While I have to applaud the FCIA for what they are attempting to do, one reason I don't heartily endorse the organization (I am not a member and am not interested in the politics of organization) is that they consistently get basic facts either mixed up or totally wrong.The star above is just another example of getting things mixed up: it confuses chocolate makers (people and companies who make chocolate from beans) with what the French refer to as fondeurs - people or companies that buy chocolate from chocolate makers and then melt and mold that chocolate into bars and/or turn it into confections (truffles, bon bons, etc.).So I don't agree that the facets as presented are relevant to the discussion and contribute anything meaningful to a chocolate maker's trademark flavor and style unless we agree that:a) We are only talking about chocolate makers; andb) We agree that artistry and presentation do not contribute to the taste of a chocolate.For a chocolate maker, I contend that issues such as proper tempering and molding techniques fall under the Technical Expertise point and - if we're getting really technical (and we're just talking about chocolate makers) - Technical Expertise and Production Practices can be considered to be one and the same.For chocolate manufacturers we might consider reconfiguring the star thusly:1) Cacao Origin2) Post-Harvest Processing (which is usually beyond their control)3) Roasting Expertise4) Technical Understanding of, and Control over, Production Processes5) Non-Chocolate Ingredient QualityJust my $.02:: Clay
Brady:All of these are very good concerns. I do not plan to implement OpenRecord exactly as it is; in fact I probably won't use the software at all. What I will do is use it as a template to create something that does what we need it to do. For example, I would want the software to integrate with the NingID sign-on, so that you would not have to use another password and I could give interested ChocolateLife members administrative privileges to that application.I also want to make it prettier to look at (make it seem to be like a natural part of TheChocolateLife and not something completely alien) and I have no intention of putting Google ads anywhere. (In fact, I plan to remove the Google ads from this site when it starts generating revenue through book and chocolate sales.)Search is high on my list as is a "suggestion" facility. A forum could easily be created by creating another "page" within the application (like the "suggestions" in the demo for the book club only a little more sophisticated.In fact, if I could figure out a way to import all of the content from this site, I could probably do a complete social network using a tool like this with the correct pages and plug-ins.:: Clay
Brady:I ran across the following piece of software that looks like it might be a perfect way to implement this. Please take a look at the following screencast to see if it looks like that to you.http://openrecord.org/screencast.html If you think it might work, I will do what I can to download it and install it as a sub-domain of TheChocolateLife.com (e.g., chocolatemakers.thechocolatelife.com AND chocolatiers.thechocolatelife.com) and we can figure out how to structure the content before making it available to everyone.:: Clay
Jeff:Congratulations on the opening and the success you deserve through all of the hard work and dedication to vision and craft you've displayed over the years. I remember when you first got in touch and sent me the first samples to taste. How long ago was that? 5 years? You are right. WOW. What a trip.I also want to applaud you for reaching out into the community and finding a way to use people's love for chocolate in a positive and beautifully constructive way. It speaks well to who you, Belle, and Lillie are as people and to the values you want LillieBelle Farms to represent.
This purpose of this forum thread is to create a place where members can recommend their favorite places to purchase cooking and other books about chocolate. Please keep in mind that everyone knows the obvious sources (e.g., Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc.) what we're looking for here is the specialist sources that cater to people like us who are crazy about chocolate.
updated by @Clay Gordon: 06/29/23 16:49:02
Theo B:Chocomap is a start, but usability is not the greatest. Try searching by a city in the US (arranging alphabetically so that the US is at the bottom of this list is just plain wrong). Takes forever, and NY, for example is broken down by borough so that's at least 5 searches - except there are three boroughs missing (Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx) and I know that there is at least one chocolate shop in each.What Sera is asking for is the next level of this, which is to identify what chocolates are sold at those shops. This can get excruciatingly detailed with companies like Whole Foods which seems to carry a different selection for each store.I think the way to tackle this is to get the data, figure out how to put it in a usable form, and then make it pretty.
Sera:I spent a large part of my pre-chocolate career actually trying to build applications like this so I am fairly familiar with the field. This is one of the most promising I have seen. However, it's not visually sophisticated and it's missing some really important features (especially hierarchical categories).I have worked with a really smart young developer who's got a great User Interface building tool and we are going to take the general idea of openrecord and fix its deficiencies rather than try to fix openrecord. I should know in the next week or so when it will be ready to play with. Hopefully by mid-April.
Casey:Thanks for these suggestions. Although the design is really bad, I want to encourage you to go to http://openrecord.org/screencast.html and take a look at as many chapters as you can sit through. This is the sort of flexibility in a tool that I am looking for.I am interested in everyone's comments on this.
