The previous owners of Chocovic (Nederland Group) sold Chocovic to Barry Callebaut in 2009.
BC bought the company (the deal closed December 2009) because they needed the production capacity - and it was (I heard) cheaper to buy the company than to build a new factory from scratch.
Last I checked, Chocovic's recipes were still being produced and sold under the Chocovic brand.
Rodney:
To be clear, it's not the type of beans that are being grown it's the system of agriculture that is employed. It's possible to grow any type of bean in a "modern" (i.e., high density, no shade, intensive agricultural input) way- irrespective of "resorting" to pioneer farming (the clear cutting of primary or secondary forest for agricultural use).
The origin and source of the fertilizers being used also needs to be considered. There are examples of appropriate-scale on-site organic composting in the cacao industry.
Cacao is a good choice for rehabilitating degraded land if the planting is managed carefully for the long term and organic techniques are used (e.g., nitrogen-fixing plants are incorporated into the shade tree selection) - and in part because of the potential for economic return.
Correct?
Pimm:
Having just got done doing a very successful chocolate tasting for the NYC Slow Food chapter I would have to say that all of these companies fall within the constellation of attributes that Slow Food embraces. However, the chocolate brands themselves may or may not consider themselves to fit the Slow Food mantra.
Much chocolate is among the least-sustainable, least "locavore" gourmet foods going - beans grown in the tropics, shipped to Europe, converted to chocolate, shipped to NY and then to LA to be made into confections and then shipped ... around the world in some cases.
Something to consider.
:: Clay
Sebastian:
Thanks for the technical clarifications on coconut oil ... especially on the melt point.
When I go into my local health food store I do see coconut oils that are solid at "store temp" which is maybe ten degrees lower than 76F, hence my saying that it's solid at "room temp."
Anhydrous milk fat (sometimes called butter oil) is a good option as you suggest - a little harder to find, but if the chocolate shells covering the ganache are done with properly tempered chocolate and are thick enough, they should form a sufficient oxygen barrier, no?
:: Clay
Klassy:
There is no "standard of identity" for ganache, so there's no legal reason why you can't call it a ganache instead of a "ganache-like substance" even if there is no dairy in the mix. Many ganaches have ingredients like invert sugars (e.g., sorbitol) and those don't disqualify them from using the term ganache.
Technically, emulsions consist of two different substances (water, oil) mixed together. Chocolate is a suspension of cocoa powder particles in crystallized cocoa butter, so I suppose that what you're making is still a suspension (because there is nothing to emulsify lecithin, which is an emulsifier, won't help).
Canola oil is used because it's cheap. Because cocoa butter is solid at room temp I like the idea of using coconut oil because it has a similar melt point and it's also a tropical plant. Another name for canola oil is rapeseed and I just don't like the sound of that in my chocolate.
As for the 4-6 month claim, you're best off getting these tested so you can feel confident making the claim. There is a potential liability issue if someone gets sick eating one before the "best by" date.
Shelf life of confections is determined by many things, but water activity plays a big part. Water is the medium in which spores grow, turning dairy sour and inviting mold. However, the science is not that simple ...
What kind of shelf life at room temperature are you looking for?
Ganache is a usually a water/fat emulsion. The chocolate provides the fat while the liquid (most commonly dairy, including cream and butter) provides the water. By replacing the dairy with another fat you introduce a number of challenges.
The first things that occur to me in your description:
A) There is no need to freeze;cover the ganache (with plastic wrap) let cool to room temp, and then put in the fridge to set.
B) Though you say you are mixing it well, my guess is that you're not mixing it well enough. Don't use a wooden spoon or a balloon whisk, use a stick blender.
C) Choose another fat ... a cold-pressed coconut oil comes to mind. It's much better for you and the fat is solid at room temp; the melting point is closer to that of cocoa butter. The quantity of added fat you use will determine the texture. More fat, more fudge-like texture.
Finally, what are you using to cover the ganache? If you're just rolling balls in cocoa powder shelf life will be shorter. If you're covering the ganache centers with chocolate, the covering chocolate will have to be tempered, the ganache, because of the addition of the fat, will never temper.
HTH,
:: Clay
There is a small export market for pods into the US, mainly for decorative floral applications. The pods must be fumigated, and because the supply chain is not as tightly integrated as it is in flowers, by the time the pods arrive they are way past their prime. You could eat just the seeds, but the pulp is the real treat here and once a pod has been off a tree for a more than a couple of days it starts to dry out inside and is far less appealing.
