Sara Ratza Loves Plants
By David Nilsen
Sara Ratza has an art degree, and she’s a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and Western Herbalist. Any idea what she does for a living?
She makes chocolate, obviously.
Sara started Ratza Chocolate in Tarpon Springs, Florida, after diving head-first into the chocolate making process at home. Her love for plants led her to learn more about Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree. And once she started making her own bean to bar chocolate, she didn’t stop with the fruits of the cacao tree. Sara uses all sorts of botanicals in her bars, including a few you’ve probably never heard of.
Feel the Love
Sara’s Aphrodite bar is infused with damiana, muira puama, shatavari, maca root, and rose petals.
“Chocolate is itself an aphrodisiac, so it makes it easy to make a bar that is going to help support that part of our bodies,” says Sara. She’s quick to add that herbs aren’t magic pills, but the ingredients in Aphrodite are known to boost energy and benefit our reproductive organs.
Her Self Love bar is made with reishi and chaga mushroom powder, as well as ashwaganda root and maca root. Sara says the bar boosts energy levels as well as the immune system, which is a definite plus at a time like this.
Kindred Brews
Sara started tinkering with making chocolate when she worked at a coffee shop, and she still considers herself a coffee snob. For her Coffee Bean bar, she uses organic Peruvian coffee from Colorado’s Solar Roast.
“This bar is my take on the chocolate-covered espresso bean,” explains Sara.
Her Hopped Citrus bar uses an ingredient most commonly found in beer: hops. Hops are a flower that grows on a vertical bine, and they provide a wide range of aromas and flavors for beer. Sara adds hop petals directly to her chocolate for an earthy, herbaceous presentation that is brightened by added orange peel.
“I try to stay as simple with my ingredients as possible, because I use really good beans, and why would I want to add anything to my chocolate that’s not as good as my beans?”
With a background in art, herbalism, and food, Sara Ratza is bringing all there areas of passion and knowledge together at Ratza Chocolate.
You can find out much more in Episode 15 of the Bean to Barstool podcast below!