Pure Imagination Chocolatier: Daniel Cooper

There is no easy way to describe Daniel Cooper, the mastermind behind Pure Imagination Chocolates.

As a teenager in Columbus Ohio, Daniel discovered that the fountain of youth was really a fountain of chocolate. To hear him talk today, he still has all the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager. One minute he is exclaiming about a new line of chocolates and then he is on to some great boxes he found. Maybe it is the sugar, but we think it is something more.

I have tried a lot of chocolate in my day. I've been to chocolate tastings, compared single origins, been to chocolate stores in countries the world over and I can say that Daniel truly is a master chocolatier. His love for his work and life manifests itself in every bite. Here is what he says about it.

"It's all in the quality of bean. Pure Chocolate is made from two things: cocoa beans (which give us cocoa butter and the chocolate solids that provide flavor) and sugar," he says, knowing that of all the available beans in the world, he uses the best. "Some people use vegetable oil to fill out their chocolate not cocoa butter. It's cheaper, but it makes chocolate waxy, instead of creamy and silky in texture and shiny and melty like chocolate should be."

His face lit up as he explained. Freshest cocoa beans. Pure cocoa butter. The highest grade of chocolate. His own secret recipe, heated three times at various temperatures. Then he broke off sheepishly. "Sorry, that's probably more than you wanted to know. I love to talk about chocolate. I'm a chocolate geek!"

He sure is. He left high school to build a chocolate lab in his basement. He worked three jobs to save money for his business. He spent (rare) days off tracking down secondhand equipment, talking to other chocolatiers, and experimenting. And a decade later, his chocolates are a Columbus treasure. Now he's our treasure as well. And yours.

Terry August