Blogs

hello. When a ganash is made using fresh cream for a chocolate truffel, what would be the shelf life please ?Once the chocolate is made, how long will it last ?Thank you in advance, Joey

Is Chocolate "Raw"?

Chocolate is a fermented food. A lot of people have been asking if Garden Island Chocolate is Raw. My answer is, "there is no such thing as Raw chocolate", leads to only more questions, hence this simple blog.

The white pulp that surrounds the beans in the pod is most definitely raw and a delicious refreshing treat. The beans eaten straight from the pod are raw but rather bitter and astringent, the health benefits from choking down some wet viable cacao seeds are yet to be investigated. Raw food is all food cooked below 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit), as defined by Wikipedia. The fermentation process in cacao generates temperatures as high as 125 degrees Fahrenheit.

A lot of foods are fermented, so can you eat fermented food and still be a raw foodist? That all depends on who you ask. In actuallity the cacao seeds are not fermented, its the white mucilaginous pulp that surrounds the beans that are fermented. The pulp disappears completely, leaving only the dead heated seeds. The seeds are then dried and become known as 'beans', ready for the chocolate factory. Poor fermentation can have serious consequences. If fermentation stops completely, the beans will be 'slaty' and unable to produce quality chocolate. Short fermentation prevents flavor precursors developing and bitterness and astringency reducing. Too much fermentation develops undesirable flavor characteristics, or 'off-flavors', when the beans are roasted. A pure criollo only requires a 3 day ferment reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) for only about an hour after each days oxygenation or turning of the beans. Cacao beans can have flavor development if not fermented, but usually these beans are roasted to bring out some flavor. The unfermented, unroasted beans usually have an off sour taste that when made into chocolate are quite bad.

As for "Raw" cacao powder, the Broma process uses less heat and pressure then the hydraulic press. Cocoa liquor pressing if definitely not "Raw". The chocolate used in this process generally comes from moldy beans that are roasted at a high temperature. The liquid cocoa liquor is stored in large storage tanks where it is kept at a temperature of about 70C to ensure that the liquor remains liquid. From there the liquor is pumped to the liquor conditioning tanks mounted on each press, where the product is prepared to achieve optimum conditions when it is pressed into cocoa butter and cocoa cake. The liquor is heated to the required temperature in the tank, while high-speed stirring gear ensures quick heat transfer and homogenization of the product as well as reducing the viscosity. This gives the product a relatively thin-fluid consistency, and improves its flow and pressing properties. Industrial presses use as much as 6000 psi, requiring over a hundred tons of hydraulic pressure pushing on a press cylinder. "Raw" foodists should also be suspicious of dutch processed chocolate. Dutched chocolate, is chocolate that has been treated with an alkalizing agent to modify its color and give it a milder flavor. Dutched chocolate forms the basis for much of modern chocolate, and is used in ice cream, hot cocoa, and baking.

The Dutch process accomplishes several things: Lowers acidity; Increases solubility; Enhances color; Lowers flavor. The Dutch process destroys flavonols (antioxidants).

In conclusion, if "Raw" chocolate tastes like chocolate, chances are it's not "Raw". Most of us eat chocolate because it taste good, it makes us feel good and satisfied so the preoccupation with "Raw" should be left to our tastes buds not a label.

Originally published Nov 4, 2008 — There is an unquestioned assumption many chocophiles make: because Criollo beans make better (and more expensive) chocolate, doesn't it make the most sense to replace all those "inferior" Forastero and hybrid-Trinitario trees with Criollos? Wouldn't everyone - including the farmers - be better off?

Well, no, actually. And here's why.

Chocolates made with properly fermented and dried (proper fermentation and drying are key to full flavor development) Forastero/Trintario beans taste different from those made with Criollos. Not worse. Just different. To really generalize here, the flavors in chocolate made from Criollos are milder and more delicate, while the flavors in chocolate made with Forastero/Trinitarios are more robust. You may prefer one over the other, but that is a matter of personal taste and not an absolute judgment .

For even the most knowledgeable chocophile, the goal should be to learn to appreciate all the different flavors of chocolate and not to resort to the unthinking snobbery that runs roughshod over the wine world. There is nothing inherently "bad" about the grapes used to make Merlots. They are just grapes. There is nothing inherently "better" about the grapes used to make Pinot Noirs. Nevertheless, a single movie ( Sideways ) changed the drinking habits of millions worldwide by making it unfashionable, almost overnight, to admit to even liking Merlot let alone drinking it. In the same vein, milk chocolate is not "bad" because it contains milk and dark chocolate does not have to have 70% cocoa content in order to be "good." Yet many people are ashamed to admit they like to eat milk chocolate and won't touch dark chocolate unless it is 70% or more.

