Devastatingly, there has been a global shortage of cocoa beans. And this might be the reason for the skyrocketing of the price of chocolate in the near future.
Chocolate makers are thinking of different helpful strategies that can remedy the situation such as upping the amount of nuts, fillers, or any other ingredients just to bulk out chocolate candies.
The reasons behind this demand are said to be the rise in the popularity of cocoa in China, the spread of awareness about the many health benefits of chocolate, and the constant and rising demand for dark chocolate.
According to the editor of trade publication Kennedy’s Confection, Angus Kennedy, the impending scarcity was the main subject in a recent industry summit. Also, he said that chocolatiers may opt for chocolate flavor substitutes that “don’t melt in your mouth.”
It has been predicted earlier this year that there is going to be a shortage of ‘certified’ cocoa or ethically farmed beans, since there has been issues these days about the sustainability of non-certified beans. “Now we are saying it doesn’t matter what you call it – there’s not enough.” said Kennedy.
Cocoa bean experts are predicting a huge scarcity over the next eight years. As a matter of fact, they said we will be about a million tons short. According to these experts, a humongous–sized farm should be cultivated to satisfy demand.
In recent times, chocolate consumers have been raving about dark chocolate and all its benefits such as lowering blood pressure and its association with preventing certain heart disease. Chocolate manufacturers have been encouraging this trend as dark chocolate is a profitable product.
All we can do now is just enjoy the chocolate that we currently have and just hope for the best.
Despite being classified as ‘chocolate,’ white chocolate isn’t truly chocolate. It may be a confectionary derivative of chocolate as it also comes from the same cacao plant, but its manufacturing process is rather different.
Its process for creation initially entails the drawing out of usable items from the cacao bean. Unlike the conventional chocolate that makes use of the cocoa powder ground from the seeds, the white version gets only the cocoa butter.
Even though the preparation of white chocolate has its similarities with dark and milk chocolate, it lacks cocoa paste, liquor, or powder. Thus, it does not contain the significant properties of chocolate such as thiamine, riboflavin, theobromine and phenylethylamine.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to be called ‘chocolate’, a product must contain chocolate liquor. Since 2004, white chocolate must be (by weight) at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% total milk solids, and 3.5% milk fat, and not exceeding 55% sugar or other nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners. The European Union has implemented the same regulations, but there is no limit on sugar or sweeteners.
White chocolate consists of cocoa butter, milk solids, vanilla, sugar and lecithin. Chocolatiers that use true cocoa butter create ones of higher quality compared to those who scrimp and substitute vegetable fat for the cocoa butter.
True white chocolate is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance. It has an explosion of cream and vanilla in the mouth. White creations that come from vegetable fat are no match. Their consistency, taste and shelf life are enormously different.
White chocolates melt quite easily and burn quickly as it is delicate by nature, so take extra caution when melting it for recipes like ganache or chocolate fondue.
Nevertheless, those who love the creamy vanilla taste of the white chocolate probably don’t care, just as long as they have their fix!
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!
Milk allergy is not very unusual. Just like any other allergies, when a person who is allergic to milk eats something containing milk products, or even just a trace of it, the body’s immune system automatically deems the milk as harmful foreign bodies. The immune system reacts by creating specific antibodies which are intended to repel these “invaders.”
After a person allergic to milk eats a certain food that contains, well, milk, the release of chemicals to supposedly protect the body can affect the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and the cardiovascular system which in turn causes allergy symptoms such as wheezing, abdominal pain, and headache, among many others.
Nowadays, a lot of foods are made with milk and milk products so consumers who are allergic to it have to pay extra attention to what’s in almost everything they consume. Milk allergies are unfortunately more serious than just lactose intolerance as it can cause those who have it to be suddenly and severely ill right after consuming milk or even products that contain such.
Chocolate Decadence of Eugene, OR is recalling certain chocolate products due to undisclosed milk contents. Customers who have milk allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of having serious, even critical, allergic reactions.
The recall was instigated after a customer felt sick after eating the chocolate. Further exploration showed that the chocolate was manufactured where milk chocolate was previously processed.
The recalled products consist of Chocolate Decadence chocolate bars, almond clusters, assorted fruit clusters, chocolate buttons (raspberry, espresso, pure dark, mint, peanut butter), truffles, fudge, and molded chocolates. The said products were dispersed across the country through Internet and retail stores.
Customers who are allergic or sensitive to milk who have already bought Chocolate Decadence are advised to return it to for a full refund. Those who have further inquiries may contact the company at 1-800-324-5018 or visit their website at www.chocolatedecadence.com.
It always pays to look into what we eat, even when we have the urge to just pig out the moment we see it because that piece of heaven might instantly send you to hell.
Since posts on the internet tend to stay around forever, and product recalls expire, note that Chocolate Decadence posted their alert on September 12, 2011.
The title is one of the advertising slogans of Thorntons, a household name in UK for chocolate retailing. The company was established in 1911 by Joseph William Thornton who eventually turned the business over to his sons, Norman and Stanley Thornton. Since then, it has always been Britain’s go-to store when it comes to high-quality chocolates. This year, it celebrates its Centenary birthday. And what better way to celebrate their 100th birthday than sharing it with their customers?
The first ever Thortons chocolate shop was opened in Sheffield in the year 1911 and it was called the Chocolate Kabin where you are magically transported into a chocolate heaven as you step inside the store. Today, as a Centenary birthday treat, Thorntons wants to give their customers a chance to experience such delight. They excitedly bring you the recreated Thorntons Chocolate Kabin where a Golden Key to the chocolate factory is hidden. And the lucky winner gets to be Willy Wonka for a day! Isn’t that such a sweet treat?