Brady has suggested a very different idea that requires a similar database infrastructure in order to make it work. While I encourage any of you to do the research, you might want to wait a week or two to start entering the data here. I am working with a colleague to develop an application that will make it easy to create this database as well as the database that Brady is looking to do - and maybe even connect them somehow.We are looking into making this a widget that any social network hosted on Ning can use!
One of the things that people don't always consider to be part of "terroir" is post-harvest processing and manufacturing techniques. Champagne is not just a defined region, it's a method of production AND the use of particular grape varietals.
A controlled denomination of origin system would include all of these aspects (e.g., Maraon pure Nacional as the type, a specific geographic descriptor, and then a description of the general protocols for fermentation [e.g/. 2/2/2] and drying.
I think it's pretty easy to appreciate chocolate without really knowing where the cocoa beans come from. However, more knowledge leads to a different depth of appreciation. Recently, I came across a definition of connoisseur as someone who can say, "I can appreciate that - even though I don't like it."
Getting to specific genetics will be interesting and depend upon confounding political factors over which there is no control.
How about starting on Hawaii? It's a small group and there is the resource of Skip Bittenbender's group and access into the Ag department in the Hawaiian state government.
And there is this other release on "pure nacional" being found in Peru. Apparently, they are genetically more or less identical to the Nacional found in Ecuador and have the same aroma, but have a higher proportion of white beans than the Nacional found in Ecuador.
The Peruvian Nacional is also different in that it grows between 3500-4100 ft, the highest recorded for any cacao.
If you take a look at Motamayor's map you'll see that the range for Criollo is quite large - which makes sense for cultivated varieties. However, there is some distance (not only as the crow flies but also in elevation) between the Cacao Nacional in Ecuador and the Cacao Nacional in Peru - which leads to the questions of how the distribution occurred, which is the "original home" (if either was, there may be a different common ancestor), and rethinking the range of habitats suitable for growing cacao.
The old one (3+1) is clearly broken and Motomayor et al is not complete, and the recent announcement of pure Nacional found in Peru is confusing.
Any new classification scheme is probably going to be based on new genetic research but anything new is going to have to go up against all of the marketing that has been done around 3+1 even though it's woefully inadequate.
Any ideas on what you'd like to see that might be useful without being too complicated?
Personally, I think any new system should start with a geographic overlay - named denominations that are protected as in the AOC in France and the DOP in the EU.
"The Theobroma cacao genome sequences are deposited in the EMB:/Genbank/DDBJ databases under accession numbers CACC01000001-CACC01025912. A genome browser and further information on the project are available from http://cocoagendb.cirad.fr/gbrowse and http://cocoagendb.cirad.fr ."
Brady: I read of the research, which focuses on Central American "criollos." If you take a look at Motamayor's map, the geographic distribution of what that research labels criollo is vast.
We may see some distinction within the criollo group but I don't know that the new Penn State research is broad enough to add new varieties or if it can only add varieties within the criollo group.
I guess we'll have to wait to find out. Whatever is technically correct, the larger issue is how to communicate this to consumers. It's clear that the trinity+1 view is wrong but the industry (me included) has done such a good job in the last 20 years promoting criollo, forastero, trinitario (+ nacional) that it's hard to see what use and/or outcomes might be. I personally have abandoned the trinity+1 naming in all my new work and writing, just as I advocate for the use of "origin" over "single-origin."
Samantha was one of the strongest contributors, technically, to TheChocolateLife, and her contributions will definitely be missed. It was a shock to me that she left in such a peremptory fashion. If you are interested, it's possible to retrieve much (but not all) of what Samantha contributed through the magic of Google's cache.
Search on Google for "samantha madell thechocolatelife" then click on the 'cached' pages link. In most browsers you can save the page as an HTML file. However, you only get this one page, the page navigation links at the bottom don't point to cached pages, but to the pages on TheChocolateLife that no longer exist.
Some long-time members of TheChocolateLife may realize that Samantha Madell recently left the community and chose to delete all of her contributions when she left.
Among those contributions was the link to a research paper by Juan Carlos Motamayor, et al , (Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazon Chocolate Tree) referring to a new classification scheme of 10 distinct varieties. Published in 2008, this list has already been updated to include at least three more genetically distinct varieties of cacao, up from the more conventionally understood 3+1 (criollo, forastero, trinitario, and nacional).
As an FYI - here is a link to the page on icco.org where you can download the study Sam mentions.From the project brief: Brief Description The project aims to evaluate the characteristics of fine/flavour and bulk cocoas through a series of scientific evaluations of physical, chemical and organoleptic parameters, and to provide methodologies, standards and instruments for universal use in differentiating fine/flavour from bulk cocoa. Project Objectives The main objective of the project is to provide universally acceptable criteria to differentiate between fine/flavour and bulk cocoas. More specifically, the project aims to evaluate the characteristics of fine/flavour and bulk cocoas through a series of scientific evaluations of physical, chemical and organoleptic parameters and provide methodologies, standards and instruments for universal use in differentiating fine/flavour from bulk cocoa.Project ComponentsThe project has six components towards achieving the stated objectives. The project components are:* Fermentation and drying trials;* Chemical assessment of quality parameters;* Preparation and analysis of cocoa liquor;* Organoleptic assessment of sensory characteristics;* DNA profiling and spectral image analysis;* Analysis and interpretation of results.