Yvonne, Matt Monarch is a very interesting character. The machine he is hyping is a Santha (Spectra) stone grinder from India. These have been used in the US (and around the world) as grinder/refiner/conches for years. I personally have been using them to make nut butters for years, and I know many others who've been using them this way, too.
I notice the machines were added to the catalog May 21, 2011 - and Matt is hyping them up something fierce. Might news in rural Ecuador where he is, but not in the chocolate world.
That said, my personal experience with these machines is that the basic running temp is around 115F as measured by a laser thermometer pointed right at the point the grinding wheels contacts the stone bottom of the grinder. If you read closely, Matt suggests pointing a fan into the machine to move the heat out more quickly. Not a bad idea, overall. However, no one I know of has actually done any testing to figure out what the instantaneous temperature generated by the sheer action of the wheels on the base is. It might be much higher than the average/spot temp that can be measured by an infrared thermometer.
Brian:
47C (~118F) is the most common max temp I have heard for raw anything.
It's possible to fully ferment below 118F, though pile temps "naturally" want to tend to peak around 122-125F.
While raw chocolate people talk about ferment and roast temps, they almost never consider the temp beans are exposed to during sun drying. As you point out, they can easily reach 140-150F on a drying pad in direct sun. Actually, anything above 140F is counterproductive as the shell tends to crust over at that temp, slowing evaporation of both water and acetic acid. The technique they use in Chuao, though labor intensive, may actually be more efficient from a drying perspective because peristaltic pressure builds up that "pumps" water from the interior of the bean during the mid-day rest.
I know that at least one company is using a large dehydrator system to dry their beans "low and slow."
Is there any great tasting raw chocolate? When you consider the raw chocolate world in and of itself there are some that are much better than others. If you start comparing them with conventional chocolate then raw chocolates still fall short and are generally recognizable. That may change as people start working from the moment of harvesting to optimize techniques to deliver interesting flavors in raw chocolate. I was at a tasting last week hosted by Maricel Presilla featuring Santiago Perralta of Pacari and I have to say that I was very surprised at what they have been able to achieve in this regard. I know that Vanessa Barg of Gnosis just got back from Grenada and that's such a good starting flavor it will be interesting to taste what she's been able to achieve working with Mott Green of Grenada Chocolate Co.
Michel:
The FACT is that there is no proof that the Howell's enzyme theory of nutrition has any legitimate basis.
The fact that there is no firm consensus as to what defines what is, and what is not, raw.
What we DO know is that different foods have different sensitivities. Lettuces are a lot more delicate than nuts, for example. To hold them to the same temperature standard makes no sense. Another issue that raw foodists don't talk about is time/temp. If I expose a cocoa bean to a temp of 120F for 1/100 of a second does that denature all the enzymes in the bean? Of course not. In fact (and this is a test I've done personally), you can subject an intact cocoa bean to a temperature in excess of 300F for a considerable time (minutes) and not raise the surface temperature of the bean inside the shell above 110F. One reason is evaporative cooling. Think about the volume of a bean if 0.5% of the mass of the bean hits 118.01F and stays there for 10 minutes but 99.5% of the bean stays below 118.0F I think it's silly to say that all the enzymes in the bean are dead.
There's also contact time. There is research that shows that many enzymes survive in aqueous environments above 150F for extended periods of time - hours even.
I have been studying this subject for years and not one raw foodist (in the chocolate world or not) has ever been able to show me one credible scientific study (and no, Gabriel Cousens is not credible) that supports the enzyme theory of nutrition and any scientific basis for picking one temperature over another as the maximum.
THAT SAID, the idea that minimally-processed food is better for you is something I buy into, but it has to be done on a food by food basis - not at an arbitrary cut off that is the same for all foods. There is evidence that broccoli is better for you if it's lightly steamed - better in the sense that more nutrients are more bioavailable.
There is also scientific proof that cooking can create beneficial compounds not found in the raw food. A good example is the antioxidant levels of roasted coffee are far higher than green coffee.
One day, I wish the "raw chocolate" segment of the market would fund a study that proves their claims. Not one company has done the analysis. Having made the claim, the burden is on them to prove their claims - the usual response is, "Prove us wrong." That's not the way it's done.
Michel:
Why 40C? Virtually everyone I know in the raw chocolate business works at 47C (~118F).
