[quote="kysen8"]

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Hey, thank you for this response. Super helpful and helps point me in the right direction

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I am glad you found it helpful. Please keep us informed of your progress (at least I am interested in knowing what you find, what you decided on, and what direction(s) you decided to follow).

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@DiscoverChoc

 

Hey, thank you for this response. Super helpful and helps point me in the right direction

I know the heads of Penn State’s Cacao Research Lab (Mark and Siela) and so I am confident that any program on cacao fermentation inside their lab would be interesting. I don’t know anything about the Food Science program other than I think the annual chocolate-making intensive is hosted by that program. Is Food Science offering field studies in cacao fermentation? Where?

From a quick look at the Basque CC’s master’s program it’s not clear to me that cacao fermentation is a part of the curriculum.

One place I would start is the Cocoa Research Centre in Trinidad, which is housed in the University of the West Indies. Being located in a cocoa-producing country would interest me. OTOH, my friend and colleague Zoi Papalexandratou got her degree (in food fermentation, food microbiology, and post-harvest processing of cacao) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

In the US there nay be something in Hawaii and/or Puerto Rico – cacao grows in both places – offering field studies.

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@DiscoverChoc

Hi all,

I'm looking into university courses, preferably master's courses, to learn more about cacao fermenation. Right now I'm mainly looking at Penn State's Food Science master's program, since this university has been involved in a lot of cacao/chocolate research over the years with their cacao research lab and all... and I'm also looking at Basque Culinary Center's Master's in Food Fermentation course.

The Penn State course would be more for deep scientific research whereas the Basque Culinary Center course would be more applied fermentation and product development work... as far as I can tell.

But anyways, these are just two options I've been looking into. I'm open to others and would love to hear any opintions and advice!