For the forseeable future, I think that this is only going to be of interest to researchers. From a consumer perspective I don't see the expansion of the classification system to be of much use - it will only make things more confusing. As Volker pointed out - where is Nacional on the list? Where is Trinitario? The industry has spent so much time and money educating people to this level of classification that I don't see them wanting to go any further.Sam is right to a large extent - Trinitario is almost meaningless as a useful descriptor these days, and the old "all forastero is trash" attitude is, well, old. I've personally tasted how proper fermentation and drying can affect the taste of liquor made with the "lowly" CCN-51 in Ecuador.As a chocolate professional I think it is important to work to preserve as much diversity as possible for many different reasons. However, most consumers don't care (and probably shouldn't have to) about the meaning of the differences between Iquitos and Maraon varieties of cacao - as they are expressed in the chocolate they eat.
Brady:You raise a lot of interesting questions - which is what I have come to expect (and respect) from you.You are right, as far as the consumer is concerned, there are three major types of beans, criollo, forastero, and trinitario. Forasteros and trinitarios are grown around the world, criollos have a much more limited range. Because of the way cacao is pollinated, there is a huge amount of natural hybridization going on and it is usually the case that you can spot pods with different genetics on the same tree, not just in the same area of an orchard. Morphological analysis (shape) reveals little, and genetic testing makes no sense as it takes too long and is too expensive.From what I have learned, Arriba is the name given to the unique flavor of the true Nacional bean. The Nacional has been described as a forastero with many criollo characteristics, but no-one knows how the bean evolved. I have been told that attempts have been made to plant Nacional varieties outside of Ecuador, but none of those experiments resulted in plants that produced cacao that remotely resembled the flavor of Nacional planted in Ecuadorian soil upriver from Guayaquil. Colombia is a net importer of cacao and my understanding is that much of the cacao that is used for Santander bars is actually Ecuadorian and not native Colombian. The Colombian beans are of lesser quality and are used for the domestic market. Santander is owned by the largest chocolate company in Colombia - if not South America. They are best known for the Jet brand of candy bars.The idea of using classification is an interesting one that would make a lot of sense if grading systems around the world were standardized. The grading systems are used to determine the price of cacao and are mostly used in the commodity market. However, the grades that are used in the Dominican Republic are different from Venezuela. Here is a quote from the ICCO site on grading: "Cocoa grading differs across producing and consuming countries. However, over the years, the physical market has developed standard practices set out by the main international cocoa trade associations: the Federation of Cocoa Commerce Ltd (FCC) and the Cocoa Merchants' Association of America, Inc. (CMAA). For example, the FCC distinguishes two grades: good fermented cocoa beans and fair fermented cocoa beans. Samples of good fermented cocoa beans must have less than 5% mould, less than 5% slate and less than 1.5% foreign matter. A sample of fair fermented cocoa beans must have less than 10% mould, less than 10% slate and less 1.5% foreign matter. These tests are carried out through the so-called cut-test. Such a test involves counting off a given number or weight of cocoa beans, cutting them lengthwise through the middle, and then examining them. Separate counts are made of the number of beans which are mouldy, slaty, insect damaged, germinated or flat." But you're right, knowing that a bar was made from Madagascan Trinitario hybrids with the highest grade would provide some useful information. I think this would make the most sense would be for the smaller artisan producers and hope that the trend trickled up.
While the reclassification of cacao is a laudable goal, I'd first like to lobby the FDA to create a standard of identity for dark chocolate.Right now, any "chocolate liquor" can, by law, contain dairy fats - e.g., butter oil - so any chocolate in the "sweet" category (which also includes semi-sweet and bittersweet) can automatically have dairy ingredients because they're grandfathered in by the mandated inclusion of chocolate liquor as an ingredient.I'd like the FDA to make an explicit "dark chocolate" category that says to consumers that there are no dairy ingredients in a chocolate. This is not the same thing as Kosher Pareve, which is a religious certification and not a technical one.Just FYI, there has been some reclassification in the taxonomy of t. cacao . For many years it was in the Sterculiaceae family and in the past five years has been reassigned to the Malvaceae family although this is at least one step above the level of classification being talked about.The classic work in this field - the one that is cited by everyone working in this area - is Cuatrecasas (1964). This is a longish paper originally published in volume 35 of Contributions From the United States National Herbarium . I spent a long time looking for this and the only copy I was able to locate is in the Library of Congress. However, I was able to find it online, thanks to a very helpful person at the Smithsonian.If you are interested in taking a look at this seminal paper, this link takes you to the title page (after page 377) of this research paper, which is part of a collection of papers. If you like, the entire document is downloadable in PDF format. The FDA Standards of Identity for chocolate are here .
