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I am doingmy firstshow on March 15. It is a St. Patrick's Day Street Festival. I have to start stirring and packaging immediately as they expect a turnout of 2,000-3,000. Getting help from my daughter and her husband. Will post the packaging the end of this week. PLEASE wish me luck.

Cocanu Chocolate Review

Sebastian Cisneros, the founder of Cocanu. Just the other day, I got involved in a lively discussion on a forum about the strangest chocolate combinations we have ever tried. I have to say that there are some strange unions out there, and I have tried quite a few of them --mushrooms, olives, bacon, curry, figs, Pop Rocks and peppercorns, to name a few -- some surprisingly delicious and others interesting at best. One I ended up spitting out, and one I refused to try based on how awful it smelled. In general, I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food, and I'm glad I didn't turn my nose up at the more peculiar Cocanu bars.

I quickly tossed in my latest picks for most unusual combinations into the fray, two Cacanu chocolate bars, one that's infused with wood and one that contains Fernet Branca, a bitter drink made in Italy. Before you wrinkle your nose, let me tell you that it works. I know! How bizarre. After trying these eye-opening chocolates, though, it almost seems strange to add them to the weird combination list. Despite the sound of it, these flavors work incredibly well together.

Cocanu is a Portland-based chocolate company founded by innovative chocolatier Sebastian Cisneros, who was born in Ecuador and moved to Oregon when he was 17. Everything about the hand-crafted, small-batch chocolate bars expands the mind, from the individually wax-sealed packages to the classy, minimalist-looking chocolate squares. There's much to be appreciated.

From the Cocanu website:

" two hands producing chocolate bars.

We redress fine chocolate.

By giving chocolate a tickle, we stray away from the island of perfection and tumble into an unknown territory of raucous beauty.

Surfaced in September, 2009,
in Portland, Oregon."

As many people who read my blog know, I get excited when I see anything with hazelnuts in it. Chocolate and hazelnut is probably my favorite combination, so I couldn't resist getting Cocanu's Gardel bar. This is a bar made with Ecuadorian cacao, Oregon hazelnuts and Italian Fernet Branca.

This interesting and intriguing bar has a gentle sweetness that emerges only after the first impressions of smoky wood and spicy, earthy chocolate hit your palate. What a unique flavor! There's something familiar yet foreign, strange and alluring about this bar. The bouquet is floral, but it's not too powerful, which is good, as anything too fragrant would detract from the chocolate. The beauty of this bar is that the flavors mingle ever so seductively and brilliantly together, each undertone emerging briefly to the forefront and then receding to give a different flavor a turn with the chocolate taste consistently holding its own, steadily tapping the taste buds. If you want something different, this is the bar for you.

The hazelnuts add a nice crunch, though they are sparsely dispersed. Oddly enough, despite the bar being a 72 percent dark chocolate, it has qualities of milk chocolate such as caramel undertones and tastes lighter than many dark chocolates.

There's a definite bitterness from the Fernet Branca that's not too potent. It's just enough to wake up your taste buds and get them ready for experiencing the chocolate more fully, like the pleasant bitterness associated with a good cup of coffee.

The other bar I tried was the Holy Wood bar made with wild Criollo cacao from the Bolivian Amazon. The bar is infused with Palo Santo wood found in Ecuador. Palo Santo is considered a sacred wood and is often use by shamans in ceremonies. Burning the wood is said to ward off negativity and evil spirits and aid in healing. It can be used much like sage to purify, but it's also said that it helps raise energetic vibrations. It also keeps the mosquitoes away!

Palo Santo

The Holy Wood bar is very lightly aromatic and perfumy, but there's a deep, rich cocoa flavor in this bar. There's also a very slight smoky flavor, but the smooth, quality chocolate is fruity with hints of blueberries and coffee that stand out. I detected a mild bitter aftertaste that wasn't unpleasant. It's the cocoa flavor that clings to your palate and is the most pronounced. The various undertones are subtle.

If you happen to be up at 2 a.m. and sample these bars, be prepared for your creative juices to start flowing as you become increasingly alert. Whether it's because of the chocolate itself or the uncommon additions in the bars, you will find that consuming Cocanu chocolates is a life-changing experience.

http://frontrangereviews.blogspot.com/

Hello Friends,

Thirty years ago I planted 1200 cacao trees on our small farm near the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica (bought before the ridiculous present land prices!). That was 1984, but some 10 years later the Monilia fungus moved in and we were losing most of the crop. Before the monilia we were producing about 1000 kilos per year. I was back in the US working and trying to save some money, and my "caretaker/thief" abondoned it.

