The Chocolate Fudge Cafe

Chocolate is one of the most addictive foods on the planet and it is not hard to see why. There is no substitute for the rich taste, which is versatile enough to be enjoyed on its own or paired with everything from fresh fruit and pastries to wine. There has been a lot of play in the media recently regarding the supposed health benefits of chocolate and while the media does tend to exaggerate, in this case they`re more right than wrong.

Chocolate contains naturally occurring mood-enhancing chemicals as well as powerful oxidants. The former can help ease a bad day or enhance the rewards of a good one. Antioxidants help scour free radicals from your system, helping you to ward off some of the less pleasant changes that aging brings as well as supporting your body in its resistance to certain types of cancer.

All chocolate comes from the cacao (pronounced, cah-KOW) plant. The fruits of the plant are harvested and split open to reveal small seeds inside that resemble coffee beans. Once the beans and their surrounding pulp have been removed from the outer shell of the fruit, they are placed on banana leaves or in wooden boxes or baskets with bottoms that allow drainage and they are allowed to ferment. Sometimes they are covered with leaves. This is called, “sweating” and can take from six to eight days. During this time, the pulp liquefies and drains away and the beans age into a mellower flavor.

Once fermentation is complete, the beans are gathered and dried. At this point they may be shipped to large chocolate manufacturers, though in
the case of most fairly traded chocolate, the beans are processed on small farms.

The little nibs used to make chocolate are separated from the shells, either by hand or with the use of machinery, depending on where the processing takes place.

The cacao nibs may or may not be roasted, depending on what their end use will be. Roasting the nibs brings out the rich, dark flavor, but many proponents of raw foods prefer their cacao nibs unroasted.

As with so many things in life, not all chocolate is created equal and not all chocolate offers the same benefits. Most commercial chocolate is processed and loaded with fats, sugars and sometimes preservatives. One of the best ways to ensure that your chocolate is of the highest quality is to make it yourself from organic cacao beans, nibs or powder.

One of the main advantages of cacao is that it is easy to store. Place your nibs in plastic lined jute or burlap sacks and store them in a cool dry place for three to five months. Store cacao powder in airtight jars in a cool, dark place to keep it tasting fresh. How long it will stay that way depends on how it was processed, so be sure to ask for guidelines when you purchase it.

Now that you have your fresh, organic, fairly traded chocolate base, have a look at the very best in accessories, as recommended by the chocolate lovers at Chocolate Fudge Cafe, to make cooking with your cacao as fun as it is healthy. http://www.waresofknutsford.co.uk/

Photo of mousse with mango coulis is from the article  “Tips for Pairing Fruits With Chocolate”.  http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2010/08/pairing-fruit-and-chocolate.html

     This site has a lot of great information about cacao; how it’s grown, etc., plus         many wonderful recipes like this one for Cocoa Balls.

See the full recipe at the cacaoweb site: http://www.cacaoweb.net/cocoa-balls.html

Cocoa Balls

In many cacao-producing countries the cacao beans are locally used for making “cocoa tea”. The fermented beans are ground to a fine paste, mixed with spices, and rolled into balls which are dried (in Jamaica and some other countries the ground cocoa is rolled into sticks or made into cubes  instead of balls). These balls (or cubes or sticks) are used for making “cocoa tea”, which in other countries is called a “hot cup of chocolate”.

The cocoa balls contain both the cocoa powder and the cocoa butter which is naturally present in the cacao beans (the  cacao beans contain approximately 50% cocoa butter) which means that the flavor of the final “tea” is very rich and similar to making hot  chocolate using a dark chocolate bar dissolved in hot milk/water mixture.

Click on the link to see the video of Ben Ripple’s Big Tree Farms in Indonesia.

Big Tree Farms video about growing cacao

These days – thanks to the combination of concerns about the environmental issues of transporting foodstuffs around the globe, coupled with the harsh economic climate, there is a tendency for people to choose growing and eating their own locally grown produce. Does this also apply, you may ask, to the cacao plant?