Take a look at this article from a web site devoted to package design.From the text: "The concept behind Tokyo's 100% Chocolate Cafe is to put your senses in the middle of a chocolate kitchen. They live up to their name with over 56 types of different chocolates, even cheese and black pepper chocolates. They also serve chocolate drinks, chocolate pastries, chocolate ice cream, and even chocolate sandwiches. Their packaging is pretty neat too! Continue reading below to see more." Another entry from the same blog about Mast Brothers Chocolate in NYC.
One of the best package designs I have seen in the past couple of years is the packaging for Askinosie Chocolate's products - and that's not just because I was involved in its evolution. What is most important is that the packaging really does convey the "brand DNA" of the company - you can learn a lot about them just by looking at the package, not having to read it. I can tell you that it took months of going back and forth with the design team to select the logo, finalize the text, and then develop the exact form that the envelope took. In the end, it was Shawn's insistence not to settle for anything less than what was exactly right that led them to the final result. Shawn is real approachable so I would contact him directly if you haven't already.
Actually, Chocosphere has a thriving wholesale business. All you have to do is call them to get instructions on how to set up a wholesale account and to receive a wholesale price list.
I know Mark Douglas and Kim Carlson at Culinate. One of my blog posts there actually had over 200 replies! A record for me.I know I really dated myself when I mentioned I was working in the late '70s. Ever hear of a Portland band called Seafood Mama? Old friends. The only literary connection I have to Portland is that I once met Ursula K LeGuin. She wrote one of my favorite SF books ever - The Left Hand of Darkness.I like the icon even better knowing they are modern and that you make them (and I presume sell them). Cool. Did you get the material for the molds from Chef Rubber?
Sarah:Of course I know Alma, I just never connected the two together. Do you know the people over at culinate.com? I wrote five blog entries for them in December/January. Do take the time to meet with Shawn when you go out there. If you want an introduction beforehand let me know. Finally, I used to live in Portland - 1977-80. Spent most of my time working for KBOO and enjoying the music scene. Love the photos of antique molds on your site .
Sarah:I am really sorry you couldn't make it on the trip. The alumni are a pretty accomplished bunch including Shawn Askinosie (Askinosie Chocolate), Marc Boatwright and Patricia Hinajosa (Choctal ice cream), the founders of ScandChoco - an importer of gourmet chocolate into Scandinavia, and Sam Madell and Langdon Stephenson of TAVA in Australia.A simplified and reorganized version of the classroom curriculum from the University of Chocolate is being given on the trip to Belize next month. Don't know if there are any last-minute places, but send a message to Holly Stabin (she's a member here) to find out.Also, I am looking into alternative sources of organic couverture for another Chocolate Life member and if anything comes of that I will let you know. Where is your shop and what is its name?
Casey:I am not totally sure as Chocosphere sells to retail, not wholesale, customers. I do know that wholesale customers who Hershey considers to be competitors to their brands are not going to be able to get the chocolate going forward. However, they still might make it available to home chefs. Best to contact Jerry at Chocosphere and ask him what he's been told.
Gwen: This is a really interesting discussion in its own right - what are chocolate makers, chocolatiers, and their customers looking for when it comes to various certifications?I happened to speak to Frederick Schilling of Dagoba about the recall after I blindly published the news feeds concerning it. First off, Frederick said, the amount involved was nowhere near the 20 tons cited in the reports, it was a small fraction of that amount and it only applied to bars made from Ecuadorian beans grown in areas in or near the mountains that form the central backbone of the country.Why is this? Volcanic soils typically contain very high levels of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. If someone were to eat chocolate made from beans from these areas then there is the possibility of heavy-metal contamination. This is going to be an especially big issue for cacao grown in Hawaii because all of the arable land is volcanic in origin.Heavy metal contamination has nothing to do with any kind of certification. Anyone can grow cacao "organically" in volcanic soil and it would still qualify as organic. Organic certification mostly cares about is the use of chemicals and certain other farming techniques and does not, as far as I know, address the issues of compounds that are naturally present in the soil.It turns out that virtually no chocolate made in the world is routinely tested for the presence of heavy metals. I do know that when I was in Venezuela and Mexico with Shawn Askinosie on a bean buying trip in 2006, Shawn was very careful to take soil samples in several of the orchards of the co-ops he was looking to buy beans from. He had the soil analyzed for heavy metal content and was prepared to walk away from any co-op growing cacao in soil contaminated with heavy metals.One of the "problems" with virtually all of the certifications is that they don't really try to deal with issues related to quality. If I were creating a certification program I would absolutely require the testing of soil not only for synthetic chemicals but for naturally occurring substances that are poisonous to humans when ingested.
