Chocolate University Online Blog
Chocolate never fails to give an enjoyable experience, especially if you are enjoying quality chocolate. It provides rich and intricate flavors that vary from one chocolate to another.
Truth be told, the flavor components found in chocolate are more than those of red wine. You get the full experience in eating chocolate if you savor it by eating slowly. Every type of chocolate offers a different set of flavor profiles.
We know all too well that chocolate is derived from cacao beans, like wine comes from grapes. The flavors of the cacao beans are hugely affected by certain factors, namely geographical location, climate, conditions of the soil they’re planted into, the processes they undergo after being harvested, and their unique genotypes. And since there are a lot of factors that influence the flavor of a single chocolate bar, it’s crucial to taste meticulously to get the fullest flavor it can give.
And just like the unique characteristics of coffee and wine, chocolate is bursting in different complex and unique notes. The differences can bring about subtle distinctiveness in a particular chocolate. For example, cacao beans cultivated in the mountains yield a nutty flavor, while coastal Venezuelan beans give a dairy flavor. A lot of European or English milk chocolates give out a caramel flavor which is actually caused by the milk being caramelized.
Advances in chocolate-making today have reached the point of coming up with out of the ordinary flavors. You can even taste chilli in some chocolates. Other exotic notes include coconut, pineapple, cinnamon, and orchid, among many others.
When you do chocolate tasting, you also get to notice varying textures such as being buttery, sugary, and the like. The most common flavors you are likely to taste are nuts, herbals, and floral. These are specific to cacao beans, but some flavors are added by chocolate makers to somehow balance the mixture of chocolates, especially those of sweeter types like milk chocolate.
You may even read on the label that vanilla, or vanallin, is added into certain bars of chocolate. Vanilla is known to balance certain blends and by some means intensify or deepen the flavors present in chocolate. Some chocolate makers even drop in a teeny weeny bit of salt, especially to milk chocolate.
If ever chocolate tasting tweaks your fancy, you’re always free to come up with your own descriptions of chocolate. Eat your heart out as you scrutinize the distinct flavors of chocolate!
And review these other resources at Chocolate University Online:
2 minute chocolate tasting interview (video)
basic chocolate tasting
Of course, for the full chocolate tasting experience, become a student at here at CUO. The first 10 weeks of study are all about chocolate tasting.
Categories: chocolate education, fun chocolate facts
Tags: chocolate facts, flavors, tasting
By the time American Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving, cacao was largely unknown outside of Meso-America. The unfortunate side-effect of this timing is that chocolate would not have been present at that original Thanksgiving dinner.  Therefore, it’s not part of the American traditional Thanksgiving meal. 
Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. In the grand scheme, today is a day to stop and give thanks for the many blessings we have received. Chocolate is still one of those blessings. And so are you!
Chocolate University Online has always been dedicated to the love of chocolate, helping everyone who comes this way to learn some new nugget of information about our favorite food. Since you are here reading this, you must find value in this. So I am thankful for you.
As much as I love chocolate, sharing information is useless unless someone is present to receive. So whether you just stop by for a bit of chocolate insight from time to time, or you’re a current CUO student or alumnus, thanks for showing up. It’s for you that I am here.
Have a great Thanksgiving Day! And, if you’ve worked chocolate into your Thanksgiving traditions, how about posting a comment below for all of us.
Categories: chocolate education, fine foods & beverages, fun chocolate facts
Tags: holidays, Thanksgiving
If you are a self-proclaimed true blue chocoholic and want to satisfy your need for anything chocolate, then why don’t you head to the Field Museum in Chicago?
“Chocolate: Around the World”, a smash hit exhibit which sold more than 360,000 tickets in its first Field run in the year 2002 is back not only to entertain you, but also give you juicy and interesting information.
In the past nine years, “Chocolate” has already been to 22 other American museums and will go international when its present Field run is done in January, said the Field president and chief executive officer, John McCarter.
“Chocolate” is a combination of both the Field’s focus on anthropology as well as natural history and its attention to the origins of cacao beans and the role chocolate played in the past centuries. “This is one of the great combination stories,” McCarter said.
From the modest examples of cacao beans to a vintage chocolate mold with the shape of a rabbit driving a scooter, “Chocolate” aspires to present a food that Americans love dearly.
One of the “Chocolate” exhibition keepers, Gary Feinman, said that visitors were interested as much toward the exhibit’s story as the subject matter. “Everybody loves chocolate,” Feinman said. “The story is great, and the exhibits are about stories.”
The exhibit is almost untouched since it first premiered at the Field, very little has changed. Among the new items featured are excavated ceramic vessels in which chocolate residue was found. This aids in explaining how chocolate was used.
