Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Forgot to also mention that Tryptophan is present in Raw Cacao.
Forum Activity for @Sacred Steve
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Forgot to also mention that Tryptophan is present in Raw Cacao.
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
I forgot to mention that one of the main reasons behind the raw cacao trend, besides flavor and nutrition, is the fact that the complex and delicate chemistry that is inherent in raw cacao, is left intact for the most part. Therefore, the chemistry that is known to get us feeling "buzzed" or "high" from chocolate is even more present and thus the effects from it, more accentuated. This is something that a person in a fasting state just has to experience for him or herself, mainly because everybody's body chemistry is different, and I honestly can only speak of my own experience and the experiences of others as they have been related to me. Some of the main chemicals that are present and responsible besides theobromine of course are anandamide and phenylethylamine (PEA). PEA also shows up in large quantities in blue green algae.Check out the known list of chemistry in raw cacao... http://www.naturaw.com/raw-chocolate.html Due to its complexity, there are also components in raw cacao that are still unknown, sort of like Royal Jelly.
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Taste is a matter of opinion. Some people are of the opininon that raw foods in general taste better than cooked foods. Most people will agree it depends on the particular food. The reason humanity started cooking food was to preserve it (destroy bacteria/molds) and effectively eat animal products. Taste could also be a reason, but originally not the primary reason.Suggested Reading:Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and ShazzieConscious Eating by Dr. Gabriel CousensThe Sunfood Diet Success System by David WolfeEnzyme Nutrition by Howell
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
You have to actually get into it for a while and study and sit with it and it gets more clear after a while! Chocolate is really both an art and a science! A true alchemy!Hearts!Sacred Steve
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Finally, one reason there is a great variation in ORAC value in finished chocolate is because each chocolatier has his/her own way of roasting...some roast minimally while some roast a lot! 15 to 45 minutes is typical at anywhere from 250 to 400 degrees F !
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Also, forgot to mention that most commercial dark chocolate at 70% cacao content does test out at about 90. Our Gingeroo at only 57% cacao content tests out at 343!
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Forgot to answer your other question! The beans we have are being farmed in a very special unique fashion to ensure that fermentation temperatures do not exceed what is considered raw. The beans are only lightly fermented!Also, the reason that I can guarantee that Sacred Chocolate never exceeds 114 degrees F is because I designed and built the machines that grinds the cacao beans! yay!Hearts!Sacred Steve
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Dear Samantha, I don't have a lot of confidence in that report only because they are reporting such a huge swing in the min and max values (202 to over 1000) for a 100% cacao bar (the 1000 level was probably gotten from a bar where the beans were not roasted and the 202 value was probably from a bar where the beans were minimally roasted; The more you roast, the more you blow out the antioxidants--this is a repeatable experimental fact.) Even the cocoa (cacao) powder which is devoid of about 80% of the cocoa (cacao) butter is reported to be in the 600 range on average with a much smaller range in min and max values probably because they do much of the pressing in the industry before the beans are roasted. On a per weight basis since it is much more concentrated, it should be much higher than the bar.
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
I am not an organic chemist. What I do know is that that is the units by which they are measuring the antioxidants present in our Lab report. People in the health industry loosely use the term ORAC score to refer to any method used to measure antioxidant levels. This should shed some light on the matter! http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/50/5/952
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Thanks Clay for that added clarification!
The unit notation umoleTE/g means micromole of trolox equivalents per gram. That is a mistake actually!
Thanks for pointing that out! The bean we use is officially called "Arriba Nacional Aromica". It is sourced from Ecuador.
Hearts!!
Sacred Steve
Raw chocolate-- what is it really?