I've known the founder of Vintage Plantations since late 1998 and took part in his University of Chocolate trips to Ecuador in 2003 and 2005. (Also on the 2005 trip were Shawn Askinosie, founder of Askinosie Chocolate ; Marc Boatwright and Patricia Hinjosa, co-founders of Choctal ; and Samantha Madel and Langdon Stevenson of TAVA (Tropical Agriculture Value Added) in Australia. Elsewhere, someone posted a link saying that Askinosie Chocolate was now available in Scandinavia, and the founders of that company, ScandChoco , were also on that 2005 trip. I feel honored to have been in such an accomplished group.)Unless I am missing something, it looks like the only certified organic product is the cocoa powder. Everything else is Rainforest Alliance certified - but not organic. I have to agree with you on two counts, though, the cocoa butter is one of the better ones you can buy (I don't think it's deodorized) and the quality has been steadily improving since its first introduction.
For the past several years, one of the better sources for organic couverture for artisan chocolatiers has been (believe it or not) Dagoba. Several well-known and award-winning chocolatiers have built their businesses on that chocolate.However, since its acquisition by Hershey's Artisan Confections company, Dagoba has been forced to close down several lucrative side businesses, which include short-run bar production and selling couverture. Presumably, Artisan Confections views this as selling basic raw ingredients to competitors.I've been asked on several occasions to help chocolatiers locate sources for organic couverture. One of those came in my e-mail yesterday and I decided to follow up on it because of an increase in interest in this subject overall.There is the obvious choice: Barry-Callebaut. They are arguably the largest supplier of organic couverture to artisan chocolatiers. Valrhona has recently entered the business, but its prices make it a no-go option for many. In fact, couvertures imported from Europe are getting increasingly expensive as the dollar shrinks against the Euro.So - what are you all using these days? Who are you looking to to provide organic couverture of high technical quality (i.e., consistent workability) that also tastes good?One Canadian (Ottawa, Ontario) company my research unearthed is Cocoa Camino . They offer only three couvertures (70%, 56%, and a milk) but they are all certified organic, fairtrade, and kosher.Does anyone have any experience with these - or have other recommendations for organic couverture?
updated by @Clay Gordon: 06/29/23 16:49:02
New Orleans has an outsized reputation for many things: it's a world-class party destination with great parades featuring lots of beads, great music, great food, low-class strip/clip joints, and a fascinating history, not to mention drive-through daquiri bars.The list of culinary classics on the savory side of the menu from this part of the south is almost endless. But from a dessert perspective, New Orleans' rep does not shine nearly so brightly. Apart from the Bananas Foster it's hard to name a truly great New Orleans dessert. And yes, I know of the beignets at Cafe du Monde with their heavy dusting of powdered sugar. And although you can order the beignets at the Cafe du Monde most any time of the day or night, the best time to eat them is in the stillness of the very early morning before the heat of the day starts to enervate the Quarter's inhabitants; washed down with a cafe au lait where the cafe is laced with chicory - so I don't really think of them as dessert.The one confection that New Orleans is known for is the praline (pronounced praw'-leen). Real New Orleans-style pralines resemble large cookies, but these cookies are made from boiled sugar in which you can find swimming pecans. The best pralines are really quite good, but for every place that makes a good one there are dozens that don't measure up. One of the best-known makers of pralines in New Orleans is Laura's Candies . While they do sell what they call truffles at Laura's, they fall into the category of "hometown favorites" and are best compared with the products of other companies at their price point, such as See's.From 2000-2005, the "Best Candy Shop" in New Orleans (as voted by the readers of Gambit magazine) was Blue Frog Chocolates . I would also categorize Blue Frog as being a hometown favorite, but one with aspirations to reach beyond their hometown. The signature Blue Frog chocolate is a molded frog made from white chocolate that is colored blue. From what I can see from the pictures on their site, these will turn your tongue blue - which may be their major attraction. Other Blue Frog specialties I would call "novelty" chocolates: molded alligators, Mardi Gras gelt, chocolate voodoo dolls, and such like. In addition to these novelty products, Blue Frog also sells products made by other companies, most of which command a higher price point. Brands include Joseph Schmidt, Green and Blacks, and Michel Cluizel. They do, however, carry one very downmarket brand of truffles imported from France, Chocmod Truffettes. Many flavors can't even be called chocolate because they don't actually contain any cocoa mass (the ingredients list for their "Original Flavor Truffettes de France is: partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, sugar, low fat cocoa, whey powder, cocoa powder, emulsifier: soy lecithin, natural flavor: vanilla). To be fair, the ingredients list for their Organic Truffles (note truffle, not truffette - a real giveaway) is not at all bad: organic cocoa mass, organic coconut oil, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa powder, organic cocoa butter, soy lecithin.With the opening of Sucr (French for sugar) in April 2007, New Orleans finally has a local artisan chocolatier that it can truly be proud of. Located betwixt and between the Garden District and Uptown on Magazine St just two hops, three skips, four jumps and some bon temps (not to mention TurboDogs) from Tipitina's. Sucr is the handiwork of successful local restaurant entrepreneur Joel Dondis and Pastry Chef/Chocolatier Tariq Hanna formerly of MotorCity in Detroit.