About Chocolate

Much is written about chocolate, but never enough. I guess it's like the topic itself: there is never too much chocolate, nor too much writing about it.

Chocolate starts with cocoa beans. These grow on trees that need heat, shade and humidity. That is why they grow only in the tropics. Ten of thousands of planters grow cocoa trees, harvesting the fruit, which in essentially pods, twice a year. It's very reminiscent of coffee growing.

Once the pods are harvested, the seeds are removed, then fermented for several days in special wooden crates and dried in the sun. These seeds are what we call "coca beans".

Most chocolatiers do not mix their own cocoa beans. They buy someone else's chocolate, say Valrhona, Callebaut or another well-known chocolate maker, and use that as their raw material. They then add flavorings to the chocolate, reshape it and call it their own. TRUE artisan chocolatiers process their own chocolate beans. They develop direct relationships with the growers and start their chocolate from the bean itself, not from a mixture of beans someone else assembled. They select beans from specific origins, since their flavor and aroma varies widely. Coffee beans grown in Ethopia taste markedly different from coffee beans grown in Jamaica's Blue Mountains. Chocolate is no different. Selecting the beans origin (Java, Venezuela, Equatorial Guyana etc.) is the first step to understanding the flavor of chocolate. Buying beans from specific plantations is even more discriminating, since one is then assured of consistently high quality of cocoa beans. Very few chocolate makers around the world have achieved such refinement. Most buy chocolate in bulk and use machines to process it. The artists buy from specific plantations and make the chocolate by hand.

Once the cocoa bean has been transported to the chocolate shop, they are roasted and crushed. They become cocoa nibs (those are edible as is, but not nearly as tasty as chocolate), which are then ground and converted into cocoa paste. The paste then is pressed and can be converted into cocoa powder (by pulverizing the solid part of the nib) or cocoa butter, the heart of all chocolate, by filtering the liquid part of the nib.

A master chocolate maker makes their own blend of cocoa liqueur and butter from different origins for maximum taste, bouquet and flavor. They then add sugar and vanilla, as well as other ingredients for flavor (including milk if they are making milk chocolate). All the ingredients are mixed, refined and kneaded to make the core of what we know as chocolate truffles.

Dark chocolate contains cocoa paste, cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla. Milk chocolate contains all the above plus milk. And white chocolate contains the same ingredients sans cocoa liqueur, hence its color.

Blended chocolates combine the range of cocoas from several countries to achieve a balance of taste. Single-origin chocolates use cocoa pastes, nibs etc. from a single country to reflect the specific flavor of that country's chocolate. Single origin chocolates can be further categorized into single-region chocolates, where the cocoa is from a single area. The name of the area will be shown on the packaging, much like wine appellations or cheese. Single plantation chocolates use cocoa beans exclusively from the designated cocoa estate. There are further criteria for quality, which allow high quality chocolatiers to call their chocolates premier cru and grand cru (like champagne designations), reflecting the highest quality of the raw material.

If you want to get a taste of fine chocolate, make sure the label doesn't include the following:

· Vegetable fats other than cocoa butter

· Artificial flavoring

· Beet sugar (vs. cane sugar)

· Soy lecithin

· Any ingredient whose name you can't pronounce)

You can search for your favorite chocolate on www.chocosphere.com. They have a superb selection. Some of my favorites:

- Amedei (Tuscany, Italy)

- Michel Cluizel (Paris, France)

My very favorite chocolate is a small family-owned shop in Brussels called Wittamer. They blend their chocolate, make it all by hand and don't sell through any chains, websites etc. except their own. Their chocolate are not only intense flavorful, but have the perfect balance between outer crust of chocolate and the inner filling for my taste. The chocolate crust is thick enough to give you a good crunch, while the inside is extremely flavorful but not too rich or voluminous. You'll note that Liat and I will visit Wittamer on the Food Pilgrimage trip. After all, what's a foodie trip without good chocolate?