There is also information about the disturbing situation at African cocoa farms. “There are issues with child labor, the labor conditions,” Feinman said. “There are still issues but I think there’s more consciousness about some of the problems.”
Try visiting there and have a shot at kicking your love of chocolate up a notch.
-Through Jan. 8 (9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day but Christmas)
-The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
-The exhibit is included in the Discovery and All-Access passes, $22-$29 for adults, $18-$24 for seniors and students with identification, and $15-$20 for ages 4 to 11.
-(312) 922-9410; fieldmuseum.org
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate art, chocolate destinations, chocolate exhibit, chocolate history, chocolate museums, cocoa, Field Museum
Although wine is pleasurable all its own, most people pair it with an array of different foods as it magnifies the tastes of those food. But did you know that wine and chocolate make a good pair? When the combination is created correctly, it gives a divine blast of taste in the mouth.
First and foremost, you need to make an appropriate choice of chocolate. Grabbing any chocolate bar available won’t be enough as they don’t hold distinctive flavors. Gourmet chocolates are your best bet, be it dark, white, or milk chocolate.
With regard to the wine you’ll be pairing the chocolate with, you need to find one that is at least as sweet as the chocolate, maybe even slightly sweeter. One of the main rules in pairing them is that the distance between wine and chocolate sweetness should always be short because if the wine isn’t sweet enough, the sour notes of wine will make it appear hollow, which makes it a horrible combination.
Red wines generally pair with chocolate easier than white wines. The acidity of Champagne and sparkling wines reacts with chocolate causing a bitter taste, but that doesn’t mean they can’t go along well together. Like I said, correct combination is key.
One main rule in this pairing is light chocolate tastes better with lighter-bodied wines. Simply put, the stronger the flavor of the chocolate, the more full-bodied wine you need for that perfect combination. Another thing to consider is the quality of wine as bad wine only gets worse when paired with chocolate.
Always taste the wine first! Only then should you start enjoying your chocolate. Drinking the wine before eating chocolate will allow you to assess the flavor and taste of the wine itself. Otherwise, your mouth and taste buds will be covered with a thin layer of cocoa butter, preventing you from tasting the wine.
It was once taboo, but pairing wine with chocolate is now becoming commonplace that some people have this particular pair as their comfort food!
If you would like to dig in deeper, consider enrolling as a student of Chocolate University Online. There are several lessons included to help you master wine and chocolate pairings.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate pairings
Tags: champagne, chocolate pairings, food pairings, Red wine, white wine, wine
While in search of nature’s medicines, the Medicine Hunter named Chris Kilham is famous for his venture which entails trying out peculiar food, but the most recent one made him lean towards the “sweeter” side.
Just recently, Kilham took a trip to Mast Brothers Chocolate in Brooklyn, N.Y. to witness the behind-the-scenes in chocolate making.
Time and again, research has revealed that chocolate is in point of fact beneficial for you, health-wise. The benefits involve protecting the heart and mind, even sex drive.
In 2007, brothers Mike and Rick Mast started manufacturing organic chocolate made from some of the best cocoa beans worldwide, and they make approximately 5,000 bars every week .
Rick Mast said: “We’ve got beans from Madagascar, beans from Peru… basically our criteria is simple: We only source from the best, so we search the world over for the best cocoa beans,”
No bad beans are allowed in chocolate making, as Kilham found out. Thus, the beans are hand-sorted one-by-one before roasting.
“We’re not just making sure that we’re getting rid of any flat beans, any beans that are misshapen or are just not up to our standards, and we’re screening them before we begin to roast,” Mike Mast said.
The beans are cautiously distributed on a tray in order for them to be roasted evenly before they’re placed into a convection oven set around 300°F. This process facilitates separation of the bean from the husk, eliciting the rich, chocolaty goodness.
“We wait nine minutes. At that time, we’ll take the tray out, shake it, flip it, and put it back in – and the first step will be done,” Rick Mast added.
The next step involves a machine called a ‘cracker’ wherein the beans are poured, and they are separated from the husks leaving only the cocoa nibs which are used to make chocolate. The leftover husks are then donated to local farmers which they use for compost.
Next, the nubs are put under the stone grinders, where they are settled in one to three days. A cocoa bean consists of about 54 percent cocoa butter and the only other ingredient added during the grinding process is organic cane sugar.
After grinding, the chocolate is strained and sits for 30 days to age. Tempering is what gives chocolate its shiny look. According to Mike Mast, that’s the time the molds are put in and let set in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes.
I myself would go out on a limb and try out bizarre anything if it will lead me to this kind of sweet adventure!