(By an odd coincidence, I happen to have spent some time with Tariq in the Arizona desert in 2005 when he was a contestant on a Food Network Challenge that was being filmed at the Marriott Desert Ridge during the World Pastry Forum, just before the National Pastry Team Championships.)The physical presence of Sucr is quite impressive as the following photos of the exterior and chocolate case attest to. In addition to their chocolates, they make traditional breakfast pastries (Viennoiserie), a range of petit pastries, entremets (cakes), macarons, pate de fruits, chocolate-covered nuts, a selection of seasonal gelatos and sorbets, in addition to coffees, teas, and drinking chocolates, rounded out by a lunch menu that includes sandwiches and soups.
I received a nine-piece selection of their chocolates for review. Reflecting the clean, clear lines of the store, the packaging is straightforward and attractive (as can be seen in the product photo, below).
Where Sucr really shines is when it turns its attention to the flavors that New Orleans and the South are best known for - which is sort of odd when you think about it because Tariq is not a name common in cajun country. A case in point is the Blang, Sucr's interpretation of the Bananas Foster in a confection. Also in this category is the piece called Avery, a milk chocolate and caramel ganache with a pinch of Avery Island salt (Avery Island is the home of the McIlhenney company, makers of Tabasco hot sauce which uses a lot of Avery Island salt). Sucr's Magnolia pays homage to that most southern of nuts - the pecan. A final piece, Meuniere, combines the signature ingredient of the sauce, browned butter, in a white chocolate ganache infused with the flavor of toasted almonds, a common sauce meuniere garnish.The ganaches are all smooth as silk with varying densities ranging from quite wet (in the shell molded pieces) to quite firm (in the enrobed pieces). The collections all display nice variations in shapes as well as surface treatments and so are visually quite pleasing. Based on the descriptions, much if not all of the chocolate used is Felchlin, including the Bolivian Cru Sauvage and the Maracaibo Clasificado (Venezuela) 65%. If Chef Hanna consistently uses Felchlin, then the milks available to him, the Criolait (38%) and Creole (49%) are two of the best going. It sure is easier to make great confections when you start with great chocolate. Rating: Category: Gourmet, Prestige Style: Nouvelle-American Rating: Very Good to Superior Company Info: Sucr3025 Magazine StNew Orleans, LA 70115Tel. 504.520.8311Fax. 504.520.8312info@shopsucre.com www.shopsucre.com updated by @Clay Gordon: 04/09/15 19:07:08
One of the things that I am going to be setting up in the next week or so is a version of the chocolate-makers database for chocolatiers. In this way we can create our own guide.At a minimum the database will include the name, street address, city, state, and postcode, country, phone numbers, website address, founder(s) names(s), chocolatier name, and type of sales (retail, wholesale, online, retail store).I also think that a comment space for specialties, year founded, and the ability to upload a copy of the logo as well as a photo (or two) of work.If you have any ideas for what that database should include, please click the Feedback link at the bottom of this page and let me know.:: Clay
The Western Edition of The Chocolate Guide is brought to you by the same people who produced the book Chocolate French and who are also behind TasteTV, Chocolate Television, and the International Chocolate Salons in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami, and internationally.I reviewed the first edition of Chocolate French when it first came out, and I did not give it a very good review. Much of my criticism was leveled at the way the book was organized as well as at the apparent lack of professional copy editing and fact checking. As I remember, this level of inattention was also evident in the recipes, several of which could not actually be made successfully if the directions were followed.In my correspondence with Andre Crump the writer/editor/publisher of Chocolate French I was accused of "killing" the book - that my review on chocophile.com was somehow single-handedly responsible for stalling the sales of the book. (Poor sales had nothing to do, of course , with the fact that the book was poorly done.) I was, however, happy to see that Mr Crump was wrong in his assessment of the book's sales potential and that a second edition was published. I did not either contribute (I was asked) or review the updated version so I do not know if the structural issues I pointed out in my review of the first edition were addressed.When I heard that Mr Crump was publishing a guide to chocolatiers, chocolate makers, Boutiques [sic: comma is missing on the cover] Patisseries & Shops, I hoped that he would have learned his lesson from Cafe French and actually create a usable book.Sad to say, that is not the case. Which is not to say that the book is not useful, it's just not very usable.There are huge gaps in the businesses and areas that are covered and it's not apparent (unless you read some fine print in the front of the book) why some companies were included and featured and others overlooked, and