I can confirm that the CocoaTown will easily pass 40C as Cheebs says - I have measured it. The overal "continuous" temperature in the small (5L) machines hovers between 45-49C based on measuring over a number of hours; the larger machines generate more heat but I've never measured it. With a frequency controller on the motor you can slow the rotational speed down some to keep the temp under 47C, but if you tried to slow it down to keep it under 40C the processing times might become so long that any aromatics would volatilize out.
One thing no one has done (and, frankly, I don't know exactly how you'd do this) is to measure the "instantaneous" shear temperature immediately between the grinder wheels and the base. I am fairly confident that this is at least a couple of degrees higher than whatever the "continuous" temperature might be.
The deadline for entries in the 2011 Academy of Chocolate Awards is Friday February 25th.
If you're interested in participating, all of the information and instructions you need are attached for you to download. If you have questions about the instructions, forms, or anything else post them here, I have notified the organizers and they will be monitoring the discussion.
You're stranded on a desert island and for some reason, you have the ability to choose some of what you're stranded with, including chocolate.
Okay - it's a mythical desert island, of course, because you have unlimited amounts of the chocolate you want to eat, plus working refrigeration to keep it in good condition until you get around to eating it.
So ... what chocolate do you take?
:: Clay
PS. My Desert Island chocolate is the trio of Indonesian 65% dark milks from Bonnat - Surabaya, Asfarth, and Java. (I know it's more than one it's my question so I get to interpret the rules.) In addition to the fact that I like the taste, milk chocolate has been shown to be me more complete nutritionally (overall, even though lower in antioxidants) and a better choice for "survival" situations.
Lowe:
It's simple ... you have to become a "Dove At Home" chocolatier, buy their equipment and chocolate and start a small chocolate business (a bit like Pampered Chef) so you can join THEchocosphere.com, contribute to the community and get points for contributing.
I wonder if that would work on TheChocolateLife. 1 point for uploading a photo, 1 point for a comment, 2 points for starting a discussion or blog ...
I don't think it would make TheChocolateLife any better (and it might diminish the value as people would post to rack up points, not because they had anything useful to contribute).
:: Clay
To all participants in this conversation and members of TheChocolateLife:
Rarely do I get as much private mail about a discussion as I have about this one. It's pretty evenly split, but there are several members who believe that I have overstepped my bounds in responding as I have to Brad. So, to all of you who feel that way now or who may come to feel this way after reading what I have to say - and to Brad - I apologize. Brad has been a long-time contributor to the community and his comments are appreciated by many. Including me: though there are times I wish he would choose to express himself differently.
I would like to add, not by way of excuse (there is none), but of explication, an analogy I believe I have offered to Brad privately: If I walked into Brad's store in Calgary and started talking in a loud voice using language he thought was disrespectful of other customers it would be within his right to walk over to me and ask me to quiet down and to refrain from using the language he found disrespectful. My "shop" (TheChocolateLife.com) is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, who is willing to spend a few moments signing up to join - free of any charge or obligation. Most of the people who visit my shop do so quietly, anonymously, reading, learning, but not contributing (or buying anything). There is no compulsion on my part to contribute in any way.Those who wish to contribute do so.What I ask, however, is that when visitors to my shop do contribute they do so in a reasonable tone of voice using respectful language.
If I was being disrespectful to Brad (and by extension to every member of TheChocolateLife), again I apologize to those who took offense and contacted me. I have invested a lot of time, effort, and love in creating and nurturing TheChocolateLife community over the past three years to the point where it now counts nearly 4000 members in over 100 countries. One of the things that has contributed to this growth, I think, is the work I have done publicly (leading by example) and privately (when I felt necessary) to maintain a certain level of civil discourse.
We may not all like white chocolate, but we all like chocolate ... and that provides a common ground for gathering together to share what we know. Collectively, we know a great deal more than individually. That is the reason I started TheChocolateLife in the first place; to create a place where people (including me) could come to get their questions answered. Though we may disagree at times, we are all united by our fascination and passion for this thing called chocolate.
Thanks for your support, consideration, and patience:
:: Clay
Creator/Moderator
Brad:
I don't want to get into an argument with you about the way you choose to run your business. You're free to do whatever you want - it's your business. And I completely respect your growth/cashflow argument.