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate manufacturing, cocoa beans, Mast Brothers Chocolate, Medicine Hunter, working with chocolate
The brownie, one of the most loved baked treat, was believed to be “invented” in America. Some references imply that brownies were originally made in New England at the beginning of the 20th century. Albeit the facts that it is basically cake-like and baked in a cake pan, brownies are considered as bar cookies rather than a cake.
Brownies can either be “cake-style” or “fudge-style”. Cake-style is that with the consistency of a cake, only richer and denser. On the other hand, fudge-style is more like, er, fudge than cake. It is the richer, denser, and creamier version of the brownie. What determines the style of brownie is the ratio of flour to chocolate and/or cocoa.
I hate to state the obvious but it’s apparent brownie derived its name from its dark brown color. But just like almost any food, the origin of the “brownie” is covered in myth. One of the legends told is that a chef added melted chocolate to biscuits by mistake. Another one states that a cook was baking a cake but didn’t have enough flour and baked it anyway, thus, making a brownie.
The most famous legend, however, says a housewife in Bangor, Maine, who was making a chocolate cake, failed to add baking powder. When the cake didn’t rise, she just cut it and served pieces of the flat cake.
Several tales indicate that the first known published recipe appeared in the Sears, Roebuck Catalogue in 1897, but that was a recipe for a molasses candy only called brownies. Nowadays, brownies are baked with either cocoa or melted chocolate or a combination of both.
Although the first few brownie recipes were published and modification to it started in the beginning of the 20th century, it wasn’t until the 1920s that brownies became a darling in the department of baked chocolate treats, and it never ceased.
Categories: chocolate education, fun chocolate facts
Tags: brownies, cake, chocolate cake, chocolate history, fudge, invent
Just because there’s only one species of Theobroma cacao doesn’t mean there are no different types of cacao beans. However, even experts themselves can’t seem to agree on how many types of cacao beans there actually are, but let’s stick with 4.
Why in the world would you even care about this mumbo jumbo? Well, for starters, one word, flavor. While most of us are happily content with any chocolate in hand just as long as it’s good, true blue chocolate lovers take pleasure in the subtle differences in aroma, taste, and texture between the different cacao bean varieties.
The first type of cacao beans is the Criollo. It was initially cultivated by the Mesoamericans and is generally considered to be the most excellent worldwide. It has a rich, intricate aroma, and a profound yet smooth flavor. Criollo beans require just a little fermentation and short roasting to draw out the flavors.
The second of the types of cacao beans is the Forastero. It was originally domesticated in the Amazon basin and is very resilient and fruitful. However, it requires a long period of both fermentation and roasting for it to bring out its flavors. About 80% of all chocolate produced is derived from this particular variety but it has a bitter and plain flavor so it is usually mixed with Criollo and other chocolates to enhance its palatability.
The third one is the Trinitario variety which originated in Trinidad, where it derived its name from. Trinitario is a crossbreed of Criollo and Forastero which is why its being a separate type is arguable. These beans need medium-length fermentation to elicit the best flavors, but a short fermentation can already create acceptable ones and the roasting time can also be either short or medium. The flavor is virtually as complex as that of Criollo beans.
The last type, Nacional cacao, is extremely unusual and it is considered a Forastero so some people also refuse to consider it to be a feasible variety. It is mainly grown in western South America, particularly in Ecuador.
But whatever type it is, it’s still chocolate. And chocolate will always equal heaven, no argument there.
Categories: chocolate education, fun chocolate facts
Tags: chocolate, chocolate questions, cocoa beans, Ecuadorian chocolate, Nacional, trinitario, working with chocolate
Over the last couple of centuries, the cacao bean been has been used in many different ways such as medicine, as money, etc. But today, we eat it almost exclusively for pleasure.
There are different varieties of cacao beans and it has been said that each strain has been significantly changed due to its tree’s ability to naturally cross-pollinate, not to mention all the intended hybridization of the cacao bean for the past centuries.
Cacao beans go through a lot of processing to produce the chocolate we all love. They are harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, and ground to make chocolate liquor, which is then further processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
Chocolatiers or the chocolate makers use these cacao beans or the cocoa mass to produce pure chocolate, which they call “couverture”. This is what they make their confections from.
To make the chocolate, the chocolate liquor is incorporated into cocoa butter and sugar. And these chocolates are categorized based on the amount of the chocolate liquor that was put into it.
The categories said are the following: Dark chocolate, which is known for its bittersweet taste, contains the highest quantity of chocolate liquor. Milk chocolates, which are made with milk ingredients, contain less chocolate liquor. While white chocolate, which is technically not real chocolate since cocoa solid content is zero, is made from cocoa butter, sugar and milk.
