Why is cocoa so much more expensive than coffee? …and… Is there anyone who sells the ground roasted cocoa in quantities of 2 lbs or larger?
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Cocoa Beans
If you are not familiar with Madagascar cocoa, then prepare for a wild ride. It is a real powerhouse. It has generally gained the reputation as an immensely complex cocoa bean with a huge potential. If you are familiar with coffee origins, then I put this akin to a bright, citrusy Kenyen. As always, you can have it however you with. Raw and Roasted, Retail or Wholesale.
With Hurricane Sandy last year, a lot of cocoa and cocoa supply chains were severely disrupted. At nearly half a year later, most everything is back in order, old regulars are back in stock, and some new ones have come also.Belize - Organic and Direct Trade - NEW Origin Dominican Republic "La Red" Organic/DT is back
Dominican Republic "Elvasia" Organic/DT is new also.
Venezuelan Sur del Lago-2012/13 is back
In addition, I have something a touch novel, and I hope helpful. Testing beans. These are vastly inexpensive, and perfect for getting your feel for roasting, experimenting, and getting daring, and maybe, just maybe, having some neat surprises along the way. Now, before anyone asks, there are no certifications on these, I don't know really anything about them except they are composite samples that one of my suppliers had around. Knowing what I do, they passed them onto me (basically at the cost of shipping), and I am passing them on to you at effectively that same cost of shipping and doing business. On the surface, this may look like I have beans that I am offering that could not have supported anyone (i.e. crappy prices to farmers, non-fair trade, dare I even mention slave labor? etc) but the story behind it is that, again, they were sample beans collected over time (i.e. there were no cost associated with except shipping) that simply would have been thrown out, but instead you get to benefit from them, and no one loses and it's frugality all the way around.
Test and evaluation Cocoa beans
That's it for now. But with 17 different beans in stock, I hope that is sufficient for a little while...until the new tongue tingling Madagascar arrives.....
I have heard that chocolate benefits from a slight resting or maturation period before eating. Is this true? Why? How long? Is there a shelf life?
Well, for once, there is going to be very little definitive I can give you here, at least in the form of specific practices. Keep in mind, the majority of chocolate I make is for evaluation purposes, so I make it, and taste it within just a few days. But then again, I am looking for defects, not perfection. And while you are keeping things in mind, recall I started this whole journey because I tasted fresh chocolate and was blown away by its vibrancy, which is sort of the opposite of an aged flavor.
Without just repeating it here, there is a great discussion on the Chocolate Life about just this, and I cannot disagree with any of it (which isn’t quite agreeing with it if you understand what I mean there). .
That said, I’ve made many things that improve with age – wine, ale, cheese, mead, sausage and say un-categorically that there are changes in flavor that only aging can produce (which I love), and there is no reason the same cannot happen in chocolate. I do know I can taste a difference in just roasted beans that are fresh out of the roaster (and cooled) and ones that have had a day to ‘rest’. In the rested beans, the flavors are more developed, more melded. And that is basically what is said about chocolate. It’s basically a chemical tying up of loose ends, and being in a solid state, it’s going to happen pretty slow. .
I think I lean more toward longer aging over ‘slight’ aging. This is mostly because from what I have tasted it is a S L O W process and a day here or there is not going to be that drastic. Similarly, given just how slow and gradual it is, I’ve never tasted a chocolate that has gone bad. It might be possible, but under cool ‘aging’ temperatures, I lean toward thinking it’s not. .
So, make your chocolate and temper part of it. Taste it and make some notes. Now wait a month and temper the rest. Taste them side by side and make notes. Now wait another month and taste them again and make those notes. Now compare all the tasting notes. If you tasted differences, great. Was there one set you liked better or were they simply different? You didn’t taste any difference? Well, put them away 6 months and try again. Rinse and repeat. I suspect until you get to many months or even many years you are not going to see huge differences….but you may depending on your bean and tastes. .
That’s about all I can tell you. In theory age will make a difference. In practice, that difference may or may not be better to your tastes.
_____
Coming soon - new beans.....Belize, Sur del Lago, Madagascar oh my....
Deep, heady, rich, alluring. Do I have you yet? Sometimes a chocolate's gestalt's impression is what lingers, and that's the case here. If you know Chuao, then you are probably not too surprised by this description. If you don't know Chuao, might I suggest, that if at all possible, get acquainted. Ok, that is about as hard as my pitch gets.