Returning permanently to my farm 6 years ago, I cut the vast majority of the trees and left only those resistant to the fungus. They grew back excellently from the cut trunks and are now pruned correctly. However last I checked the market value for dried beans is about $1.20 a kilo, not very profitable. Clearly the best business model is to make our own chocolate, which we hope to do eventually via a cooperative. Meanwhile I sell my ripe pods to a local gringo for 20 cents apiece. He processes them and sells at a huge markup to other "raw food" foreigners, but I make more money with less work than processing it myself.

My main question though is on other cacao species. I have the following on our farm:

Herrania purpurea Cacao de ardilla, Chocolatillo (local)

Theobroma angustifolia Cacao de Indio (local)

Theobroma cacao Cacao (Trinidad varieties apparently)

Theobroma bicolor Pataste, Macambo (regional)

Theobroma grandiflorum Cupuazu (Brazil)

Theobroma ?? ?? northern Atlantic zone, said not to be good chocolate, might have good fruit.

All but the normal cacao are still small trees, only the cupuassu has fruited, blooming at three years and producing last year at five, of which I planted all the seeds. The pulp cut from the seeds with scissors makes an excellent thick and fruity milk shake. All the cacaos have edible fruit pulp.

We are interested in the commercial possibilities of these other species to know if we should plant them in quantity. The herrania seeds are so small I doubt it could be commercialized. All others are large. I have read that cupuassu has been made into chocolate, but preferred to plant all my seeds last year, and that Pataste is the true "white chocolate" consumed by native americans, with a much milder taste than dark chocolate. I expect 2-3 years before production of pataste seeds. Can anyone give us any advice? Are there any other species I should be looking for? With the coop, we could become a large and reliable supplier if a market exists. Please respond to jesseblenn@gmail.com.

I looked a little more into cacao genetics, so here are some thoughts on this issue as posted on my blog . Let me know what you think...
When entering the world of high-quality chocolates you immediately get confronted with a number of categories in order to understand or classify a chocolate. There is the technical aspect of the chocolate manufacturer: roasting, conching, adding cocoa butter. But all of this can only enhance or suppress the flavors that come from the cacao bean itself. Prior to fermentation and drying it typically comes with two major labels: geographical origin, and cacao variety. At first that seemed to make sense to me, but the more I think (and read) about it, the less I buy it.

Geographical origin. Lets for a millionth time stress the wine analogy: It is clear that different climates and heights (as well as different soils) could have a big impact on the final fruit and its flavors. All cacao, however, anyway growth in the tropics. Sure, there will be differences between the equator and 20 north or south, but its not that the tropical climate in Asia, Africa and South America differs a lot in its major factors being sun, humidity, temperature. So is it the soil? Honestly, I doubt it. It might play a role but the soil probably varies nearly as much within a continent as it does between continents. So why should an African cacao taste like X , an Asian one like Y , and an American one like Z ? Doesnt make sense to me. My guess would rather be that different cacao tree varieties have been established and evolved in different places.

So now we come to cacao varieties and thats another puzzling thing. There is Criollo and Forastero, and Trinitario which is supposed to be a mix of both. This classification dates back to the 1940s and has now become the standard for categorizing cacao varieties in the business.
Too bad that it turns out to be much more complicated. For many fruits and vegetables, varieties are fairly well classified, meanwhile of course genetically as well. Not for cacao. This brings practical issues such as how to check if a 100% Criollo bar is really 100% Criollo if you actually cannot decide on what tree still produces pure Criollo beans. Thinking of high-end chocolates it probably also means that the classification is too coarse to account for the huge variety of possible flavor differences.
Over the last decade scientists have tried to use genetics to better understand where cacao comes from, how it evolved, and what the different current (and past) varieties are (and were). In 2008, a group of scientists presented a thorough genetic analysis of cacao bean varieties from South and Central America and concluded that it makes sense to at least distinguish 10 varieties. They labeled them Maraon, Curaray, Criollo, Iquitos, Nanay, Contamana, Amelonado, Purs, Nacional, and Guiana. Besides Criollo, you might have heard of Amelonado and Nacional. All other terms are not common use (yet?).
Those findings do not necessarily contradict the common three categories Criollo, Trinitario, and Forastero, but they strongly indicate that especially a category as Trinitario could be far too broad to do the diversity of its members justice. Or what do you think?

References:

• Motamayor JC, Lachenaud P, da Silva e Mota JW, Loor R, Kuhn DN, et al. (2008) " Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao L) ". PLoS ONE 3(10): e3311.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003311
• Louis E. Grivetti, Howard-Yana Shapiro (2009) "Chocolate - History, Culture, Heritage"

Hi Everyone,

I am new here my site is

I am currently on a quest to find someof the most Beautiful Chocolates ?