Go and grab the chance to experience the chocolate lucky dip, or see chocolates come plummeting down a truck directly to a super duper chocolate scooper, where you can also have yourself a chocolaty treat.
As you leave the delightful and almost enchanted Kabin, you can give donations to the Live Mechanical Chocolatier in exchange for chocolates. Such donations will be going to the NSPCC, Thorntons charity of the year.
One lucky customer who finds the Golden Key from each place the Chocolate Kabin visits will get a chance to see behind-the-scenes at Thorntons and visit their chocolate factory to take a look at how they have been manufacturing their chocolates for the past 100 years. You don’t get to experience this everyday, so for our readers in the U.K., try your luck and let us know how it goes!
The Thorntons Chocolate Kabin will be visiting:
Covent Garden, London on Friday 2nd September
Liverpool One Shopping Centre on Saturday 10th September
Nottingham off Market Square on Saturday 17th September
Edinburgh Castle Street on Saturday 24th September
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.
Throw away those old ink cartridges. It’s time to load your printer with chocolate. That would be neat wouldn’t it? Load some rice paper, spray a message in dots of chocolate, and then eat your words.
That description may still depict a future scene. For now, there’s a 3D chocolate printer that has just come out. It prints gobs of chocolate into shapes by adding layers of chocolate on top of previous layers of chocolate.
I saw a story a couple years ago about a 3D printer that printed parts in plastic to make the parts for a new, identical, 3D printer. It could make the parts to replicate itself. I thought that was really neat.
But now, a 3D printer has been invented that uses chocolate as the printing medium. If this is commercialized, you could design a chocolate model at home on your computer, upload to the machine online, and then go pick up your model a little while later.
Having helped chocolate companies troubleshoot their tempering and enrobing of chocolates, I can imagine the engineering of a chocolate printing machine to be quite an undertaking. It has to be able to heat the chocolate properly to get a good flow, yet be cool enough to control the layering.
Probably much trial and error in the process. Hmm, I wonder what percentage of failed samples were remelted for another attempt and what percentage made it into the researchers mouths?
An allergy to cacao is possible but rare. It would be more likely that someone has an allergy to one of the ingredients in chocolate or experiences a food intolerance, which is not really an allergy at all.
Only 1 – 2% of American adults and 5 – 8% of children have a true, immunological food allergy. Among those, 90% are allergic to the “big 8”; milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish, or shellfish.
Dairy allergies are pretty common, and although not all chocolate is milk chocolate, the dark chocolate could be processed on a line that also processes milk.
Peanuts and tree nuts are often added to chocolates. And even chocolates without nut ingredients can be manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts and tree nuts, leaving them potentially contaminated.
Wheat and/or gluten allergies or celiac disease sufferers may find that some chocolates with fillings sometimes use flour or wheat starch as a binder. Occasionally crisped rice can contain barley malt.
If you have a soy or corn allergy, keep in mind that the lecithin used in chocolate is soy based and that many candy bars are layered with nougats and caramels sweetened by corn syrup products.
With any of those allergies covered above you can probably still find chocolates that are suitable for your enjoyment. Of course, anyone who is truly allergic to cocoa should eliminate all chocolate and cocoa in their diet.
I keep reading about the continuing surge of chocolate sales in India. Sold mostly in urban areas, premium chocolate bars like Lindt, Ferrero, and Godiva are flying off the shelves.
Some of these chocolate manufacturers are setting up local factories to meet the demand.
India is embracing chocolate with all their senses. One growing market is the chocolate lounge. One such recent addition to the Mumbai scene is A Chocolate Affair. It is more than a café, it is a place to savor all things chocolate.
The décor is “chocolate,” the aroma is chocolate and, of course, the menu is sinfully chocolate. They serve chocolate drinks (hot chocolate and milkshakes), chocolate pastries, chocolate doughnuts, chocolate ice cream and – how cool is this – chocolate pizza!
The two specialties of the house are Decadent Chocolate Belgian Waffles and Spanish Churros accompanied by chocolate dip. Every menu item comes with a milk chocolate or a dark chocolate option.
The owner is from New Zealand and she has seen the success of the chocolate lounge in her own country as well as Australia and England.
I would love to find out more in person, but alas, plans to travel to India are not in the near future for me. Guess I’ll just live vicariously through their twitter account: http://twitter.com/choc_affair
Every now and again you will come across an article, a chocolate bar, or a chocolate company that will draw attention to Bean To Bar processing.
Bean to bar means quite literally that the product was manufactured from the roasting and grinding of the bean to the tempering and packaging of the chocolate.
What’s so special about claiming to be bean to bar?
Many chocolates are made by purchasing already made chocolate couvertures that get melted down and used for coating or molding into truffles, pralines, or chocolate bars. While there is certainly nothing wrong with buying pre-made chocolate, there are advantages to controlling each step of the process.
Bean selection is critical from a quality standpoint. Cocoa beans that are fermented properly will contain the best flavors to come out during roasting. Creating proprietary bean blends will provide a distinct flavor for the companies’ products.
Roasting beans in-house will ensure a consistent signature flavor profile, and mixing and refining to formula specifications will make smooth, sophisticated chocolates.
Boasting a bean to bar product is something not all chocolate makers can claim. These companies have the strong belief that the quality of their chocolate is the best it can be when they control the entire process from bean to finished product.
You be the judge. Here is a small list of bean to bar chocolate companies to get you started on your tasting journey.
This year, it celebrates its Centenary birthday. And what better way to celebrate their 100th birthday than sharing it with their customers?
Every now and again you will come across an article, a chocolate bar, or a chocolate company that will draw attention to Bean To Bar processing. 