What I do want to mention is that the person who was interested in buying a bar of chocolate from the UK is NOT a "dufus" as you referred to him. This is a person who had heard about your chocolate and was interested in trying it so inquired if there was a way to get any. The fact that his inquiry did not fit your business model does not make him stupid and there is absolutely no need to denigrate him - nor anyone - by using such dismissive language.
I know you have very strong opinions on many things, including sampling, PR, and more. I would love to be able to drive business your way ... lots of people do visit Calgary, some of them have to like chocolate, and some of them may read TheChocolateLife, subscribe to one of my Twitter feeds, find me on Facebook ... or learn about your business from me in one way or another.
I can only conclude that you don't care whether I taste it or not, what I think. You have more than enough market in the Calgary area to keep you busy. Good for you. However, take a look at it from my perspective for a second ... there is a community here that I have nurtured for three years. You have been an active (and mostly welcomed) member of the community for more than eighteen months, and I have received comments from members supporting you in response to my post. I don't charge you a penny for being a member and I have to assume that you get some value and satisfaction from being a member here.
Isn't that worth a bar (or three) of chocolate? Without requiring me to spend a couple of thousand bucks?
:: Clay
Brad's approach to marketing his product has always been interesting to me ... he requires people to physically go to his shop in Calgary to get product: he does not ship anything to anyone (including me, as I have mentioned). This makes it incredibly difficult for those of us in the chocolate community who care about such things to get our hands on his products to taste them for ourselves and form our own opinions - and communicate those opinions to the rest of the world.
Intrigued by the opinions of two BC reps who visited, I had to ask myself, even if what Brad makes is some of the best chocolate in the world ... is it worth the cost? Not the price - the cost. I can walk into a local store in NYC and buy a 2oz bar of the 2002 Valrhona Chuao for $35. That's about $250/lb. A lot, I know, but $35 is something I can easily afford for special occasions.
The least expensive r/t flights I can find from NYC to Calgary cost US$552 with a route time totaling over 20 hours. I can get a non-stop for over $832 that takes about half the time. When I factor in the time it takes to get to the airport, overnighting (at least) in Calgary, incidental expenses (airport transfers, accommodations, meals), one of Brad's bars of chocolate costs me, what? At least $800 but only if I don't factor into the equation the value of my time (after all, I am a chocolate professional, and I do need to factor the value of my time into this whole process as I am not likely to choose Calgary as a vacation destination). That brings the cost (time and expenses) of a bar of Brad's chocolate to be between $1500 and $2500.
I don't know about you, but even if it is the best chocolate in the world, it's not worth the cost (the price of a bar is only $12) - to me - to go find out if it's as good as some people say it is.
Lowe:
The ONLY way to get chocolate (bars or confections) from Brad is to visit him in Calgary. I've asked him on numerous occasions in the past and he has categorically refused on this point.
:: Clay
Okay, I am neither Jack Nicholson for Morgan Freeman and I don't have a note from a doctor saying my time on earth is coming to an end anytime soon.
I have done a lot in the last 17 years that I've been involved with the wonderful world of chocolate - traveled to about a dozen countries (not nearly enough), met a lot of people (but not all of them), ate A LOT of chocolate (some bad, but most good). And every time I turn around, there's some new place or person to visit and some new chocolate to try.
I definitely want to visit Bali, never been there, and I have always loved the chocolate made from the beans that come from Java, Surabaya, and elsewhere in the region. I have some good friends there and know a top pastry chef at a top hotel so I know I can eat and sleep well in addition to roughing it in the countryside.
But what about you? What's on your Chocolate Bucket (not Charlie Bucket) List?
Mariano:
A device like the Robot Coupe might make a good pre-grinder but it's not going to work for the extended periods of time necessary for flavor development and particle size reduction in making chocolate.
I agree with you about making pralins and grinding nuts and they are also good for ganaches as long as you're careful to make sure that the ganache covers the blades.
Robot Coupes may be expensive but they are versatile multi-taskers and well worth every penny.
:: Clay
Adam:
I have no reason to believe that you're anything but honest, ethical, and responsible. However, as you point out, you're new to the chocolate business and didn't know what you have. I don't think you've been given the wisest counsel and - as near as I can tell - no one employed by Maranon has much experience against which to evaluate that counsel.
I am confused - and the confusion starts with the company name, Maranon Chocolate and the address of the website, maranoncacao.com. Are you a chocolate company (I don't think so - you don't make chocolate) or are you a cacao company? I think you're a marketing company and, at least at the moment, the messages are not clear, at least not to me.
