Belizean chocolate pioneer dies in U.S.

It has not been widely publicised, but earlier this week word reached News 5 of the death of a Belizean in the United States. Richard Burn, formerly of Belmopan, died of a heart attack on Monday in Mesa, Arizona. He was forty-seven years old. In 1994 we featured Burn as he, along with his wife Coral, opened Belize’s first chocolate factory. Tonight we air a condensed version of that story, reported at the time by Ann-Marie Williams, and entitled “Food of the Gods”.

Richard Burn, Chocolate Manufacturer

“It began with the cocoa bean and it began with the cocoa tree. The botanical name for cocoa Theobrama cacao, and that means “Cocoa, Food of the Gods”. Having worked in cocoa at the farm myself, and my wife developing the manufacturing the chocolate, I only felt it right to say this is where it all began with Food of the Gods.”

Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting

The idea for a chocolate factory did not come out of the blue. Richard has been in the cacao business for years with Hummingbird Agribusiness Company, the largest cacao producer in the country, so he knew exactly where to find the best fermented beans.

Richard Burn

“We then take the bean, roast it and shell it. And basically in shelling we get what it called the nib, then we take the nib, grind into a thick paste and we take that same paste and refine it. That is then called chocolate liquor. To the chocolate liquor you add milk, sugar, additional cocoa butter and an emulsifier, which is lecithin and a flavour which is vanillin or vanilla. It could be vanilla extract, pure vanilla or vanillin; we use vanillin at this stage. With that you mix all of them together and then you go through the refining process again to make it creamy and smooth, where you don’t taste any grains or any grits.”

The refining process is then repeated about three times. From there, it’s back to blending, and then into the melting kettle, where it’s stored for six to eight hours. Tempering is done in the kettle. This process increases the creaminess of the bars. The bars are then moulded, weighed and the final ingredients like raisins, peanuts or sesame are added to the mould, and then it’s place in the refrigerator for about an hour and a half until it sets.

Richard Burn

“After that, then they’re taken out the moulds, and the girls clean up the bars and they are wrapped in aluminium foil and labelled. This is what is going to be our new label. This is on the printing press at this moment, being printed in New Jersey.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Where did you actually learn to make the chocolate bar?”

Richard Burn

“Well we didn’t. We discussed it one night and we said, let’s see if we could make chocolate. And we decided to–in the kitchen–play around with it. We knew what the basic ingredients were, we didn’t know what quantities and what percentages were necessary. And we played around with it in the kitchen and we found out that we made something similar to chocolate. It wasn’t chocolate, but it was similar to chocolate.”

And they went with it, until December of last year when Richard hired a consultant to make it just right.

Richard Burn

“We started off with five basic chocolates, one is the plain milk chocolate, then we have peanuts and raisins, cashews, almonds and we hope the biggest seller is going to be the wangla.”

And the first commercial production of wangla was done today.

Richard Burn

“It’s the best. It’s never been done before.”

And although the chocolates a little more expensive than the Highgate bar of the same size because of the small market that’s available, Richard says it’s about to change.

Richard Burn

“With our expansion plans, we will be in a position to compete with Highgate locally and in their market.”

The pioneering venture into chocolate manufacturing lasted only a few years, as like many efforts in Belize, Food of the Gods fell victim to stiff competition from abroad and a tiny local market. A memorial service for Richard Burn will be held Friday at three at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Belmopan.