One of the great (not just my opinion) dark chocolates in the world produced in the past five years is a 68% bar from Felchlin (their Cru Sauvage) made with beans harvested from Bolivian feral trees (trees that were planted hundreds of years ago that are now "wild") that are genetically Forasteros but that have flavor characteristics associated with Criollos. The chocolate snob, unrepentantly and wrongly fixated on the number 70% and "Criollo" would not deign to stoop so low as to eat a bar with "only" 68% cocoa and made with "only" Forastero beans because it did not meet his or her "standards." In this case, they are arbitrarily cutting themselves off from one of the great chocolate experiences in recent memory. But, as I say to my kids when they turn up their noses at something I really like to eat, "Okay. I guess that means more for me." I don't have any problem with that .

Now that we've dispelled the myth that chocolate made with Criollos is somehow "naturally better" than chocolate made with Forastero/Trinitario beans, the next step is to take a look at what it might mean for a farmer to make the switch.

Perhaps the best example of wrong-o-nomics is the Chuao co-op in Venezuela, a source of very high quality cocoa beans that has for years been hoisted as a poster child to the benefits to farmers of planting Criollos. For close to a decade now, the Amedei company has been paying far above market price for the beans they source from Chuao (reportedly about $9000/tonne as opposed to between $2000-$3000/tonne on the commodities market). The trees planted in Chuao yield on the order of 180kg per hectare (ha; a hectare is 2.54 acres; kg, kilogram - about 2.2 pounds) of dried beans, or about 155 pounds per acre.

In modern industrialized plantations in, for example, Southeast Asia, that grow high-yielding hybrid varieties, yields of up to 3000kg of dried beans per hectare are not unusual. In Western Africa, yields of up to 1500kg/ha are not uncommon as long as the farm is managed "sustainably" (e.g., there are agricultural inputs - synthetic or natural - to replace the nutrients from the soil that leave the farm in the beans).

This disparity in yield gives us the following economic equation:

Chuao : 100ha @ 180kg/ha @ $9/kg = $162,000 gross income/100ha
Southeast Asia : 100ha @ 3000kg/ha @$2/kg = $600,000 gross income/100ha
Western Africa : 100ha @ 1500kg/ha @ $2/kg = $300,000 gross income/100ha

Thus, even though Amedei pays roughly 3 to 4.5 times the market price, the return to the farmer is as little as twenty-five per cent of what could be made if the farmer planted different varieties (i.e., forastero hybrids) of cacao. You can bet that Vietnam - which grew itself into the third-largest coffee exporter in the world from nowhere in twenty years - will be planting high-yielding strains in its attempt to quickly become one of the largest cocoa producers in the world. It can't get there by planting Criollos.

There is another reason not to go down the path of promoting the planting of Criollos at the expense of planting Forastero/Trinitarios. Criollos are products of hundreds if not thousands of years of breeding and inbreeding. Because of this they represent a comparatively narrow gene pool. In addition to being low-yielding and finicky, Criollos are much more vulnerable to diseases and pests, and as we've seen time and again, planting monocultures on a grand scale increases vulnerability in a number of different area. Therefore, betting on the future of chocolate by reducing the genetic diversity of cacao is a very, very bad idea.

One of the things that people cannot truly appreciate until they walk into a cacao farm is the incredible variety of shapes and colors of the pods; bright yellows, greens, oranges to shame anything grown in Florida, reds that would make a fire engine envious, and scarlets worthy of royal attire. The cacao tree provides the genetic template, so all of the pods on the tree are the same basic variety as the tree even though the pods may look very different. However if a flower is fertilized several times with pollen from different sources (and this is a very common occurrence), multiple hybrids will co-exist within the same pod, sort of like fraternal twins or triplets in utero . When the seeds from these pods are scattered by small animals or birds and grow to maturity, new hybrids appear. This process occurs naturally and it this genetic diversity that needs to be preserved and nurtured and that will lead to varieties of cacao that are resistant to the most damaging of diseases - and - that taste good, too.

The key to improving the lives of farmers is not to get them to replace what they are currently growing with low(er)-yielding varieties that require more care and are more susceptible to disease - because the loss in yield doesn't come even close to matching the increase in price. Instead, the key to improving the lives of farmers is to teach them how to manage their trees and farms to reduce losses from diseases and pests and to ferment and dry properly. This will increase their income even if they continue to grow exactly the same cacao they've always been growing, on exactly the same amount of land. By placing on emphasis on quality , and not just quantity , no matter what beans a farmer has, those beans will make better-tasting chocolate so the farmer can charge more for them.