And the catch...I have only one bag (which was a pretty penny, hence the steeper than average price), so, if you want some, get it quick.
With Hurricane Sandy, some of my major supply chains have been disrupted. Peru, Ecuador, La Red, Bolivian - they are all in short supply or out. The warehouse storing them was flooded in parts, and damages are still being accessed. At this point, they are projected another 2 weeks to know what is not damaged, but it's not looking good. So, some standard favorites may be in short supply for a little while until new containers are in and available. But there seems to be a balance in life sometimes. With the above beans becoming scarce, I'm please to announce 7 new beans in stock. The long awaited Venezuelan.
These are all Ethically and Sustainably traded. I am planning on using that phrase a bit more. Chocolate Alchemy is working with Tisano who is on the ground in Venezuela, working side by side with the farmers. Since Chocolate Alchemy is not actually there, Direct trade is not quite the right term, and since these are farm purchased, not co-op, they are not eligible for Fair Trade status. Amazonas - a wild harvested cocoa. Wood & chocolate.
Cumboto - this Ocumare strain bean comes from a former slave founded village tucked away deep in the canyons of the Henri Pettier National Park.
Mantuano - Delicate nuts, light berry (apricot and peach), the hint of the sea, and a slight touch of freshly cracked black pepper.
Ocumare - An old favorite, and no exception this year.
Patanemo F1 & F2 - From another former Slave village - the slaves ran away from the surrounding haciendas and hid in the mountains and started a little town called 'Pas Tenemos' - We have Peace, which over time turned to Patanemo. A great Criollo pale white beans with specks of pink. We work with the co-op here doing centralized collections, fermentation and drying.
Tricheras - Former Hacienda broken up and the land is now owned by the farmers (one more day or so for the tasting notes)
and finally, although not from Venezuela, I have a small amount of bright, tangy Madagascar in.
That brings the currently number of cocoa bean offerings to a baker's dozen. "..... As a chocolate, the nuttiness stays on, along with the richness of medjool dates, molasses and interesting tobacco (leaf not smoke) notes...."
As always, it's available Retail, Wholesale, and both raw and roasted.
And I have confirmation that the alluded to container of Venezuelan are just about to hit the water. It is all loaded and should arrive and be available sometime late September. At which point another 4-5 cocoa bean types will be available.
And one other thing I will toss out there. I have been experimenting with the Premier Wonder stone wet grinder.
I've actually been using one continuously for a year now. Totally unmodified. And it is working fantastic as a Melanger. Why isn't it on the site you ask? Well, there is an up side and a down side. The up side is that it is UNDER $200. And will refine 7-8 lbs of chocolate. The down side is that the manufacture will not warranty it for chocolate. So, if you go get it, mums the word about what you are using it for. The don't say they exclude chocolate, but when they noticed the name (Chocolate Alchemy) they asked and I don't lie, and they said it would not be sold with a warranty. So, as I said, mums the word.
That all said, I've run it hard. It takes (warmed) nibs into liqueur great and fast. It does not over heat. It can run days on end. And it's both half the weight (25 lbs total) and less than have the price of the 'official' Melangers but refines almost the same amount (about 80%).
So, if you get one, I would LOVE hearing about it. Mine of course is just a single data point, but it's been great.
BTW, Psst, if you are into it, we are also now (finally) on Facebook. If not, no worries, everything will still be posted here and via e-mail as before.
Cheers
Both new beans are now available. Currently I am designating them as 'Sustainably sourced' ("SS" maybe) - somewhere between Fair Trade and Direct Trade in that no brokers are being used, and I am dealing with the people who are working directly with the farmers and co-ops. Premiums well in excess of minimum commodity and even Fair trade prices are have been paid. I hope you enjoy them. Ecuador Mindo - Organic - 2011 Honduras - 2012
I am back from China and catching up on orders, e-mails and such. Once that is all taken care of, I will have two new beans available, both being sourced one step closer to the farmers. Not quite direct trade (although well above FT prices), but in both cases from micro lots that were purchased from those who worked directly with the farmers. Here is a little about the one from Mindo Ecuador "Mindo selects only certified organic, shade grown Nacional beans. We also select only the healthy beans. We see the beans in the fruit and do not purchase beans that are not in excellent condition. The beans that we refuse are sold to cocoa bean brokers. We pay twice the going rate for the healthiest of beans as the farmers are used to selling the unhealthy beans for the same price as the good beans. Mindo ferments the beans themselves in clean cedar boxes and we dry the beans on elevated drying beds away from dirt and debris, unlike most beans in the world that are unfermented and dried along side of the road. Fermentation mellows the flavor and begins to develop the precursors to what we know as chocolate flavor. "
The other is a Trinatario from Honduras. Great fruit and chocolate. More on both later when they go up.