there is no rational scheme or order that I can detect in the way the businesses that are included are ordered that would make the book's organization make sense.The book starts showing how little attention was paid to the idea of editorial consistency when you take a look at the Table of Contents and the cover page for the first section. The Table of Contents says the first section is titled "Southern California" while the Cover pages say "Southern California & Mexico." This is born out by the fact that the Nestle Museum in Mexico City is not only mentioned in the Table of Contents, it deserves four full pages of photos. But the Museum does not appear in the "Local Directory" so there's no contact information. And what, there are no other chocolatiers or chocolate companies between the San Diego and Mexico City?This lack of depth and consistency plagues the "Local Directory" at the back of each section. In the Local Directory for Southern California, for example, the first entry is Chuao (which is located in Encinitas which is closer to San Diego than it is to LA). The next entry is for Leonidas in LA/Beverly Hills, followed by a raft of LA metro-area entries which appear to be grouped by city, but are not organized alphabetically by the name of the business or according to the geography of LA. Nor are multiple entries for the same company (Leonidas, for example) listed in most cases, let alone grouped together. (To be fair, the Leonidas site itself is confusing: the store referred to on myleonidas.com as being in Beverly Hills is the same store whose web site is leonidashollywood.com.) So, I can see how the editors might be initially confused, but that is exactly the sort of organization and attention to detail that readers deserve, if not expect.Furthermore, all of the entries in the Local Directories are incomplete : only a small percentage have phone numbers and none of the entries have either web site URLs or zip codes. In this day and age, surely, all of these businesses have both phones as well as web presences. In fact, the only companies with complete street addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses are the featured companies. (More on that in the conclusion.) And in the case of Chuao the address on the featured listing is different from the address in the directory, and Chuao is not the only example of this (Scharffen Berger falls victim, too). Are you confused yet? I was and still am.Nowhere is the unwillingness to do the necessary research and fact checking more apparent than in Emily Stone's article Pacific Northwest Chocolate - The Trip I Didn't Take . Now I know Emily and respect her work and her opinion, but an article like this does not excuse TCB-Cafe Press from actually doing the research. Which reveals still yet another editorial mishap. One of the companies mentioned in Emily's article is not listed in the Local Directory. (Sour grapes? Emily is one of several bloggers whose work is featured in the book and I, and other writers whose work might also be recognized, are not mentioned at all. I know why in my case. It's because of the negative review I gave of Mr Crump's first edition of Chocolate French. And frankly, this book displays so many flaws that I am glad I was not asked to contribute; it's not a project I want my name associated with. Sour grapes? You decide after looking at the book from my perspective.)In at least one case, it appears as if the writer took promotional copy directly from a brochure published by the company being featured and did not read it closely enough. The Qzina description on page 49, in the last paragraph, reads "... at each of our location [sic] hosted by their Corporate Pastry Chef." A clear case of not paying attention.Another challenge the book presents to its readers is that it does not adequately distinguish (in the table of contents - there is no index) between chocolate makers, chocolatiers, recipes, blog entries, photo essays, and specialty foods distributors. You are left on your own to figure this one out, as is puzzling out why Ghirardelli is featured, but not Lindt (its corporate parent) and there is no mention at all of See's, the largest chocolate company actually headquartered in California, and highly regarded by many.The editorial and production issues are not limited to the Table of Contents and the Local Directories: page 174 is blank except for a headline that says "Chocolate Salon." (Clearly someone was not looking closely at the page proofs when they came back from the printer.) Given the context of the facing page, missing are some photos from one of the Salons that TCB-Cafe Press organizes.And promote the various interests of TCB-Cafe Press the book does. Of the 190 pages of the book, more than 10 pages are devoted to advertising TCB-Cafe Press projects and not a guide to chocolate at all, and one of them is an ad for the same edition of the book you happen to be reading. On purpose? Or, was it supposed to be an ad for the Eastern Edition and they just weren't paying enough attention? Conclusion After reading the introduction on the Welcome Page, the actual purpose of the book becomes clearer. It's as much a promotion vehicle for the companies that support TCB-Cafe Press's television and event businesses as it is a true guide. Companies that support TCB-Cafe Press's other businesses are featured in the book; companies that do not, are not. That the next to the last page of the book is an ad for a company that has nothing to do with chocolate, but probably provides business service (promotion, PR, marketing) to TCB-Cafe Press really drives this point home.This regrettable circumstance gets in the way of the book's usefulness in other regards, too. Northern