate. So that really starts with step one, which is our a roasting process. So this new 5000 square foot space has a beautiful 60 kilogram cocoa roaster, and that's where we're starting that chocolate making process, taking the raw cocoa and turning it into toasted cocoa beans. And same with coffee. That roasting process of taking a green on a roasted coffee seed and transforming it into that delicious cup. 

JIM: So on tours, people can go out and really get a sense of how this place functions from being in too far out. 

JEFF: Let me show you the rest of the process. So now this is really where the magic happens. This is where that raw cocoa bean is crushed up into cocoa nibs. And that's the inside of the cocoa beans. And our chocolate makers load this into these stone grinders for four days. These bowls basically are spinning, and they have two granite rollers that reduce the texture to a smooth, creamy chocolate consistency, while also develop that flavor to the bitter notes in chocolate and the acids and things that are inherent in the cocoa are driven off. So then the chocolate is stored in these holding tanks and further refined into creamier particle size. 

JIM: So smoother chocolate, if you will. 

JEFF: Right. And it's moved into our chocolate hearing room. It's where that liquid chocolate is then tempered and is poured into chocolate bar form. So what she's doing right now is making sure that it's not got any of those air pockets in it. 

JIM: Because then too, like people can pull back that wrapper and they've got this very refined, beautiful piece of chocolate that not only looks good but tastes as good. 

JEFF: So to the back, here's where all the packaging magic have come on back. Our shipping person isn't here at this moment, but I think of him as like our Santa Claus. And, you know, by October, he is delivering packages to people all over the United States, including other countries as well. We have our chocolate bars, our coffee bags, we have our drinking chocolate mix. We do a whole baking set now with chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and we're about to have a vanilla extract that hasn't really been released yet. So this was like a sneak mention of something still to come. 

JIM: Jeff, what else is kind of unique to this new layout you have here in your facility? 

JEFF: Really, it's the acquisition of this beautiful space right here. 

JIM: The one thing we want to drive home for everybody, you could make maybe hundreds of bars at a time before. Now it's thousands. 

JEFF: Now it's thousands. Yep. 

JIM: So wrapping up the tour here, you can really get a sense of how much you guys have. Increase your capacity to churn out coffee and chocolate. 

JEFF: Here we were roasting on a little coffee roaster in my shed outside of this barn. And Josh behind me was our first roasting tack and we were doing a few pounds of coffee a day. So it really feels like a dream to be in this space, in the company of a machine that can really do this much capacity and keep up with the demand. 

JIM: That's amazing. Jeff Abella with Moka Origins right here on the campus of Himalayan Institute, north of Honesdale in the Pocono Mountains. We've got some great stuff here, Jeff, and I think I might have to steal one of these perks for the ride home, if that's all right. 

JEFF: That sounds good. 

JIM: Thanks for having us here. 

JEFF: Really appreciate you guys coming in and seeing our space. 

JIM: Check them out online. Check them out on social media mogul origins right here. And an exciting time for you guys here as you guys welcome people here to see your new updates.