Feel free to send me any pics and any links of your sites, it is for a blog I am doing, I am mainly looking at Truffles and Filled Chocolates, so not really hollow shells

Thanks in advance x

Kumba Cocoa Cooperative is a group of Kumba Cocoafarmers , we have available more than 2000 tonnes ofcocoa beans ready for sale , our cocoa is raw and welldreid ready to be shipped out by express shipment orthrough cargo shipment you can give me a call at 0023793239874 or send us an e-mail at kumbacocoa.co@gmail.com . We welcome small and bulk buyers to send us their inquiries so that we can build a long termbusiness relationship .

The Good Evil Bar Review

This chocolate will haunt you in a good way. It will linger on your mind long after your last bite. The Man and I took the time to sample it like any good chocolate should be sampled. First I smelled it. Then we listened to the perfect snap as I broke a piece of it in two. Of course, I made sure it was at room temperature before I popped it in my mouth, let it melt very slightly and then chewed it slowly. Mmmm

It's not what you might expect. This is actually a good thing. Part of what makes this chocolate so extraordinary is the fact that the cocoa beans come from a small grouping of trees in a remote area of Peru. Each season, only several thousand bars of chocolate are made using the beans that come from these trees. Usually, when I taste a chocolate bar, I pick up on familiar flavors that tap something in my brain that tell me I know this taste. It's like some chocolate center in my brain is stimulated. There was a delayed response with this chocolate. The subtlety of the chocolate fascinates and intrigues me. Perhaps the unfamiliarity of this cocoa bean is, in part, why the Good Evil Bar is so addicting, but it's allure is also because the chocolate is just really fucking good. Read anyone's description of this confection, and you will probably discover that an outstanding rating is unanimous. There's no doubt that the chocolate is top notch, better than most on the market, and, some will claim, the best that ever was. I won't go that far, but I rank it in the top five most memorable bars I have ever eaten.

The best way I can describe this bar is to equate it to that moment right before an orgasm. You know wonderful things are about to happen. You may not quite reach a climax, but it's a great place to be, anticipating, yearning, expecting and imagining what might come to pass. This is a chocolate that's on the verge of many things. It's on the verge of being bitter, but it's not. It's on the verge of being sweet, but it's not overly so. It's actually the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. Even though it's a 72% single-origin dark chocolate, I believe milk chocolate lovers will like the Good Evil bar, as it has qualities that are reminiscent of great milk chocolate, like Frigor.

The Good Evil bar is not at all typical of dark chocolate in that its flavor is subtle, very slightly fruity and spicy, but make note that the spicy bouquet doesn't interfere or compete with the chocolate taste. Something I found very sexy was that the smooth, smooth chocolate contrasts beautifully with the wonderfully lightly crunchy nibs that enhance the dark chocolate flavor as you eat the bar. Though the chocolate itself is not intense, those chocolate nibs give off a robust burst of earthy chocolate flavor. The dark chocolate notes then linger on the palate. That's partly what makes the Good Evil bar so addicting. Its flavors are complex and build without ever really coming to a climax. The desire is to keep eating more in order to explore and experience the full complexities of this chocolate. It's memorable without obnoxiously hammering your taste buds. The beauty of this bar is that it is truly distinctive, but it's also difficult to describe. It seems to change and evolve with each bite. The textures and flavors make you want to dive in with reckless abandon, but the price reminds you that it's supposed to be savored... in theory. It's definitely hard to resist.

For me, sampling the Good Evil bar was like sipping a good liquor in front of a fire on a cold, rainy night. It brings comfort to the soul. So many people end their reviews with the comment that, with the expensive price, they probably wouldn't buy it again, but I can't claim the same. IF I found I had an extra $18 (pus shipping) lying around, I most definitely would splurge and buy it again.

My original post is here : http://frontrangereviews.blogspot.com/

Hey everyone!

I plan on buying pre-made truffle shells for my truffles. I'm not sure which ones to get since everyone I talk to has different brands.

What do you guys think about Chocoduc truffle shells?

Also, I seen Keller, Callebaut, and Pastry 1 (Paris Gourment brand) ----> any thoughts on these as well?

Is there really a difference and does it matter which one to get? Do people typically focus just on price?

Sorry if this is a very basic question for you professional chocolatiers out there : )

Thank You!

Our Mokaya Chocolate Tempering Machine campaign just started on Indiegogo:

http://igg.me/at/mokaya/x/2086442