ingredients

Getting to know your chocolate...an introduction to ingredients

CHOCOLATE LIQUOR
The paste made from ground cacao beans that  provides the “chocolate” flavour in chocolate.
COCOA BUTTER
The natural occurring fat in cacao beans. It is the most expensive ingredient in chocolate and is worth ten times the amount than that of vegetable fats that are currently being used to replace it (ie Cadburys). It has a narrow melting range just below the normal human body temperature which allows it to melt rapidly in the mouth whilst carrying and releasing the flavour of the chocolate on the palate.
SUGAR
Adds sweetness to the bitter cacao.
MILK SOLIDS
Often milk powder that contributes a creamy smooth flavour to milk and white chocolate.
VANILLA
Real vanilla bean that imparts a floral, creamy flavour to complement the bitterness of cacao while rounding out the flavour.
LECITHIN - An emulsifier extracted from soy beans that reduces the viscosity of chocolate allowing it to flow easily.


How it’s made...

There are three main trees used in the production of chocolate...3 million tons of beans are produced each year...
FORASTERO is the hardiest tree but it yields an inferior crop. 85% of all the beans used in the world are made up of forastero beans.
TRINITARIO is a hybrid tree that is tougher than the fragile criollo but yields a better flavour than the forastero.
CRIOLLO is the most fragrant of the three. It is used mainly in the production of fine chocolate.
Each cacao pod contains about 40 beans. Once the pods are harvested the beans are left to ferment in their mucous – it is this fermentation process that unlocks the flavours. Once the beans have dried out over a period of weeks, they enter the production stage:
ROASTING develops the flavour of the beans. The beans can be roasted to different temperatures for specific flavour profiles.
MICRONIZING breaks the beans, separating the nibs from the shells.
WINNOWING removes the shells from the process.
GRINDING creates the chocolate liquor. At this point the chocolate can be pressed to separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder.
MIXING involves the addition of vanilla, sugar and lecithin.
REFINING reduces the particles to a size that cannot be felt on the palate which will result in a smooth mouth feel.
CONCHING is the most important step in this process. Up to now the chocolate is a thick, crumbling paste that does not flow. Conching is a process of heat, oxygen and agitation that improves the viscosity of the chocolate and removes the excess acidity and water. It can take 3 to 96 hours depending on the beans. The longer the conching process does not mean a better quality chocolate.
TEMPERING results in the smooth, glossy finish of chocolate. The chocolate is heated to a specific temperate and then slowly cooled until set.

Percentages, percentages....

Lately it has become rather fashionable to put a percentage on chocolate. Don’t be fooled! Just because a chocolate bar is claiming to be a 70%, does not necessarily mean that it is a quality chocolate.

The percentage on a bar is simply indicating how much cacao solids is in it. So, lets take a 70% bar as an example. It means that 70% of this bar is made from cacao solids while the rest is made up of sugar, cocoa butter and lecithin.

If you’re looking at an ingredients label of a chocolate bar and you see lactose, whey powder, malt extract and butter fat...PUT IT DOWN!!! It’s not good chocolate.

Fine milk chocolate must be at least 30% cacao solids. Common milk chocolate is about 20% and in the States it’s even lower at 10%.

Fine dark chocolate must be at least 43%, but I personally would not touch anything lower than a 56%.

The Origin of the Species....
Another trend in chocolate is specifying the country of origin. Take Michel Pralus’ Madagascar. The beans for this bar come from any number of plantations within Madagascar. This is different from single estate beans such as Chuao. In this case, the beans used in this chocolate come from one single plantation. It was Valrhona who first revolutionised chocolate by putting the country of origin, plantation and sometimes the vintage on their chocolate.

Again, a lot of chocolate companies have jumped on board with this trend. However, as they use inferior quality beans, they simply cannot compare in flavour to Valrhona, Pralus, Amedei and Cluizel.