Of course, chocolate lovers would  probably delight in having a plant which provides produce which can be made into cocoa and chocolate products. In terms of the natural habitat for the cacao tree, it grows in a tropical climate such as South America or Central America  and also in Africa and Asia. As a rule, this evergreen plant prefers temperatures around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. However, if you fancy growing your own cacao plant in a more arid country, why not try growing one in your greenhouse?

The cacao plant is not especially hardy so it is worth taking the time to learn how to take care of the plant. Here are a few tips as to how to get going.

The easiest way to get started is to buy a baby cacao plant from a nursery. If you are really hard core and want to do everything yourself, you could take a stem cutting (the cutting should have a few leaves on it and one or two buds) and, once you`ve dipped it in rooting hormone, pot it into a well-drained pot, keep the soil moist and covered with a plastic bag. Keep the plant warm and in a shaded space. The plant can take more light, the bigger it grows.

When you have your baby cacao plant, by whatever means, it needs to be planted in a shaded place. It has been said that, because cacao plants need shade, they can be planted in rainforests which has the environmental advantage of protecting these important habitats. For home use, make sure the hole for your plant is three times the diameter of the root ball and three times the height.

Expert gardening sites recommend that the plant is watered immediately with a slow soaking and that mulch is spread 3 – 6 inches thick  around the tree (about half a foot away from the trunk). The plant should then be watered according to the soil type but remember the cacao grows naturally in tropical climes.

There is a debate as to whether to use fertilizers and chemicals on the plant. Some say yes, some say no. If you choose to apply fertilizer, follow the direction on the pack. The tree should be pruned once it reaches a couple of feet in height. It has been recommended to allow four branches to develop and to prune away others.

In due course, you should begin to see the produce of the tree! Of course, for life’s other little treats, it may be easier to pop to the shop to buy your goodies.  And for coffee lovers, rather than going to the trouble of buying a coffee plant, it may be better to buy your coffee beans online: http://www.caffesociety.co.uk/coffee-ingredients-sundries/coffee/fresh-coffee-beans.

By now most of us know the benefits of eating dark chocolate…after all, it’s been all over the mainstream news lately…but,  have you ever eaten raw cacao nibs, the natural source for chocolate?  They are quite good for you, and likely better for you than eating a chocolate bar.  Since it is the natural fruit (bean) from which the processed chocolate is made from, it makes sense that eating it in its original form would give you more of the benefits being touted by the mainstream media.  These studies and reports are most likely funded by big chocolate manufacturers who have an interest in advertising the health benefits of dark chocolate so they can sell more of their bars which are taking up quite a bit of space on grocery shelves now.  Many health practitioners of all modalities are recommending a little bit of chocolate every day for their patients.  The next time you’re in a health food store, ask if you can try a sample of the raw cacao nibs.  The health benefits per gram are much more pronounced minus the sugar, additives and fillers used in some dark chocolate bars.  Here is the nutritional information for raw cacao nibs from David Wolfe’s book “Superfoods”:

Raw Cacao Nibs – Nutritional Information

Protein      15.4 grams

Carbohydrate (Total)  29.4 grams

Fat (Total)     48.0 grams

Moisture     3.9 grams

Ash     3.3 grams

Calories      611

Calories from Fat     432

Saturated Fat     27.6 grams

Trans Fat      0.25 grams

Dietary Fiber     22.3 grams

Sugars     53 mg

Calcium     58 mg

Iron     202 mg

Magnesium     342 mg

Vitamin A     20 (IU)

Vitamin C     44 mg

Raw Cacao has a host of other beneficial constituents that are bio-available.  You can visit www.sacredchocolate.com for more information.