First off, although not terribly exciting, I need to announce Chocolate Alchemy will be closed from June 15 - June 23. I will be heading out to China on a technical consulting trip and will mostly be not available. I may or may not be able to answer e-mails, but under no circumstances can any orders ship during that window. But, if you want to stock up before then, there are two new beans in, both Retail and Wholesale, and of course, roasted and raw. "La Red" from the Dominican Republic - Raw and Roasted . It has a solid, soft chocolate flavor, with tamarind and soft (as opposed to sharp) citrus (mostly lemon), with the occasional hint of banana. The roasted nib aroma particularly has a tamarind note. There is also other 'thick' flavors like caramel, toffee and caramelized sugar.
Venezuelan Sur del Lago - Raw and Roasted. It is a complex, well-rounded cocoa that can make a luscious chocolate bursting with flavor accented by subtle hints of red berry fruit, dry cashew, toffee, caramel, a touch of pepper and most important, chocolate.
And with that note of a return of a great Venezuelan cocoa, I'll move right on into more exciting Venezuelan news. A couple years ago Chocolate Alchemy carried a few varieties of Venezuelan Cocoa that you may remember. Mantuano, Patanemo, Rio Caribe and that wonderful cedary Porcelano. Well, those came from a company that is now going by Tisano. The owner of this company is Patrick Pineda. Fantastic gentleman. He and other will be on a panel, The Myths, History and Future of Venezuelan Cacao, at the FCIA (Fine Chocolate Industry Association) 2012 Summer Event.
How and why this is relative is that Chocolate Alchemy is currently working to be the distributor of the cocoa Tisano is about to bring in. Very exciting. Patrick really says it best, so here is the latest I have direct from him:
"We are working to buy from Four Co-Ops buying direct from the farms :
1) Tricheras - Former Hacienda broken up and the land is now owned by the farmers. They have a great drying patio and fermentiation rooms. Solid Trinatario.
2) Mantuano - Former Indian Villiage turned Hacienda for Coffee and Cacao now owned by the local farmers. They are about to finish building a centralized depot / collections center with drying patios.
3) Patanemo - Former Slave villiage - the slaves ran away from the surrounding haciendas and hid in the mountains and started a little town called 'Pas Tenemos' - We have Peace, which over time turned to Patanemo. A great Criollo pale white beans with specks of pink. We work with the co-op here doing centralized collections, fermentation and drying.
4) Cumboto - Also a former slave founded villiage tucked away deep in the canyons of the Henri Pettier National Park. The Farmers @ Cumboto were the guys that were running the Ocumare Co-Op before it got taken over by the government. It is a small villiage just outside of Ocumare - they have the same genetic varietals and consistency of the Ocumare you have grown to know and love.
5) AMAZONAS - This is a rich forastero full of flavour and considered to be a wild grown cacao from what many believe the birthplace of cacao. Amazonas is grown by an indigenous community two days canoe trip from the nearest road. We have to travel two days against the current in order to reach the town and purchase the cacao.
Tisano is working hands on with these farming regions and co-ops to promote new heirloom varietals of single origin cacao and support the farming communities by paying above fair trade prices and directly purchasing from the co-ops.
We are also actively involved with development project to ensure quality and output of these regions continues to increase while always following organic and sustainable farming practices.
Our big initiative for 2012 is the creation of low cost drying beds that ensure beans do not go moldy and output can increase per farm to make the farmers earn more income per hour spent on the harvest."
If all goes right, many if not all (and maybe more) these will be in and available by the end of July. I am actively taking orders if you know or think you want large quantities. Please contact me directly for more information, pricing, etc.