Me? I am an EOCL - Equal Opportunity Chocolate Lover. As long as its good, I'll eat it .

Did anyone see this amazing show of chocolate mastery? Tonight I watched Tony's new Spain episode on the Travel Channel, and he visited Enric's workshop outside of Barcelona. Enric crafted something so dramatically amazing and beautiful...just a large chocolate egg, but OH that egg! He started with two halves in molds, melted the edges and voila an egg. He shaped the edges like a sculptor, the beginnings of the Gaudi-esque creation it was to become. The 15 or so eggs, each about one foot high, looked great as they were, and I would never have anticipated the next step. Each egg, in its own egg holder, was then taken outside into a courtyard and placed on a table, in full afternoon sun! Everyone stood around and watched the eggs start glistening, and at one point everyone moves into action to move the eggs back into refrigerated air. That point was the one at which one egg suddenly melted into itself creating a chasm, a hole that Enric was looking for. Once inside, the eggs were tilted so that the melt dripped in an artistically appropriate manner. Then the eggs were sprayed with more chocolate so that each one was now a variant of cocoa shaded velour. Very adult easter eggs. I'll see if I can find a pic to post, it was glorious!

what a claim! you might be thinking its just another chocolate fanatic blissed out boasting, full of it, yea right the best chocolate in the world, come on, how can this be, when folks have been making chocolate for centuries, for thousands of years in central america. Yes it is just an opinion, but after many years of R&D working with very talented farmers we have done it. A 100% criollo bar 93% cacao solids that is very sweet and amazing. It is so smooth you can eat a lot of it, but watch out, the chemical content is very high, one bite and you will be up to 3am jacked up, my hands shake when I make it. Its not just my boast, everyone who has ever tasted it says this is the best chocolate they have ever had. It sets a new standard. Yes we grow it, process it, every step of the way in small batches. Good soil = good chocolate. This is the cacao that mayans drank, this is the cacao of legends. We are a small company, so if you want to taste it you have to visit Kauai.www.gardenislandchocolate.com

Dear Clay,Sorry I have not posted in while , but life happens but thanks for letting me know about the page,I have just changed it agian so hope this works better. The interest in my Collectible Profiles "Profiles in Chocolates is being looked at now with the Lincoln Bicentennial next year and so it helps to have interested people .I am trying tpo find the physical address for Christopher Brookes LLC in England that Gwen Borders told me about but no luck finding it on google or yahoo any ideas?Megan Hardgrave

Go to this link Chocolate Fudge Cafe for an alternative tortilla made with raw cacao as one of the ingredients. It's on the home page right now, or look for it under recipes on the sidebar in the future.Reonne (aka Choco Mama)

If your goal in life is to write a book, allow me to share what I know about the process. Heres my first piece of good news: the books on how to write a non-fiction book proposal are really good! These are the only self-help books that ever worked for me. What they will force you to do is to refine your idea (Great ideas are a dime a dozen - how do you make yours work as a book?). They will help you think competitively about the marketplace (What other books on the subject are out there? How is yours different?) Finally, they will help you WORK and pull the answers to these hard questions together in the form of a book proposal that might actually help sell your book. Heres a link to Amazons titles http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=book+proposal. The bad news is, as you may have heard, its really hard to get an agent. The tools you need most are 1.) a great idea, 2.) resources such as these on how to write a professional book proposal and how to approach literary agents, 3.) a great book proposal, 4.) realistic and unwavering perseverance, 5.) (in my case) the blessings of the chocolate gods.My chocolate book started as a big, exotic photo-laden, coffee-table giant of a travel book - an $80 art splurge - and then morphed into a comprehensive guide to chocolate - say $32.00 - then morphed again into a gift book on chocolate with a focus on health, beauty, gift-giving and wellness - such a deal at $14.95!! Lucky for me, I loved all three of these books! It took 5 years from concept to proposal to working with my agent to working with the first publisher then working with the second and final publisher. 5 years!! Since chocolate was always at the center, much of the research was relevant to all incarnations of the project, and in the meantime I taught baking & pastry arts, produced TV shows, sold artisan chocolates and made birthday cakes. I put everything I learned along the way into the final product, just by osmosis. Once the contract came through, I wrote 2-3 hours a day for 6 months, some days more but never less. If prose ideas got stuck, I turned the classical music up loud and worked on recipes. If a recipe bombed, I went back happily to the prose. In this way of going around in circles, I got to the end. I turned the book (all 168 pages/ 37,249 words) into the editor last week, and already I miss the daily dance of making those recipes work and learning more about chocolate botany. From here, Ill get my notes, do a rewrite, go to a dessert photo shoot featuring my very own chocolate babies, work on final edits then drum up a little fanfare when it comes out in September 2009. A friend occasionally asked me Hows your book going? even though he later confided what he really meant was Have you given up on that flailing book project of yours yet? On the darkest of days, when either the book or I were in some really bad configuration of torturous rejection, I could always say, Its not all the way dead yet. It was never dead because I refused to give up on it. And now, the chocolate book, she lives.