and Southern California fill about 140 pages of the book while only about 40 pages are given over to "Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia." Apparently there are no chocolatiers or chocolate makers worthy of inclusion in the book in Arizona or New Mexico, or any other state West of the Mississippi - which would be a natural dividing line unless a third, Midwest Edition, is planned.Now of course the publisher could complain that this was a print book and not a web site and therefore space was very limited. That's nonsense. The way to handle the space issue would have been to reduce the number of pages devoted to completely and totally irrelevant (at least to true chocolate lovers interested in a real, usable, guide) content. One page of photos of the Nestle Chocolate Museum in Mexico City would have sufficed. There, I just saved three pages for useful content. The double page spread for Sacred Chocolate could also be sacrificed on the altar of more content. Two more pages available. Three pages for the How to Conduct an Interview segment. Six pages for gear, wine, and Vermeer could easily be done in three. The cover pages for each section could be done in one page, not two, saving another three pages. Losing the ads at the back would save three more. There, I just freed up 17 pages - nearly 10% of the book - for meaningful (by which I mean central to the purported premise of the book) content.At this point, after reading all the reasons I found not to like The Chocolate Guide: Western Edition , you've probably forgotten that early on I wrote, "Which is not to say that the book is not useful, it's just not very usable."The book is useful in the sense that it does list a lot of companies whose work you probably should be aware of but have never heard of, even though it fails to mention many others you should also know about. Armed with the base information the book provides, an understanding of its editorial slant, and a willingness to do a lot of your own online research, The Chocolate Guide: Western Edition is worth reading if you are planning your own trip to Discover Chocolate out West.I also want to point out that I applaud Mr Crump and his associates' efforts in promoting chocolate in general and American artisan chocolate in particular. The book is a great idea conceptually. This first edition is flawed, and I hope that the publisher works to resolve the copy editing, design, and usability issues I mention when producing future editions - these guides are supposed to be updated on a regular basis. Book Review Rating: Must Have :: Should Have :: Nice to Have :: Not Worth Shelf SpaceBy clicking on one of the images below, you can order the book whose cover is being displayed. The Chocolate Life earns a commission on each sale. When these links to products on Amazon generate sufficient sales I will remove the Google ads.
updated by @Clay Gordon: 04/20/15 14:49:23
Unfortunately, the content of the site is so poorly written, edited, proofread, and fact-checked that it's self-marginalizing and comes off as very fringe - even farther out than most on this subject. It will be interesting to see how the business takes off.
Just for fun, here is the ICCO (International Cocoa Organization) of "Chocolate Manufacturers." In looking at it I see:
None of the American craft chocolate makers on the list (e.g., Amano, Askinosie, Black Mountain, Cacao Atlanta, Escazu, Patric, Rogue, Theo ...).
Some other amazing oversights - Pralus, Bernachon, Debelis, Ambrosia, Belcolade,
Some companies that clearly don't belong on the list (Green and Black's - until recently, anyway, all G&B product was made by the Italian company ICAM; Astor, Asher's).
Does Scharffen Berger count any more (as manufacturing is supposedly done by Hershey). Dagoba as well?
It's not clear what the criteria are for inclusion. One very new company, AMMA (Brazil) is on the list.
Because of the spill over between this thread and the thread on enzymes in cacao I am temporarily closing this thread to further comments to give things a chance to calm down.
Steve -The fact that you're being grouped in with the Xocai folks can be laid, in part, at your doorstep. Your marketing of your product (and yourself) appeals to people who have already bought into your central concept. For people who have not already bought into the claims made for the raw lifestyle the claims you make - and the way you make them - comes across as unsubstantiated hype.Now there might be a real difference that makes a difference in what you do. And I, for one, am willing to do some heavy lifting and be patient, and try to understand. Many people will just dismiss it as being kooky or weird.What you may want to remember is that perception is reality for most people. And the perception that many people outside of the raw foodist community have is NOT the one you want them to have. Saying exactly the same things over and over and over again is not going to change their minds. If you are interested in winning them over you have to change the way you present your product, your company, and yourself.I say the following as a colleague and a friend - and as someone who has friends in the raw food and raw chocolate world:Now - you may not care about non-raw-foodists and from a business perspective I can understand that. However please understand that people are lumping you in with Xocai because they don't see any difference in the claims you are making and how you make them. Again - if you care - you are the only one who can move to change this perception. As I said, you may not care, but from my 15+ years of research into chocolate, chocolate marketing, and more, the burden is yours to convince us, not on us to understand you.
