Blogs

As President of Project Hope and Fairness, I spent 3 weeks in Ghana and Cameroon this summer and distributed tools to 8 villages using money raised by the NGO. To read about my adventures, please visit www.sweetearthchocolates.blogspot.com .

I spent 10 days in Cameroon, talking to people in government and industry about building a cocoa study center near the town of Ebalowa, the capital of South Cameroon. See the blog for details. Or contact me at: tom@projecthopeandfairness.org

Tom Neuhaus

Abstract

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important economic crop in the Bolivian Amazon. Bolivian farmers both cultivate cacao, and extract fruits from wild stands in the Beni River region and in valleys of the Andes foothills. The germplasm group traditionally used is presently referred to as Cacao Nacional Boliviano (CNB). Using DNA fingerprinting technology based on microsatellite markers, we genotyped 164 Bolivian cacao acces- sions, including both cultivated and wild CNB accessions sampled from the Amazonian regions of La Paz and Beni, and compared their SSR profiles with 78 reference Forastero accessions from Amazo- nian cacao populations, including germplasm from the Ucayali region of Peru.

Authors:Dapeng Zhang Windson July Mart nez Elizabeth S. Johnson Eduardo Somarriba Wilberth Phillips-Mora Carlos Astorga Sue Mischke Lyndel W. Meinhardt

Download the full PDF from the World Cocoa Foundation web site.

In a related announcement, the wild beans of the Beni were analyzed and determined to be another distinct population in Bolivia.

RITTER SPORT, a large German company manufacturing industrial and cheap chocolate for gas stations and supermarkets, is attacking fine chocolate makers like DOMORI, ROVIRA, MAGLIO, CONSTANT, KESSON'S and many others because of the square shape of our bars... they claim that they are the only ones in the world that can make square chocolate bars...How laughable is this! Should there be any risk of confusion, we would be the ones that would have to fear any damage for our brands. I mean, besides the fact that there is absolutely nothing leading to confusion in the design of the packaging or anywhere else, we are not even competitors, we are not in the same league... RITTER is a large multinational company with lots of money to pay for the marketing of their mass market product (and for their lawyers) and we are artisans making high end chocolate for gourmets. But this again shows the reality of the chocolate market in general where 70% of the market is owned by 5 large multinational companies... So let's fight the dirty tricks of such greedy multinational like RITTER SPORT that are trying to kill the creativity and passion of small artisan chocolatiers!

Here is a short list of the brands having square chocolate bars in their portfolio: KESSON'S, BALAGUER, BERGER, BOISSIER, CLEMENT, DOMORI, Laurent GERBAUD, HUSSEL, Luento Santoro, MAGLIO, MLAR Choklad, MARCOLINI, MarieBelle, MAZET, MEISTERWERK, MELT, Franois PRALUS, ROVIRA, TCHO, VIVANI, WILLIE'S Cacao...

KESSON'S shall keep the shape of its chocolate bars as it is and we will of course keep our aficionados posted with the latest development of the case.

I have had customers asking me for cacao nibs and roasted and raw cacao beans but have been reluctant to stock these items due to salmonella or other pathogen risk. After seeing cacao beans being fermented and dried in numerous countries I question the safety of these products. Dirt, bugs, drying on asphalt roads etc..I question from all but the most sophisticated winnowing operations to remove the husk. Am I overreacting to the risk ? Does the roasting process kill these pathogens? Is anyone using ultra -violet technology to sterilize the nibs? One request came from a home beer brewer. Would the alcohol distilling process render the nibs safe? Appreciate the feedback..

Hi! I am Madel, a Fulbright Scholar currently working with Dr. Skip Bittenbender on a research on cacao at the UH . Right now we're listing the cacao growers, propagators, Chocolatiers/artisan with a hope that we can meet sometime to discuss on the cacao industry in Hawaii and aim to have a wonderful Hawaii Cacao industry in the future.

Will you care to email me your name, Farm/bussiness location, home address, email address. Please state the no. of cacao trees you have; the products you sell or produce.

Hope to hear from you ASAP. Mahalo and God bless you all!