Earth's Sweet Pleasures, the makers of Rich Rainforest Dark and Classic Semisweet fudge are debuting their products for the natural product community at the Natural Product Association's Expo in Las Vegas July 17-19, 2008. The owners, L. Hawk Cargo and Reonne Haslett, said they are very excited about this opportunity to unveil their old-fashioned, USDA organic products at the show. "This will be the very first time that the natural store buyers will get to taste our fudge and decide if they want to carry it," Reonne says. "We couldn't be more happy and excited!"Hawk has been making fudge for over 40 yrs., and when a friend of his suggested that he try making an organic recipe, Hawk took on the challenge, thinking it would take only a few months. In actuality, it took over 18 months to get the creamy, rich recipe that people around Nevada City, California, have come to know and love. The Rich Rainforest Dark, which is 65% bittersweet, fair-trade chocolate from Dominican Republic and Peru is carried in 8 locations in this small No. Calif. town with a gold-mining past. Hawk says, "The folks around here where we live have gotten used to buying our fudge in the local natural food stores and cafes. We get lots of comments on how delicious it is, so know we want to offer it to a broader community."Hawk goes on to say that one of the main reasons he and wife Reonne wanted to take the company is bigger is to help support the rainforest and the farmers who make the effort to go organic. "We give a portion of our proceeds to humanitarian and socially-conscious organizations that we feel benefit the planet. We also want to help transform the African cocoa market because we would like to use chocolate from the Ivory Coast and Ghana as well as South and Central American chocolate. We are always researching which organizations in our field that we can donate to once our company becomes profitable."After the NPA expo in July, begin to look for Earth's Sweet Pleasures Rich Rainforest Dark fudge bars in natural food stores around the country. You can also visit the website www.earthssweetpleasures.com to place an order. Hawk and Reonne are always happy to answer questions about their fudge and their business. To get in touch with them, you can call 530-292-3425.

Context: These are journal entries I made as a guest at the Kapawi eco-lodge in 2005. Kapawi is located on the Kapawari River which feeds into the Rio Pastaza which is in turn a major tributary of the Amazon. Southeastern Ecuador. Miles and miles and miles from any roads. The only ways in and out are via canoe on the river or small plane.

More Context: These were written just a day or so after taking part in a shamanic ritual in Quito that involved consuming ayahuasca which put me in a very interestingly receptive state of mind and influenced my taking of the following photo, which is iconic of my tramping through the rain forest:

1) The Achuar [the local Indians] can walk through the forest silently. Even along a path I cannot help but make some noise. I concentrate on maneuvering quietly, carefully placing my feet, avoiding brushing against plants. Soon I am striding confidently and what I think is quietly through the forest. Exactly at these moments, when I feel I have attained some mastery, my foot catches on a vine or root and I stumble, trying to catch my balance and not fall. And I realize (for the umpteenth time today) that I am not a master of the forest; it is saying to me, 'If you are to be my friend there is much, much, more for you to learn.'

2) In the forest on the hike today, Sarah asked, 'If a tree falls in the rain forest and there is no one around to hear it, is there any sound?' And it occurs to me that that that viewpoint puts man at the center of the universe. I am not the only creature in the forest that can hear. I can walk through the forest and make no visible impression. The forest was here long before I arrived and will be here long after I leave. I alone cannot bend the forest to my will. I can destroy the forest but I cannot bend it to my will. If I am to be here in the forest and flourish I must become a part of the forest and listen to what it has to tell me. There is room in this world for both of us - the forest and I - but only if I, with humility, allow the forest to be my guide.

3) On our hike today, Felipe [our naturalist guide] pointed out the interconnectedness of the trees and vines in the rain forest. High above us, often hard to see, vines connect the trees together helping them to stand up. When one of the trees falls it takes down with it many of the other trees it is connected with, leaving a 'light gap' in the forest. On the forest floor lies a scattering of seeds many of which can lay dormant for decades or more, waiting patiently for enough light to grow. A tree falling, pulling others down around it to create the light gap, gives these seeds their opportunity to flourish. However there is no way to predict from what has fallen what will grow to take its place. During our lives, we are all connected. Directly in many cases, but often in ways unknown to us. When we fall, we cannot control what grows in the 'light gap' we leave behind. The seeds that we have planted during our lives will grow ... but which ones and how their lives will proceed we have no influence over.