The New chocolate - a revolution
A finer future

Imagine if the great wine grapes of Europe were planted side by side and interbred to produce one or two standard variations - say a red, a white and rosé. Wine buffs might tell you this is impossible and impractical, and that different vines would prosper in different conditions and require different treatment. They might also say that the results would be a poor compromise with mainly low grade homogenous wines being produced.

Well this situation, if perhaps a little exaggerated, sums up the state of Theobroma Cacao today. Most consumers don't even know that there are different varieties of cocoa with different tastes. Even those who are aware, know only of a handful of variations, probably the broad categories of Criollo, Forestero and Trinitario. While cocoa buyers and chocolate producers have recognised the qualities of different regional cocoas in private for many years, these nuances are only just starting to reach the consumer.

Untangling the chocolate knot

The good news is that governments, researchers and chocolate growers are making efforts to recover this situation - they need to if they are to protect future stocks of cacao from the bouts of disease that are jeopardising crops and driving up cocoa prices with every year. They are also now realising that flavour is becoming important to their customers.

Through detective work, rediscovery and chance lost cacao genomes are being rediscovered. Research stations around the world are finding and preserving lost cacaos in 'banks' of specimens that may emerge in the future as 'new' varieties of chocolate - Domori's new 'Puertomar' is an example of such a chocolate. DNA analysis is being used to rediscover the family tree of Theobroma cacao and help understand the interwoven complexity of its varieties.

  Producing cacao by
  controlled pollination

 

 

Like wine grapes, different cocoas suit different conditions and require different treatment. They may require specific growing conditions and crucially the beans from different varieties may need differing fermenting and roasting times to achieve their own unique flavour. When varieties are mixed together, as often happens when beans are traded in bulk on the world cocoa market and originate from plantations where different varieties grow side by side, some are over-roast and even burnt, compromising the quality of the chocolate produced. Only by carefully treating each variety of bean in the best way suited to that variety will producers achieve the best flavour.

There will always be bulk cacao beans for the mass market, but with care the chocolate industry can introduce a whole new audience to a whole new host of chocolate flavours, and at the same time help to preserve the future of chocolate.

A time for change

This revolution is not just driven by the chocolate industry; consumer demand is ready and waiting to soak up the new chocolate being produced by the many fine chocolate makers emerging around the world. Public interest in finer food, in the origins of food, in quality, and issues like GM and the organic movement are leading to an increasing awareness in the origin and quality of the ingredients used in our food. For some consumers this is leading to a preference for natural ingredients and a search for flavour over quantity.

Health factors are also an influence in the growing interest in varietal chocolate - traditionally chocolate in its candy incarnation has had the reputation of being bad for you, associated with weight gain and spots, but there has been lots of research emerging in the press of the benefits of chocolate - it's high in anti-oxidants, helps alleviate coughs and is even good for your teeth, to name just a few! Of course if chocolate is just a very small percentage in the candy bar you are eating any positive effects are likely to be outweighed by the sugar and fat you are also consuming. So strong chocolate is the obvious answer, but if you want chocolate without the downside, you also want it to taste good!

Conclusion

We may well be at yet another turning point in the convoluted and obscure history of our beloved chocolate. As a cultivated species there are serious challenges ahead for Theobroma cacao that must be met if it is continue to feed the world's demand for chocolate. And perhaps this is also a time of hope and awakening, when we will have the chance to begin to appreciate the many flavours possible in chocolate, and perhaps once again truly understand why chocolate was named the food of the gods.

To see just some examples of the variety possible, look through our review section and you will see examples of single origin chocolate, varietal chocolate, blended chocolate, organic chocolate - the list goes on, but this is just the beginning of many potential years of happy tasting!

© Martin Christy, 2003

Bibliography

This article draws on a number of sources, however the most important are the two excellent works listed below:

The new taste of Chocolate: A Cultural & Natural History of Cacao with Recipes, Maricel E. Presilla, Ten Speed Press, California, 2001. An inspirational work, the first to really show in print the true depth of varieties of cacao.

The True History of Chocolate, Sophie D. Coe & Michael D. Coe, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996. Recognised by all experts as the definitive and only comprehensive study of the origins and history of chocolate.

Buy these books in our books section through Amazon.