Garden Island Chocolate invites you to visit our new fan page on facebook, you can see us making Kauai chocolate and Kauai Acai, and all the other fascinating agricultural endeavors like dehydrating bananas, planting cacao trees, harvesting cacao pods, harvesting citrus, miracle berries, etc... fan page

I need a continues chocolate temperingmachinelikePrefamac- Automatictempering machine, type CONTINUA in economy price : Please suggest the brands

Thank you all for your enthusiastic responses and showing interest in the development of Original Beans new recipe! What happened after two weeks? Is the new chocolate still so fruity?

How does Organic Grand Cru sound? I like it. We have waited for the first organic harvest from Congo (Cru Virunga) to make the change for all products.

But the most important thing we have changed in our recipe has to do with conching, a truly magic process in the art of making fine chocolate. There are many opinions and voices in the chocolate world, when it comes to conching. But you really have to experience and taste it before you can form a valid opinion.

The interesting thing at Max Felchlin AG is that they have several different conching technologies to work with (see pictures below). They are world famous for the oldest conching machines in the chocolate industry: the original long conches, or Lngsreiber. Besides those, they also use round conches in various sizes. The Lngsreiber builds temperature by friction only. All others can be heated externally.

Some people believe the Lngsreiber is the best. I agree on most issues: texture, melting, creaminess, beautiful balanced flavour development. The flavours hardly fade over time. The Buehler round conches, on the other hand, may get a more condensed, explicit flavour profile out of the bean. They work with a steeper temperature curve and as I inhaled above our Piura conch, I smelled a lot of the acidity.

So is it true that the longer you conch, the better the chocolate gets? No! Most important is to get rid of unpleasant acids and bitterness, open the fruit flavours, and create a deep, smooth texture. Every bean has a unique character, and develops its own story differently on different conches. For Original Beans chocolate we want to find the maximum fruit point. At some point during conching the aroma peaks. If you conch too long, the aroma is gone and whats left is a flat and rather boring chocolate.

I have learned that perfectly conched chocolate is not so much a matter of science, but mostly the result of long experience, continuous sampling during the process, and a good intuition.

The last few days I tasted the new recipe again and compared it with the last two batches. The existing Piura Porcelana bar (best before 12-2012) tastes mild, dark caramel, nutty and a little fruity. The new one is very different! Very fresh and fruity, you really taste chocolate is made of a fruit! Amazing!

In a few days this new batch is available in couverture drops. Im looking forward to the creations of pastry chefs and chocolatiers with our new Organic Grand Cru Piura!

I want to keep my Dragee packets cool and enhance the shelf life of the Dragees by filling Nitrogen gas into the packets.

Will the Nitrogen Gas spoil the Dragees or enhance the shelflife of Dragees? My Dragees are Chocolate covered nuts and Chocolate covered cereals.

Any advise?

Thanks in advance.

Raji from India.

As you all might know Iwork as a volunteer for Original Beans. The combination of delicious chocolate and nature conservation makes it the best in my opinion.

Two weeks ago Philipp, founder, called me. A new test production would start Thursday! If I could come to Switzerland? Wow! A dream comes true! I immediately packed my suitcase. The biggest one so I can take a lot of chocolate back home. We are on a mission: how can we get more of the fruity flavors of the bean into our Piura Porcelana chocolate?

Original Beans dont have their own factory. When the company started a few years ago the founders carefully selected a partner. Felchlin shares our values about quality and sustainability. We are delighted to co-create our chocolate with them.

Thursday at 11 A.M. I arrived at Felchlins Laboratory in Schwyz. First Sepp, Marcel and the Original Beans team did a pre-tasting of the last two batches. What do we like and what can be done better? We went to the factory and production started. Amazing: all those machines, the logistic system and the smell of chocolate! When conching started I got a grand tour through the factory. All Felchlin employees are very friendly and explained every detail. Its one happy family and all wearing red t-shirts. We got permission to make pictures! See below.

Friday we were expected in the factory at 6 A.M. Yes, this is serious business! Liquid chocolate test batches of 2 A.M., 4 A.M. and 6 A.M. were on the table and tasting the new recipe could begin. Its very difficult when you are used to having solid chocolate. Flavors are still developing over time. Even after molding you have to wait two weeks before you get a good picture. We decided to conch longer. After several hours we thought the fruity flavors to be on their best. Marcel quickly molded two bars that we took with us to The Netherlands.

In about a couple of days from now two weeks will have passed. Will the chocolate taste more fruity and better still? To be continued