I find there are claims you make that are unsubstantiable and that reflect your inexperience about the world of chocolate. So I don't really understand why you're telling the story you're trying to tell the way you're telling it. I think you didn't cast your net wide enough to get opinions on the true value of what you may have. I say may have because I still don't know what you do have.
What I do know is that if you keep it locked up in a canyon in Peru the full value to the cacao and chocolate community worldwide will never be realized - and that would be a real shame.
As far as the Tumbled Beans are concerned. The interesting story there is not that the beans are uniform in size, but that differences in pigmentation cause differences in flavor due to fermentation, drying, and roasting. Thus, any given handful of beans may all taste very different. Also, they're not the first chocolate-covered beans I've tasted where the beans are covered with chocolate made from the same beans. That honor goes to REPSA at the Salon du Chocolat last October.I do have to say that I prefer the chocolate-covered wild beans of the Beni, produced entirely in-country in La Paz, Bolivia by Rainforest Exquisite Products. These are the wild beans used to make Felchlins Cru Sauvage and they are covered in chocolate made from the wild beans. In this case it is the lack of uniformity in size and small size of the beans (140-160/100gr) that contributes to very different roast profiles and therefore very different flavors in the beans. There is a brightness to them that I (and everyone who's tried them) finds truly fascinating. I just finished the last of my sample that I got when I was in Bolivia in November and the next ones won't be available until June at the earliest but I will be more than happy to share them with you when I get more.
As far as direction is concerned - I mention in my original writeup that there are amazing similarities between your story and the wild beans of the Beni; I would counsel you to reach out to Volker to extend the opinions you are getting about how to handle what you have. He has decades of experience working in-country that I think you will find invaluable.
:: Clay
Nacional.
I don't know about you, but when I hear the term Nacional applied to cacao, two words spring immediately to mind:
Ecuador has long been thought to be the home of cacao Nacional, a variety of cacao unique in the world: it is the only cacao that has a name for its flavor Arriba.
Yet, Pure Nacional as it has been named and is being promoted by Maraon Chocolate is from Peru, and the chocolate made from the beans does not (at least to me and many others I have asked who have tasted it) have any of the distinctive orange blossom/jasmine aroma that is associated with the name Arriba. Maraon Chocolate even acknowledges that Nacional is known for fruity/floral aroma on the home page of its web site, yet the chocolate did not deliver on that expectation.
According to USDA ARS (United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service), Peruvian Pure Nacional (from here on in, Nacional.P[eru]) and "pure" Ecuadorian Nacional (from here on Nacional.E[cuador]) are genetically one and the same. "Pure" Nacional.E, is thought to have disappeared in Ecuador as a result of a blight that began in 1916 and that wiped out some 95% of Nacional stands in Ecuador within a few short years. However, there are some key differences between Nacional.P and Nacional.E, differences that many (including me) might think are expressions of meaningful genetic differences:
The story of the discovery and voyage to market of Nacional.P is remarkably similar to that of Volker Lehmann and the wild beans of the Beni (Bolivia), the cacao silvestre that are the basis of Felchlin's Cru Sauvage among other chocolates. Brian Horsley (a ChocolateLife member) has been working in Peru for many years and stumbled across this remarkable strain of cacao. Horsleyy realized that he had something different and special and, working with stepfather Dan Pearson, a California-based investment professional, worked to bring the cacao to market. Along the way, samples were sent to the USDA ARS lab where genetic testing confirmed that the cacao was a match for "pure" Nacional.E.
A short aside: early in 2010, after my first trip to Bolivia to visit Volker, I encouraged him to send samples to USDA ARS for testing. Tests revealed that the wild beans of the Beni constituted a unique genetic cluster, separate from the ten proposed by Juan Carlos Motomayor in 2008, bringing that total up to fourteen.)
As with the wild beans of the Beni, the logistics of getting the Nacional.P beans to market are challenging. In both instances, the beans are wild harvested, and collecting them centrally and fermenting and drying them is only the start of the process. In both locations, getting the beans from the collection center to a place where they can be exported requires many different forms of transportation and can take weeks or longer before they get on a boat for shipment overseas to make chocolate. Nacional.P is not unique in this respect.
Like the wild beans of the Beni (and unlike Nacional.E), Nacional.P displays a remarkable resistance to many cacao diseases (or, at any rate, the cacao stands show little evidence of disease), and cacao professionals are unsure why this is the case. It is conjectured that the habitat (an isolated mountain valley) and the fact that there has been no deliberate breeding/selection may have something to do with this. At the moment, no one knows for sure what is cause and what is effect.
