In article, more jobs in cocoa-production countries, plus possibly less loss of beans due to shift using entire fruit. No need for cocoa bean farmers to dry the beans outside (where loss tends to occur due to unforeseen/unpredictable weather making the beans unusable).
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Intriguing, @jerryab2! Less wasteful, but there will be unpredicted challenges. Shipping will change, from a processed and dried cocoa bean to a pumpkin like fruit. Processing, too, with new equipment needs. Ripeness of the fruit will determine sugar content, so there will likely be added sugar. The cocoa bean is quite bitter by itself, and so it’s fermented, which reduces the bitterness and adds flavor nuances we associate with chocolate. Which brings up another challenge, pricing and challenging the consumer’s palate. It’ll likely be much more expensive to process, at least initially. Should be interesting if someone takes up the gauntlet.
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Processing will change, but that always happens. New eqpt is nothing new, as it needs to be replaced for that next “new and improved !!” item.
Shipping will change, but so will the volume of goods shipped–because more product is shipped. As the production costs will likely be lower in the origin vs destination countries, there may be more chocolate available over which a higher cost can be allocated without significantly raising the price to the consumer.
Can’t comment on the required volume needed to use the new process because we have no idea what minimal amount needs to processed to be cost-effective using the new process. Most likely to try the new process would be small-volume/specialty makers, but it is most likely those businesses would not use enough individually to justify using that new process. Large/volume users have the resources to try the new method and then they will try to figure out a (if any) market for it exists.
It’s interesting, for sure, but I see many difficulties. I assume manufacturers would receive many containers of pods, which would need to be washed and sanitized. Rotten and old ones sorted out. Then, crushed open, the seeds and fruit juice removed and separated. The seeds roasted and ground into a slurry. The pods ground up separately into a gel, they called it, with juices added. There must be a way to evaporate this gel, else it would become thick and unwieldy when combined with the roasted ground seeds. Then I assume they would be recombined, seed slurry with gel, sugar, vanilla, and milk powder, if desired. With that in mind, it appears the pod is elaborate filler, and not providing much if any flavor or sugars. A food scientist might find a quicker process with pectin. But they wouldn’t have as good a story to tell. We’ll see. Still interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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The key point is what we do not (yet) know. If much of that processing can be done in the country of origin, many of the costs would also be be lower as well. Plus, there could be more of the product to sell (which is one of the unkowns being faced) because it does contain a much higher volume overall. Shipping a product with higher volume means there is less need for a lot of additional expensive processing to end up with a finished product.
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There a lot of unknowns for us. I suspect you’re right about volume being the motive, as this is a filler, in my opinion. Think what people have done with simple corn, puffed, fried, flavored… i think they’re attempting that with chocolate, only it’ll be called something else. Choc-crete?
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As I guy living in Mexico who buys chocolate pods and processes them according to ancient rules, who loves the product in his cooking, all I can say is MAYBE and LOL!
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That’s what I was thinking.
The Captain
It’s trending that way, where source countries are capturing more of the downstream revenue, making chocolate in country. Good idea. Why sell the component of a premium item at a commodity price? But then, it can be subject to the vicissitudes of local government. I’m told a Venezuelan chocolate maker has trucks of cocoa beans hijacked. Chocolate will likely continue to get more expensive.
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Please elaborate! I know about fermentation, roasting, grinding, and conching. What else do you do? I love good chocolate and Mexico has a long heritage.
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One of my closest friends here is a Mexican culinary anthropologist specializing in ancient foods and recipes of the Maya, Toltec to Aztec, and smaller cultures in the Yucatan. I help her while learning. We have done some bafflingly wonderful things with chocolate.
There are various different ways of doing it all, my favorite so far being a carefully controlled slow dry roasting of the beans that stops short of melting them, concentrating and subtly darkening the flavor.
I have begun work towads a recipe for a bitter unsweetened chocolate ice cream from traditionalist methods….
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Diane Kennedy and Patricia Quintana were two queens of the Mexican culinary world. I don’t recall what they may’ve done with cacao. Who is your friend. I’d like to learn more. I want more deets on what you do. It sounds tasty!
I once tried traditional chocolate … and it is completely different than what westerners call “chocolate”. It is MUCH MUCH MUCH less sweet, and it is usually kind of grainy and has texture in the teeth. It is not at all like the overly sweet and uniformly creamy stuff we typically call “chocolate”. Both are very tasty to me, but they are quite different things.
See if you can get the “how to make chocolate” recipe using the whole bean and then figure out if it is something you both want to try. It may, or may not, fit with what you want to do.
Why wouldn’t the processing be done in the region where the cocoa is grown? Why isn’t it done there now?
Good question. Probably because the wealthier nation producers set the equipment up nearer their market. Forest Mars said the biggest market is above the 39th parallel, north. Most cacao is grown nearer the equator. They can also control their production, recipes, distribution, etc.
They also have less exposure to malfeasance and expropriation in third world countries.
DB2
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Venezuela grows cacao and turns into chocolate both industrially and artisanally. On my way to and from the marina I would buy artisan cacao (not yet made into chocolate).
The Captain
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There’s a pretty well established artisan bean to bar industry in the US and abroad. All you have to do is get some good beans, roast, grind, and add sugar. Mexicans, Central, and South Americans have been doing this, with variations on ingredients with/without sugar for a millennia or more. Smooth chocolate comes from grinding for much longer and mellows out the acids and other flavors, and it has to be tempered to look good. It’s a fascinating field. And I hope we take good care of it and the people who grow and make it. I can’t imagine a world without chocolate. Or vanilla.
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That is not the new process being investigated, which is the point. It would be useful if someone with reasonable familiarity with making chocolate can try it and see if it is actually feasible on a smaller scale.
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