Two new cocoa beans are recently in and available. Both are available raw and roasted, and one of them I have decided to offer as a Brewing Cocoa. Bolivia - Organic 2011 - A couple months ago I had a beautiful, tiny wild Criollo from Bolivia. It sold out very fast. The is a different bean. It's more traditional in pretty much all aspects. It's traditionally grown, is of average size (95-100 g/100 beans)
Ghana - 2011 It has hints of light biscuit, a little vanilla and of course the rather characteristic and “classic” earthy chocolate aroma.
And of course, all of these are available in Wholesale if that is your need (excepting the brewing cocoa that is).
Finally, I will be heading out of town on Thursday for SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) annual convention. Consequently on shipping on those days, and likewise I won't be answering e-mails. I'll be back and shipping on Monday.
And I will point out that I am going (aside from the fact that I love coffee as much as chocolate) that I have been working as a technical adviser/consultant/developer on a new product that Behmor Inc is bring out - The Brazen Brewer - and it looks very promising that it will work very nicely for brewing Cocoa!. Check it out. The Brazen Brewer. And if you will be at the show, don't forget to vote for the People's Choice awards (yes, I am shamelessly promoting this) - Text ECON2 to 86677 to vote for Behmor Inc.
Enjoy and see you next week.
David and Goliath? Me and Mini-Me?
Bigger is better?
The tiny powerhouse?
Frankenstein vs....damn can't think of a small monster.
Well, I really wanted a good one-liner there, but inspiration eludes me. So I'm just jump into what I want to talk about. Cocoa bean sizes. As is the definition of 'average', most cocoa beans you will find and buy are of average size. This generally means they are 90-110 beans/100 grams - industry convention and standard. What I have for you today are two great examples of the two far ends of the bell curve.
What you have here is a tiny wild harvested Bolivian Organic Criollo at a bean count of 160 beans/100 g and a huge Guatemalan Trinatario at 50-55 beans/100 grams. Below is 100 grams of each:
What does this mean? Well, many things…and not much. Huh? Let me explain.
Neither will be inherently better or worse first off. The small one isn’t inferior, nor is it packed with flavor because it is small. Likewise, the large one isn’t large and tasteless, but neither is it better because of it’s size. Both are simply notable.
In this case, the Guatemalan has a nice rustic flavor, kind of nutty and carries a unique bitterness, but also some great savory notes. The wild Bolivian…well, in a word, just makes me happy. It’s pretty mild, being Criollo, but has great flavors. Toffee, very soft fruits, butter and blueberries. And it melds all together seamlessly…and makes me smile. Plus it’s so damn cute.
OK, from a practical standpoint, you may find the Guatemalan’s may not feed as well in the Crankandstein, whereas the Bolivia will feed great, but both will crack just fine in the Champion. After that, you will find they both basically winnow the same. You might expect that because the Bolivian is so small, there ratio of husk to nib would be high, giving you less nib than normal…but thankfully that is not the case since it is a Criollo and one with a particularly light thin husk. Both turn out to give right around 80% nib.
Finally, I should make a note that both of these are of a limited nature. When they are gone, they may well be gone for good.
I really hope you try them, enjoy them and that they make you happy.
And as a reminder, Refurbished Behmor 1600s are now readily available.
Hi folks. This is not how I wanted to head out of town and to the Chocolate Fest, but.... I am having computer issues, and my main system is going into the shop while I am away. Unforunately that leaves me unable to fulfill a handful of orders or tell people directly that their orders are delayed. My apologies. That said, orders from January 17 (order number 7362 and higher) on won't be going out until I return on Monday, or possibly Tuesday.
And likewise I will not be answering e-mail until I am back.
On a better note, there will be new Behmor 1600's available next week (I've made them available now) and a brand new origin cocoa - from Guatemala.
This particular cocoa is very round and big with a nice mild flavor. They come from a coop in Cahabn, Guatemala. Cahabn lies in the Alta Verapaz mountain chain in the state of Coban. The people in the coop that grow these beans are from the indigenous tribe Kekchi Maya who are used to consuming cocoa in drink form as done in their culture for thousands of years. They were in the past paid only very little for their cocoa by local brokers but now a contract has been drawn up which allows them to receive 4 times the price more. All this extra money goes direct to the coop. Much of the money pays for school for the children of the coop's members. The extra income from their cocoa also will allow these people to plant more cocoa trees in some of the deforested lands in their area.