Although the folks at Maraon Chocolate are not publicly revealing the name of the company that has been making the chocolate from the beans, its obvious: Felchlin. Mention Switzerland and 1879 longitudinal conches in the same sentence (on the home page of their web site, for example) and that narrows the possible players down to just the one. Furthermore, when we were served samples of the chocolate at the launch event on January 11th at ICE (Institute of Culinary Education), those samples had the words "Grand Cru" embedded in them from the mold in a design that is instantly reconizable as Felchlins. Not only that, the chocolate is 68% and is conched for 60 hours - the same as Cru Sauvage. And finally, two people associated with the marketing of the beans and the chocolate, Paul Edward (aka Chef Rubber) and Franz Ziegler, both have long-standing ties to Felchlin and their US distributor, Swiss Chalet Fine Foods.
The question is: Why all the secrecy? That lack of transparency extends to the location of the valley where Nacional.P grows. From an intellectual property perspective I suppose it makes a little sense Cacao Maraon is protecting its investment, fearing, perhaps, that someone may come in behind them and secure the supply out from under them. All we have been told is that the valley is somewhere along the Maraon River downstream from Lima. The lack of transparency is troubling, especially in an era where there is intense interest and scrutiny in origins and stories about shenanigans in Chuao.
According to what was revealed at the launch, work is underway in expanding production, which amounted to ~12 MT (tonnes, or metric tons, 1000kg) of beans in the just-past harvest year. Much of this increase will be achieved through a grafting program aimed at delivering a more uniform percentage of white beans, which will make consistent, uniform fermentation easier. Unlike "wild cultivated" programs in Bolivia, where no selection is being made, the grafting program being undertaken by Maraon in Peru appears to be a classical approach of selecting a single variety (or very small number of varieties) for propagation for a specific set of desired traits. In the long run it will be interesting to see what this does to both yield and disease resistance.
Research in Ecuador on Nacional.E has identified a total of 6 trees (from more than 100,000) that can be thought of as "pure Nacional.E." All other Nacional in Ecuador has been hybridized (deliberately or naturally) with introduced varieties in the last 100 years or so. According to Cacao Maraon there are no plans to export seeds, grafts, or seedlings out of Peru to Ecuador, which, to my mind, is a wasted opportunity, because chocolate made from Nacional.P has none, or virtually none, of the hallmark Arriba flavor.
While it may be technically true that Nacional.P is indeed "Pure Nacional" hanging the marketing of the cacao on this name can only cause some unneeded confusion, despite what the Maraon Chocolate folks think. People associate the Arriba descriptor with Nacional (even though, in most cases, this conflation is more marketing hype than reality, or is result of a mistaken belief that Nacional and Arriba are synonyms). Furthermore, there is at least a third Nacional in the region, the Cacao Nacional Boliviano, itself a genetically distinct variety according to USDA ARS. Motomayor identified a distinct genetic cluster he called Maraon, which does not apply to this cacao, increasing the potential for confusion in the marketplace.
From a research perspective, it would be very interesting to see what would happen if Nacional.P were to be planted in the Guayas River valley in Ecuador, the source of Nacional that exhibited the famous Arriba flavor. There are very few opportunities to truly understand the nature/nurture concept in agriculture and the true effects of terroir (in this instance, micronutrients in the soil) and their affect on flavor development. Nacional.P grown along the Maraon River in Peru does not exhibit the characteric Arriba flavor. If some where transplanted in Ecuador, would it? A very interesting question which, sadly, may never come about, leaving the chocolate world a much poorer place.
Another very interesting line of research would be to introduce Nacional.P into a breeding program in Ecuador to address the yield and disease resistance deficiencies of Nacional.E. Could Nacional.P be part of an answer to reducing the spread of CCN51? We may never know because of a (in my opinion misplaced) desire to very tightly control the ownership of Nacional.P.
