Calling all chocolate lovers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A reminder to everyone, that if you are planning to attend this wonderful chocolate event, you must purchase your tickets by April 16th, 2011.  Truly, this is a chance to taste and eat as much chocolate as you desire without feeling guilty about it.

http://www.luxurychocolatesalon.com/

Today I have a link.

I think this is a thoughtful article about why it is important, from a business standpoint, to work and teach farmers sustainable farming practices.  Take a moment to read it when you can spare the time. 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608504576208123457763158.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Bravo to Hershey!

Next weekend I will be throwing a birthday party for my youngest daughter.  Instead of cake, she wants to have s'mores; that wonderful and messy campfire dessert with graham crackers, marshmallows and a small or large portion of chocolate combined with fun and googyness make for a great memory treat.
I will not be using the chocolate I create as it is expensive and her little friends would not appreciate the flavors I work so hard to create.  I will be using Hershey's milk chocolate bars another comfort chocolate of my youth.  To use my chocolate would be like using a handful of Himalayan sea salt to flavor pasta water when regular salt would be best.  I shutter at the thought.  For me, every chocolate created has a place at my table, depending on who my guests will be and what I am serving.
Why would I mention this? Well, I have learned that  Hershey has funded a study that supports my post on the reduction of flavanols in cocoa beans when submitted to heat. Hershey's honesty and integrity make me proud to purchase their product. Many of the large chocolate companies are currently researching the health benefits of chocolate and they have been funding these studies for a long time. To have a health benefit while eating a much loved candy can only improve the bottom line. The study doesn't take away what appears to be a small cardiovascular benefit  from eating dark chocolate;  it calls into question what does it mean to have a raw cocoa bean. I have eaten a raw cocoa bean.  I have yet to see or eat a truly raw cocoa bean in California.  


I am trying to attach a link via the article to eBlogger but the link will not work.  I will try to get a working link soon.  Below is a copy and paste paragraph of the article in Confectionery News by Jane Byrne.

"The authors reported that in terms of the epi/cat ratio, the highest were found in unripe and ripe, unfermented dried beans. Fermentation and roasting lowered the epi/cat ratio further, with the lowest ratios found in Dutch-processed cocoa powders." Source: The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry
DOI:10.1021/jf102391q
Title: Impact of Fermentation, Drying, Roasting, and Dutch Processing on Epicatechin and Catechin Content of Cacao Beans and Cocoa Ingredients
Authors: M.J Payne, W. J. Hurst, K. B. Miller, C. Rank, D. A. Stuart

Rising prices of cocoa beans, sugar and cocoa butter.

Our US newspapers in December 2010 and January 2011 were filled with bold headlines that the price of cocoa was going up.  A few people asked me with deep concern what was going to happen, how much more expensive was their favorite chocolate going to become, and if I thought a shortage of chocolate would be coming to the US soon.  I don't know. As a micro business, the costs to run it vary greatly as a matter of course and I can only watch and wait for the future to unfold. I will venture a guess that prices will rise and fall and then rise again as instability in the Ivory Coast continue.
The Ivory Coast provides a huge percentage of cocoa products to the western world and cocoa beans play an important role in the current call that the EU support a sanction of this product.  The hoped for result is that this will stop the large amount of monies flowing into the country that pay the civil servants, encompassing the military, police and other government employees.  If the civil servants don't get paid, maybe one man will stop being president and another will take his place.  Of course, this is an over-simplified view.
The middlemen, who include farmers, exporters and others, burned bags of cocoa beans in protest of the sanctions.  They have families to feed and the sanctions make this virtually impossible. Commerce is tied to politics and fear of lack is a huge motivator in future prices and when banks stop working money stops flowing.
I do not believe that the large cocoa conglomerates are going to go bankrupt any time soon. They will use cash instead of banks to do their business and the ties to this country are long. But the farmers and small businesses will bear a greater proportional brunt of price volatility on both sides of globe and consumers must decide how much it is worth to them.
And don’t get me started on the price of oil.

The closing of Cosetinos in San Jose, Ca.

I have recently learned that Cosentino's in San Jose, CA. closed on Saturday, February 27, 2011.  This store is near and dear to my heart, as this is where I discovered 'real' chocolate.  Previous to the summer of 1970, my experience with chocolate was limited to Hershey's milk chocolate bars and M&M's.  We had recently moved into the area and Cosentino's was a mile away, walking distance, from my house.  The first time we shopped at this store, I experienced an awakening of my culinary senses.  Here there were barrels filled with pickles, a real butcher shop, a cheese counter, a bakery of wonderful goods (oh, my aching sweet tooth), and vegetables I had never seen before in my life. The aromas from this store were both tantalizing and confusing as many of those aromas I was unable to identify at that time.
My favorite was the chocolate aisle.  Along one end of this aisle lay before my eyes a mass of chocolate candies from different countries and I remember taking my allowance and purchasing the dark chocolate that cost me the entire allowance. That first taste is, to this day, an experience that shaped my opinion of what chocolate should taste like.  I spent my entire weekly allowance on different chocolates at this store, carefully dividing it into seven days, long enough to last until my next purchase.  Every week without fail I walked to this store and  purchased my treasure, except of course when I lost my allowance due to some negligence my parents felt was inexcusable.  Those were long weeks. To this day I am closet chocolate eater and now a chocolate maker.  Thank you Cosetino's.
I am sad over this closing.  It was a wonderful store.  I shall miss it.