Until the other side.
That really says it right there. Ocumare and Carenero Superior from Venezuela are in. They look, smell and taste fantastic. And the exciting part for me is that it's is the first (partial) container that I've brought in myself. Enjoy ! And they are available Wholesale also if that is your need. Roasted versions will be available this weekend.
Sadly, the Venezuelan Porcelano is gone, and although not a replacement for it (hah, I make myself laugh there), two new lots of a brand new origin are in. Colombian Santander. This is a perfect example why one should not judge a book (or bean) by it's cover (or appearance). It's not pretty, but neither is Carenero Superior, but both have a complexity that are hard to beat. Have a look, try both lots and compare for yourself.
And speaking of Carenero Superior, it and Ocumare are due in from Venezuela (yeah, our first partial container) and should be available around the turn of the year. There will be full bags of each available, so if you have an interest in quantity, contact me as I'm sure these are going to go fast.
It seems like I get asked this a lot. So far I've not found a practical way to do it. Or at least way that makes it a reasonable alternative to just buying some. One of the few times that DIY isn't superior, even with extra worth on your part. There is about 50% cocoa butter in a cocoa bean. Even the best presses, with literally tons of pressure and heat, they only get a recovery of about 80% (meaning they remaining cocoa mass has about 20% cocoa butter in it). Well, I had something happen the other day that although isn’t perfect, does give you a way to make a bit of your own cocoa butter.
Every year, has the holiday season comes around, I combine all the chocolate samples I have (usually 50-100 lbs) and make it into truffles. This year I had a minor mishap with a small test batch while dialing in some scotch flavored centers. As I was finishing up stirring in the cream to the chocolate (1:2) it started to separate. I since determined this has a higher chance of happening if you don’t have lecithin in your chocolate. In this case I had an ‘ah ha’ moment, as I realized that was cocoa butter on top and people keep asking me how to press their own cocoa butter.
Armed with this inspiration, I did a 500 gram test to see just how much cocoa butter I could get.
I mixed in 250 grams boiling water.
Stirred well until it seized, then stirred some more.
I put it into a colander to drip, pulling as much as I could to the sides so I had lots of surface area for the cocoa butter to flow from, noticing it liked to come to the surface. I put this into a warm oven to drip for a flew hours stirring once in a while.
The result? Cocoa butter…..66 grams. Considering there was about 250 grams in there, I only got about 25% of what I could have. Poor showing into my mind.
I went on to try putting the mass in a bag and pressing it…..and nothing happened. I even pulled out my sake press (it’s a screw press) and really applied the pressure…and ….pictures speak volumes.
Blow out - the chocolate pressed right through the seams and fine screen of the bag. So, at the end of the day, can you make your own cocoa butter? Sure, but it is going to be a bit of work, and very expensive since you are only getting about 12% of your starting mass. So really just sort of novelty.
There has recently been a lot of buzz about various brewing chocolates. Choffy and Crio Bru are the two big ones that come to mind. I've received more inquires than I can count about what makes them so special, if my roasted cocoa beans will work and how one can make their own hot chocolate drink with minimum fuss. Up until this point, I didn't have any really good answers. Now I do.
I ordered up both products (I could not get any courtesy professional samples). What I got was this
Looks a whole lot like ground cocoa with the husk on to me. Here's the two commercial ones and one I prepared.
I set up a flight of 3 tests. Choffy, Crio Bru, and Roasted Peru.
Their two I dosed as roughly recommended (2 T/ 4.25 oz 'cup' for Crio Bru, 2-3T/6 oz 'cup' for Choffy - side note, WTF is it with coffee (and now cocoa) measuring 4, 5 and 6 oz 'cups' - a cup is 8 ozs, thank you, end of story) and for mine, 40 g/8 oz. I ground mine coarsely in my hand burr grinder. A whirley blade spice grinder will work. High speed burr coffee grinders may or may not (I think not, but don't have one to try) work as the cocoa butter may melt and coat the burrs. Just so we stay consistent here, 1 T = ~10 g. I brewed up 8 oz of each (in a french press - steeped for 5 minutes), and luckily, they all fall into a dosing of 4T or 40g per 8 oz CUP.
Here they are all brewed up.