What About The Chocolate Itself
Surprisingly, the taste of the chocolate itself was a secondary objective of the launch event on January 11th even though the chocolate is being touted as the best chocolate either Edward or Ziegler and many others have tasted. In all respects, the chocolate is classic Swiss chocolate as crafted by Felchlin. It is very reminiscent in texture to Cru Savuage, though the melt is not quite as delicate (I have described the melt on the Cru Sauvage as being more like dissolving than melting). The fat content is a tad on the high side, contributing to a buttery mouth feel and a very long, lingering finish. From an overall flavor profile perspective it fits between the Cru Sauvage (Bolivia) and the Cru Hacienda (Dominican Republic). The Cru Sauvage tends to be light and aromatic with the aromas in the top of the mouth and in the nose. The Cru Hacienda is all rich and dark and on the tongue and in the lower part of the mouth. The chocolate Felchlin made from the Maraon cacao fits comfortably in the middle of the mouth delivering nice rounded chocolate flavor that lingers for a very long time. It is a very pleasant chocolate with nothing challenging about it.
Is it the best chocolate in the world, as they at least verbally claim? Thats not for a cacao marketing company to decide. They can announce it, but the crowning really should be made by an independent body. For me, a best chocolate in the world would be one that I could not live without, and Chocolate Maraons interpretation, through Felchlin, does not rise to that level, for me.
Mark Christian of The C-Spot ( www.c-spot.com ) was a consultant to Maraon on the development of the chocolate gives it an 8.19 out of 10. Upala 82 from US startup Potomac gets an 8.39 and Xoconusco from Bonnat gets a 9.5. Oh, well. (Surprisingly, Mark makes a simple mistake on his website, identifying the origin of Maraon as Peru, where the origins of the other chocolates are the country of manufacture.
All that said the project is a remarkable achievement and one that needs to be acknowledged for what it is, not hyped for what it is not.
The original full press release can be read by clicking here :
The Maraon Chocolate web site is at http://www.maranoncacao.com/
Melanie:
Chocolate World makes such a machine. Their on-line catalog is not very helpful. You will find a couple of photos on this page - M1920 (manual) M1922 (automatic).
I don't know anything else about these machines, I just remember seeing them when doing some other research.
:: Clay
You can certainly get panning machines for a lot less than $16K. However, they do require a good deal of skill to learn to use well. (Hint #1 - you do NOT use tempered chocolate when panning). If you don't want to learn, or don't have the time to learn, a system like the Selmi Comfit is basically automatic. However, you do pay for it.
Enrobing does sound like it could work, but one thing to look for is that the enrober has a "bottomer" feature. This is when the carry chain goes below the level of the chocolate for a brief period to ensure that the bottom gets coated, not just the top.
In the Selmi line the smallest machine that accepts an enrobing belt is the Plus, and the combination is well over $20k, last I checked. FBM's smallest continuous temperer/enrober combination is about 10K Euros (~$13,500) after TheChocolateLife member discount. You may be able to find a batch/wheel combination for less.
Otherwise, a used machine may be your best bet.
Margaret:
Panning is an interesting concept, put would only work if the center is really solid. It wouldn't work on a ganache center for example.
What kind of center do you want to coat?
Steve:
If you could post a photo of what one of the items looks like, next to something that will give a good size reference, that would help.
You could probably use an enrobing line that comes with a "bottomer." If you post a photo, I can forward to someone who does this for a living and he can let me know if it will work for you.
Lowe:
There is no straight-line answer to this. Cocoa butter will weaken the flavor ... if it's deodorized. If the cocoa butter is pressed from the same beans that the chocolate is made from and the butter is not deodorized then the flavor isn't diluted.
When it comes to people handling or not handling the non-fat cocoa solids, there are taste and texture issues. If you make cheap chocolate with cheap beans then reducing the amount of non-fat solids is necessary because they taste nasty. Cover up the nasty flavor by alkalizing, adding sugar, milk, and vanilla, and you have something that might be palatable, but does not have a whole lot of chocolate enjoyment to it - for me.
The point is to separate the two different tasting aspects, texture and flavor.
Lowe:
The first link to The Nibble article is broken for me. The second one takes me to The Nibble glossary on chocolate.
The entry on cocoa butter contains a lot of inaccuracies - for example, there is more than one way to get cocoa butter from liquor. Hydraulic presses are one, expeller presses are another. I won't go on nitpicking the article because I will be here all night.
In pure cocoa mass, the only fat is cocoa butter. And yes, it is a vegetable fat, and no one whose opinion I defer to uses the phrase "cocoa fat" to refer to cocoa butter. So you can drop cocoa fat from your lexicon.
The Nibble entry is also inaccurate in that they refer to the "powder" as solids. Technically (and this is according to the USDA Standards of Identity), cocoa butter is a solid (it is solid at room temperature) and what we call powder is "non-fat cocoa solids."