A few years back, Scharffen Berger started the style listing the percentage of cocoa mass on labels so people would determine how dark is dark. And within each category, characteristics are all laid down such as the type of cacao beans used, the maker and chocolatier, etc.
Chocolate and wine are known to be a perfect combination. Dark chocolates typically go well with stronger fruity red wines. Milk and white chocolates are often best with white and rosé wines. Just see to it that the chocolate is not as sweet as the wine.
Ports (sweet dark red dessert wine) are also known to be a good partner of chocolate. Tawny ports are preferred over vintage ones as the latter overwhelms the chocolate rather than complementing it.
Beer and chocolate can go superbly together as well. Think of any beer and pair it with practically any chocolate, keeping in mind that the darker the chocolate is, the better.
You can search this blog for more specific pairings of wine and chocolate as well as beer and chocolate.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate pairings
Tags: beer, chocolate liqueur, chocolate liquor, chocolate pairings, Scharffen Berger, wine
Have you ever tried munching on chocolates and then think about its fragile crystal structure? Or do you even wonder about its milk protein contents as this melt-in-your-mouth goodness touches your palate? I bet no. The only thing you can think of is whether to get another bar or not, but there are people who take interest in this kind of scientific stuff.
Galit Segev, a chef and a biochemist in the pharmaceutical industry, enjoys her chocolates but is also enthralled by its physical properties. Having a background in such field, she is normally interested in why certain foods react variedly to certain cooking techniques.
She just recently had a part in the Ultimo Science Week talking about the science of chocolate such as how these treats are manufactured. From soil to your mouth, she gave a talk about what makes for a quality chocolate.
She explained the three categories of chocolate. These categories are the dark, milk and white chocolate. Dark and milk chocolates contain cocoa solids, while white chocolate contains just the cocoa butter which is a pale vegetable fat taken out of the cocoa bean, which is why technically, it is not chocolate.
When eating a bar of chocolate and it leaves an oily film on the roof of your mouth, it means it was made with a cheaper fat such as palm oil rather than cocoa butter. Cocoa butter could solidify or crystallize into six different forms, and definite temperature control is needed to come up with such.
Segev said: “The different types of crystal are sensitive to different temperatures. In chocolate we are after a particular type of crystal. They look like stars under an electron microscope.”
There is a certain process called “tempering” which is the heating and cooling of chocolate at specific temperatures making for crystals being compacted together, a characteristic of a quality dark chocolate.
She also assured people that chocolates that appear to have grey powdery appearance, say, when you leave it in your car, are not out of date, they are just out of temper. This happens when chocolates are not cooled and melted at correct temperatures.
The lessons here at Chocolate University Online go into greater detail on the science of chocolate as well as the tasting, knowledge, and enjoyment of chocolate. Join us.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate in the news
Tags: chemistry, chocolate manufacturing, chocolate science, tempering chocolate
Chocolate as a skin care product? Say what? It is being said that ingesting chocolate (not putting on the skin!) does not only satisfy sweet tooth cravings but also protects against sunburn now. Sounds wacky, doesn’t it? Gone are the days when chocolate was generally synonymous to bad skin. Imagine enjoying in this decadent treat and seeing your skin get better than ever!
Chocolate happens to have a significant amount of protective antioxidants known as Polyphenols (also found in coffee and wine) which makes it possible for you to indulge in its skin benefit due to its ability to reduce ongoing cellular damage. This certain compound, according to studies, does not only enrich the skin but it also offers protection from harmful UV light exposure making skin less sensitive to the sun. Polyphenols are said to increase blood flow close to the skin causing all these skin improvements.
Quebec’s Laval University’s Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods are presently conducting an experiment to fair-skinned female volunteers. They are instructed to consume three squares of chocolate every day for 12 weeks and they are being exposed to the sun for a certain stretch of time and then the scientists will be monitoring their skin for UV rays damage. This has yet to have conclusion as they have only reached half of their subjects. If you are reading this and you happen to be a fair-skinned female, you might as well want to go up to Canada and volunteer for the experiment too so we would finally know what’s what!
Here are some other interesting stuff that make chocolate a craze in skin care industry (at least in theory):
1. It has skin softening abilities because of the cocoa butter.
2. It can used to get rid of skin wrinkles due to the anti-oxidant properties.
3. Hydration of the skin is achievable.
4. Chocolate is a good moisturizer.
5. It revitalizes the skin.
6. It may protect against some common health problems and possibly certain effects of aging.
Even without all these amazing effects on the skin, chocolate all its own is irresistible. It’s just astonishing to imagine that looking good can be this yummy!
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate in the news
Tags: antioxidants, chocolate studies, polyphenols, research
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