Can you tell the difference - neither can I.
Could I taste the difference - well, in a matter of speaking. They are three different origins. Dominican Republic for Crio Bru, Ivory Coast for Choffy, and Peru as I already mentioned for mine. Here are my tasting notes, tasted 'blind' of course. Crio Bru was a little fruity and mildly chocolatey in the nose. It had a nice mouth feel, an ok chocolate flavor and a bit as astringency.
Choffy had more chocolate in the nose but not much else. It had a full mouth feel, a moderate chocolate flavor, but not much else going on except a little sharpness. About what I would expect from Ivory Coast - it's Forastero, so has a good chocolate backbone, but not a huge amount of subtlety.
Chocolate Alchemy's Peru matched the Choffy in chocolate aroma, and some soft fruits. The mouth feel was between the other two, but more approachable in my opinion. Nice chocolate, some plum and banana flavors and a 'round' mouth feel.
I also tried these all with a little sugar and milk, just for the sake of completeness. I can't say any were better or worse than any other. The milk definitely rounded out the rough edges that I noted in the Choffy and Crio Bru. And with sugar, they all start approaching what many people think of as a hot chocolate flavor.
On that last comment about hot chocolate flavor, I should mention brewed cocoa, regardless of source, is not an intense, thick mouth coating drink like many are accustomed to in hot chocolate or the other various processed chocolate drinks. It's more subtle and sublime than that. It is its own drink. If you compare it to hot chocolate, you may come away disappointed. If you evaluate it for it own flavor and merits, I think you will come away impressed.
So, in review,
- They all looked about the same.
- They all tasted very similar, with variation for origin
- They are all roasted, ground cocoa beans.
Choffy claims some other proprietary processing method (and they may have one) but if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck and it tastes like a duck....you get the point.
The only other point I will make is this:
- Crio Bru: $14.95/12 oz bag
- Choffy: $15.00/12 oz bag
- Chocolate Alchemy Roasted beans: $10-14.50/LB (update - you can now order Brewing Cocoa directly, and it will come all roasted and ground)
I'll let my very intelligent customers decide which way to go.
Finally, I will say, in I hope the next week or so (in between winnower building) I will be setting up a Brewing Chocolate category, with 8 oz bags of roasted and ground cocoa beans, with tasting notes. In the mean time, if you would like your roasted beans ground, just leave me a note when checking out and I will be more than happy to prepare them for you. Otherwise, you can grind them yourself in a spice grinder and you will be on your way to a new luscious taste experience. Just remember:
- 4 T/8 oz boiling water
- Steep 5 minutes
- Press (assuming you are using a press pot - drip works ok too)
- Enjoy straight, with milk (or cream) and/or sugar.
A new beautifully prepared Criollo from Peru is in. It's also available Wholesale, by the bag or even MT if that's your need. As far as the winnower is concerned, some beta units are being built. Right now aluminum and PVC. I have some pricing for Stainless steel and the first numbers coming in are looking like that material will easily add $1000-1500 to the price. Ouch I know. As for clear plastic, oddly, it may end up being cost prohibitive. I'm having trouble finding anyone to make low volume prototypes and the tooling for injection molding is putting it above stainless so far.
On the other side, I have put together the parts for an even smaller system. Basically a bare bones one that is easy to build and has no frills. I'll keep you posted.
A few more bags of Venezuelan Chuao have made it in. Right now I have a single 'spare' bag available for wholesale. Multiple bags (50 kg) are available. Please contact me directly if you would like pricing and more information. Also, Soy Milk Powder is back and makes a GREAT dairy free "milk" chocolate. Combine it with the Chuao and you can have a killer dairy free milk chocolate.
I just took out the following batch of 53% (ok 52.9%) dairy free milk chocolate from the Melanger. Due to the high solids content, refining time was about 48 hours.
22 oz Roasted La Red nibs (what you get from 2 lbs of whole beans)
32 oz Natural Cocoa butter
32 oz Sugar
16 oz Soy Milk Powder
Now that that is actually written up from my notes (I kept adding ingredients until I liked the consistency and flavor), I'm rather please and surprised to see all the whole numbers (in pounds) fall into place. That's looking very much like a new kit.... Fun. So far I have not had a single person realize it's not 'regular' milk chocolate. Give it a try.