Growing cacao tress.

Cacao's  history, so far, originates from Central and South America. Cacao trees are rather picky about where they grow.  Left to their own biological devices, it is possible that they would have grown close to their origins and not much farther, since the tree is reliant on animals to open the pods, eat and disperse the beans. At one time, it was Mexico that could boast growing the fine Criollo bean, thus having the best beans in the world.  Mexico's history is rich with stories and pictures (hieroglyphics) of the Theobroma tree and pod as the beans were used by royalty for monetary exchange and religious ceremonies, and, later in history in Europe, of the wealthy who were well aware of the physical effect on people who partook of the chocolate drink.  To that point, a side trip we made while on my Costa Rica Chocolate class, was to a small cafe called Caribeans.  Delightfully situated on the beach front, we drank hot chocolate. When cocoa beans are ground and then pressed through a commercial espresso maker, a hot drink transforms into magical brew that  is thick and creamy without milk.  I  read a description by the character E.23 in Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, who expounded on the effects of taking  small amounts of opium, as giving one heart; chocolate when consumed in this thick,creamy and concentrated form, certainly gives one heart to face the day.  The all over effect of this drink helped with my stamina needed to enjoy that day when we had the opportunity to meet  the indigenous people of Costa Rica, the Bri Bri, who introduced us to their God of the Cacao Tree.

But back on my topic. When you look at a globe, you can imagine a belt centered on the equator to understand where cacao trees grow best.  After subtracting all the water and areas that are too high in elevation or too dry or too far from water, and suddenly you have a limited area where we can get cocoa beans.  Costa Rica is able to grow the cacao tree, especially under the canopy of the jungle, giving rise, literally, to the millions of small midges that pollinate the flowers. But it isn't a perfect environment in Costa Rica for the trees, so it is always a challenge to get a high crop yield from the farmers’ efforts.

So with care, cacao trees can be planted in places that are humid, without which the seed would not thrive, year round water,  and enough shade and heat to allow quick decay of vegetation, giving rise to the tiny insects who give life to many plants and animals, and made my life a bit miserable by their sheer numbers.

What does raw cocoa mean?

I recently was in a discussion with someone about the benefits of raw cocoa beans.  She produced a bag of nibs and asked me to taste it.  The first thing I noticed was the smell of an acidic quality signaling poor processing; the second was that the nibs were not a light white or purple but a light brown coloring. They also had a chocolate flavor, not great and they were bitter, but the chocolate flavor was there. Having eaten cacao beans straight from the pod, I knew these were not raw, and hence the confusion for people who are taken in by companies claiming to have raw beans or paste.
Raw beans are astringent.  They are very astringent. There is no chocolate flavor and the saliva is ripped out of your mouth, leaving it dry and uncomfortable.  Some people may experience this astringency more or less than myself, but it is different from the bitter quality that happens after it has been fermented.
Fermentation is a process of heat, and heat destroys pathogens and much of the antioxidants in any raw product. Fermentation also creates the chocolate flavor we recognize and enjoy.  (I remember when Odwalla used to sell unpasteurized apple juice claiming that raw was better for you. Unfortunately, a few people ended up dying from salmonella poisoning from drinking their raw apple juice.  Odwalla is lucky to still be in business, but then again, they no longer sell raw apple juice.)  Cacao beans start fermenting almost immediately after being picked off the tree, creating an environment that begins the degradation of the bacteria, pathogens and antioxidants of the raw bean. The same antioxidants that so many people believe will ward off cancer, aging and even delay death.  I won't challenge the ideas of the healing power of antioxidants,  but I will challenge the marketing of "raw beans".  Even a little heat changes a product from raw to not raw.  Parboiling before canning is a good example of eliminating those pesky bacterias that can make a person seriously ill but the parboiling process also begins killing the more fragile and desirable mineral and vitamins. Even a little fermentation of the cacao bean, under 111 degrees Fahrenheit, starts changing the beans taste and level of antioxidants available for people to benefit from when they ingest the cocoa.  I believe that unless a cacao company is putting all their pods into a refrigerated container immediately after the pod is removed from the tree and keep it under controlled cool settings all the way to the grocery shelf, that they can not, and should not, call it raw.  The expensive of doing this would make it nearly impossible for most small farmers who grow cacao trees to create this product.  I am not saying there isn't a company who is doing it with this much intergrity; I am only saying I highly doubt it and have yet to find a company who does this. 
Personally, I would enjoy chocolate in nib or candy form, for its taste and leave it to your local farmer for the fruits and vegetables that you can purchase in your city for the health benefits of antioxidants.