When looking at an ingredients list, you have to list added things you add to the recipe. When you see an ingredients label that says cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter it means that the chocolate maker has added extra cocoa butter. If the ingredients list only cacao/cocoa beans, then the bar contains only the naturally occurring quantity of cocoa butter.
Cocoa mass and cocoa liquor are different names for the same thing. The non-fat part of cocoa mass is "non-fat cocoa solids." The fat part of the cocoa mass is cocoa butter. By definition, non-fat cocoa solids contain no fat; that's a technical definition, not a marketing/labeling definition.
I suppose cocoa butter and cocoa fat are synonymous - but you can clear up the confusion by not using cocoa fat. Cocoa butter has more than fat in it in the same way that butter has more than fat in it, though cocoa butter contains almost no water. Cocoa butter contains aromatic compounds (even if it has been deodorized there's still some aroma) and might also contain some teeny-tiny small particles of non-fat cocoa solids that can't be filtered out.
There is a correlation between cocoa butter content and texture, though this relationship is not necessarily straightforward when lecithin is factored in. If you eat a Bonnat chocolate bar you get a very soft, buttery mouth feel because there's a lot of extra butter in his chocolate (how much depends on how much occurs naturally). It's a stylistic choice and you may or may not like it. Another aspect of texture attributable to cocoa butter content is the "hardness" (melting point) of the cocoa butter. Butters with lower melting points are "softer" than butters with higher melting points.
HTH,
:: Clay
Lowe:
Some terminology because I know you love this stuff.
What we think of as cocoa powder is what the industry technically calls "non-fat cocoa solids." Cocoa butter is also cocoa solids - so it's good to be careful in differentiating between the two when the goal is to be accurate and precise.
Cocoa powder almost always contains cocoa butter. A "high-fat" cocoa powder will consist of 20-24% fatby weight; a "low-fat" cocoa powder will consist of 10-12% fat by weight. It's really expensive (in part because it's time consuming) to go much lower than this. Cocoa powders making "non-fat" claims can do this because of labeling regulations that allow "non-fat" claims when the amount is below a certain threshold per serving (usually less than 1/2 gram).
FYI generally, cocoa butter is generally more expensive than cocoa powder- often much more expensive.
Richard - it's Beckett, not Beck.
The Science of Chocolate provides a good overview of chocolate basics and a tiny bit of history. If you do plan to go into production then the more complete version, which costs a couple of hundred dollars, is one of the definitive reference guides and is highly recommended.
Link to The Science of Chocolate (hardcover - Amazon)
Link to Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use (hardcover - Amazon)
:: Clay
:: Clay
Dirke:
Pricing by weight makes it easier for consumers to compare the prices of similar products. It's not a universal requirement ... there are many chocolate stores here in NYC that sell by the piece and do not advertise price/weight.
In Paris, I noticed that pricing was by weight for everything - boxed (which makes sense) and loose pieces.
Pricing by the piece makes sense to reduce sticker shock. A 15-gram piece costing $2 means that 2 pieces cost $4, which, to some, is less costly than $60+/pound, which is the equivalent.
In the end, I think it's really up to what are the local rules for pricing (if there are any - and where Ruth is there are), plus the local market's perception about pricing is.
I like the mix of both - professionally speaking - because it enables me to establish value for products based on my experience with other chocolates.
Andy:
It's that time of year again, so people are looking more and more at hot chocolate. One of the avenues I've been exploring is using one of the insulated Zojirushi water boilers to heat milk instead of water. There are multiple temperature settings, including 175F. Pour your house-made syrup into the bottom of a cup then add hot milk.An alternative would be to create a syrup that has the milk in it and then just add hot water (you can get to boiling in these machines). This would avoid the waste problem at the end of the day that Brad mentions.
I also like the flexibility this approach offers - one for milk, one for water, one for soy milk ...
Price is about $170 each for a 4 liter machine, discounted. Make sure to get the insulated variety as they are far less expensive to operate and can maintain temps above 140F for several hours after being unplugged.
Sam -
Please post photos here on the ChocolateLife (there's a link below the comment box after you click reply where you can upload photos).. Or - you can create a photo album and link to the photo album.
If you share here, you won't be bombarded with lots of individual requests to send the photos.
:: Clay
Samuel:
Would love to see photos of what you've produced. I've been looking into ways to make the less expensively, too.
:: Clay