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Hi Sarah,Thanks for your question! I am the maker of Sacred Chocolate http://www.SacredChocolate.com , which is considered in the "RAW" world to be the gold standard by which all raw chocolate is compared!Technically, what makes Raw Chocolate RAW is the following:1) Beans are never roasted and always stored and processed at temperatures below about 115 degrees F.2) All or most of the other ingredients used also follow the rule in 1).Most sweeteners are not considered truly raw. It is VERY difficult to use a really raw sweetener to make traditional chocolate. Look at my research on "raw" agave nectar here: http://www.naturaw.com/sacred-chocolate/newsletter-2.html Sacred Chocolate makes 19 flavors and only our 100% cacao bar is technically truly 100% raw, since we use things like organic maple sugar, essential oils, and vanilla beans, which are all not technically raw (Vanilla Bean has to be "cured" at non-raw temperatures to bring out any vanilla flavor; some flavors such as coffee and caramel can only be obtained by the cooking process). What I can guarantee you though is that the cacao itself in Sacred Chocolate never exceeds temperatures above 114 degrees F ! Why do we do this?1) Raw cacao has an antioxidant rating (ORAC SCORE) of 600 umoleTE/g !!!! Acai is about 150 as a comparison !!!! Roasting or processing at high temperature destroys about 80 to 90% of those antioxidants!2) Roasting or Processing at high temperature also can create trans fatty acids, of which Sacred Chocolate has none.3) Check out the lab report done on our Ginger Flavor. The Ginger is only 57% cacao content, so if 100% cacao is at 600, then the Ginger should show up at 342 if we have done our job right! Check out this report (Scroll to the bottom to see the TOTAL ORAC score): http://www.naturaw.com/sacred-chocolate/Sacred_Chocolate_Nutritional_Analysis_GINGER.pdf You will see that it is listed at 343 !FYI, Sacred Chocolate is Certified Organic, Vegan, Kosher, and Halal, and is sold above fair trade standards. (For the most part the cane sugar industry used BONE CHAR as a processing/filtering agent!)Hope that clarifies things...Hearts!!Sacred Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Jeez...I am now starting to "get" that I am starting to be grouped with the Xocai folks. PLEASE DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF DOING THAT! I have been into raw foods since 1993, LONG before raw chocolate was promoted as a superfood by David Wolfe and his book on the subject, Naked Chocolate. David Wolfe was invited to become part of Xocai at their startup in about 2005, and he declined for reasons I will not mention.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Dear Samantha,Honestly, I am a chocolate newbie compared to you, and don't claim in any way to know as much as you do on the subject of chocolate. I only got started in 2005, and didn't finish building our factory until the end of 2006. That being said, I do have hard evidence on my claims of antioxidants done by an independent and reputable lab. The lab report is published on our website and I am happy to email it to you privately if you wish to see it. I am not trying to ram anything down anybody's throat and your negative response definitely is pointing out that you must be getting your buttons pushed or something? I am just standing up for what I believe in. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and that includes both you and me. You may know a lot more than me about chocolate, and the very idea that I may even know one thing that you do not I feel is upsetting you to the point that you feel you have to put me down. Hearts, Sacred Steve
updated by @Sacred Steve: 09/09/15 18:56:31
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
FYI...We have discovered a new way to make chocolate starting from the whole cacao bean. We do not make chocolate from cocoa liquor.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hi Michael,Thanks for your concern. We are ALL about full disclosure with ingredients. We have even signed the truth in labeling oath with the natural ingredient resource center. I have yet to see another chocolate company do the same. As such, we list in our ingredients three types of ingredients: Cacao Nibs, Cacao Butter, and Whole Cacao Beans with SKINS. Also, we list our "milk" chocolate as Mylk with a y so that we indicate to consumers that our Mylk chocolate tastes like milk chocolate even though it is actually dark chocolate. If companies can even include such things as hydrogenated vegetable oil, whole flowers, salt or even bacon in their chocolate and call it chocolate, there is a disconnect at least within my own mind of how something that is as raw and natural as the actual whole cacao bean itself can't be called chocolate if it is included in the very thing it is responsible for making. We in no way want to mislead consumers. Instead we want to fully educate them. This is why I give tours to children of the factory on a regular basis and actually make chocolate with children from bean to bar. We choose to include the husks of the bean in our chocolate because they have been cleaned in a proprietary way which allows such, and because like the skin or husk of a sesame seed, we believe there is much nutrition that is otherwise lost. The chocolate industry, chicken farming industry, and fertilizer industry recognize at least some nutritional value in these husks because they are used in these other industries. By doing something outside the box and new, I am sure we will run into existing structures (including the FDA) that say we can't for many reasons, the least of which is that it just hasn't been accounted for yet. Every computer program will eventually crash because there is no way it can account for all unknown future cases. We are basically that computer crash.All the best,Sacred Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
are you going to taste some of our chocolate?
updated by @Sacred Steve: 01/24/15 07:39:21
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Clay, if we don't make chocolate, i don't know what it is then! And, perhaps you should not have allowed me in your chocolate competition.
Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
By the way, you don't have to start from cocoa liquor to make chocolate. We START from the whole bean.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Like I said, we ARE on the CUTTING edge...please read my reply to Clay regarding the State of CA. We are not here to "break" the rules. Our goal is to marry EXCEPTIONAL flavor with EXCEPTIONAL nutrition, and a HUGE amount of the nutrition of the bean is in the Husk. Just like the skin of a sesame seed, skin of a cucumber or potato or orange, a lot of nutrtion is in the husk. For instance, the Cacao Bean is VERY high in iron, however, most of that IRON is in the husk. That is just one example. Our beans are harvested in a very proprietary fashion so that they are extremely clean. They are sold at retail as whole beans with skins for human consumption they are so clean. They actually look like almonds and are mistaken for such CONSTANTLY at our demos and tastings. I am happy to email you a picture separately and privately if you wish.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
FYI. We are under close supervision by the STATE OF CALIFORNIA Health Department on this. They are WELL aware of what we are doing, which is on the cutting edge of chocolate making in my opinion. We have supplied them with CofA's of our cacao beans showing all microbial analysis and water activity which is well below acceptable limits. To date, nobody has fallen ill from our chocolate. We have been in biz since the summer of 2006 with a 100% perfect record. We are also listed with the USDA and FDA.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
This is a common misunderstanding that we get accused of all the time, and I always have to point out the issue. The FDA is DEFINING a cacao nib, not chocolate. Of course, the VERY DEFINITION of a NIB, hinges on the fact that the HUSK is removed. Otherwise, it is still technically a bean if all the HUSK material is still included. What the FDA has done here is basically given a guideline to what a cocoa processor is allowed to leave in the finished NIB batch as far as leftover husks is concerned. As any bean to bar maker knows, it is VERY difficult to get 100% of the husk removed from the bean in any sort of automated process. The FDA is allowing some leeway here... (chocolate is a much different definition from cacao nib.)Sec. 163.110 Cacao nibs.(a)Description. (1) Cacao nibs is the food prepared by removing the shell from cured, cleaned, dried, and cracked cacao beans. The cacao shell content is not more than 1.75 percent by weight, calculated on an alkali free basis, as determined by the method prescribed in 163.5(a).
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Oh ok. If that is the case, Sacred Chocolate is a bean to bar maker.
Hearts,Sacred Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hi Gretchen,Not sure if there was any official decision made?We are a bean to bar maker (we even include the husks/skins of the bean) in our chocolate since our beans are so clean they look like almonds. However, we don't roast or cook the beans in any way so that we can retain the very high anti-oxidant value that is naturally occuring in the raw bean. So, we may be an exception to any official rule.Hearts,Sacred Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Being a micro-batch bean to bar company ourselves, i can vouch for the difficulty in doing HIGH QUALITY bean to bar in the USA without cutting corners while bringing to market a retail price point below $4 which is most of these companies. I don't blame them for not being bean to bar. It seems most grinding is being done offshore these days except for some of the hugely automated stateside comanies with massive infrastructure investment.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hi Samantha, We are looking into the possibility of making our own winnower. Do you have any tips? What sort of volume can your machine do? How much did you spend on it if you don't mind me asking? Are you happy with it?Any help would be much appreciated since there just doesn't seem to be many resources out there on winnowing machine design or even companys that make them for sale.Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Just for the record, Sacred Chocolate is both a WHOLE BEAN WITH SKIN to Bar company as well as a nib to Bar company. We include the skins of the beans in the chocolate we make for nutritional reasons. The vast majority of the naturally occuring iron in cacao amongst other phyto-nutrients show up in the skins. (just like virtually all the calcium in sesame seeds show up in the skins or husks of the seed). Sometimes we mix processes as well as do single types of processes to achieve both unique flavor an nutritional profiles. We do very "out of the box" chocolate making. We only use raw nibs and raw beans for nutritional reasons. We only stone grind.Steve
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Oh, ok! I suppose it is really Hershey who is doing the bean to bar then...?
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Sacred Chocolate is a TRUE BEAN TO BAR MAKER in SAN RAFAEL, CA, USA. I know first hand because I built the machines and the whole factory for that matter.Hearts!Sacred StevePS. Scharffenberger Plant recently closed, so you may want to remove them from the list...
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Sacred Chocolate is a bean to bar maker in the USA.
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Sacred Chocolate is a Bean to Bar Manufacturer of Chocolate Bars located in San Rafael, CA USA. http://www.SacredChocolate.com