It has been said that the beginnings of chocolate production,which is now a food product that delights and teases the taste buds of adults and children alike the world over, originated in Mesoamerica. It is said to date back to 1900 BC and was used in Maya and Aztec ceremonies and events. In fact, sometimes during the Aztec civilization, cacao beans were paid as a sort of tax by those who were conquered. Once the beans travelled to Europe, however, the form of the food product changed. Chocolate had additional ingredients added – refined sugar and also milk. In the 1800s, the Cadbury chocolate producers found a way to emulsify the process of making chocolate to turn it into a solid form, which then became the product that we would recognise today – the chocolate bar. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, things changed further to refine the making of chocolate goodies including the squeezing out of cocoa butter to create hard chocolate. And of course, once the processes relating to chocolate production were mechanised, the levels of output increased considerably and chocolate was made available to a much wider consumer base. These days, West Africa produces most of the cocoa used in the globe, especially Cote d`Ivoire. Published statistics suggest that this continent is responsible for the production of nearly two thirds of cocoa.

These days, chocolate consumption is – as you no doubt are aware – very popular. However, although it is a much loved food stuff, not many of us realize the conditions within which it is produced. There have been arguments that those who produce cocoa (and coffee for that matter too) can be exploited and live in poverty. Some commentators have described these labourers as modern day slaves. Sadly, many children are included in this definition. Reports by some journalists in 2000 said that children, aged between 12 and 16 years old, were enslaved and sold to plantation owners. The work is hard and the hours are long – in addition, the cocoa bean farming process uses dangerous machinery and equipment such as machetes and pesticide. In response to awareness of this problem, consumers have an option to opt out of supporting these practices. The Fair Trade organization will certify chocolate (or coffee and other products) with its seal of approval when the products comply with their standards. For instance, these criteria relate to the wages paid to labourers, their working conditions and health and safety procedures and the use of environmentally sustainable methods. If you make the Fair Trade choice, this means that when you bite on a certified Fair Trade bar of chocolate or put Fair Trade coffee in bean to cup coffee machines you can enjoy the product even more.

   Cacao beans and pod

Processed chocolate “coins”

Not only is chocolate a sweet treat for the stomach, new  research suggests that cocoa can help protect against intestinal diseases like  colon cancer.

In what they claim is the first study of its kind in  relation to intestinal pathologies, a research team out of Spain has concluded  that cocoa can act as a defense system for the body by interrupting the  cell-signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, a process which results  in the formation of tumors.

Their study also found that a cocoa-rich diet can help  increase a natural process known as apoptosis or cell death, in which the body  eliminates old, unhealthy cells, to make way for new ones — a “chemoprevention  mechanism” that helps ward off cancer advancement.

For eight weeks, researchers fed rats a cocoa-rich diet — 12 percent — and then induced the effects of cancer.

For the rest of the article:  Cocoa Prevents Colon Cancer

The Four Main Types of Cacao

From the book “Discover Chocolate” by Clay Gordon

   Forastero 

Origin:   Amazon River Basin; introduced into Western Africa via the island of Sao Tome

Tree:      Comparatively high yielding and disease resistant

Pod:       Lower Amazon (Amelonado): yellow pods with smooth outer skin

              Upper Amazon (UPA): yellow pods with variable shapes

              Comparatively disease resistant

Bean:     Size: large

              Interior Color: violet

Flavor:   Robust; not considered to be fine flavor cacao

Criollo 

Origin:  Central America, Mexico

Tree:     Comparatively low yielding and not as resistant to disease

Pod:      Red, orange or yellow pods; rough outer skin with longitudinal furrows

Bean:    Size: small to medium

             Interior Color: pale to white (which gave rise to the name Porcelana)

Flavor:  Delicate and nuanced; considered to be the finest flavor cacao

  Trinitario 

Origin:   Island of Trinidad (a natural hybrid between Forastero and Criollo);

              Introduced into Western Africa via the island of Fernando Po (Malabo)

Tree:      Intermediate yield and disease resistance between Forastero and Criollo

Pod:       Various Colors, often purple

Bean:     Size: medium to large

              Interior Color: ranges from violet to pale depending on predominance of

              Forastero or Criollo strains

Flavor:   Nuanced to robust; considered to be fine flavor cacao

 Nacional 

Origin:   Equador, technically considered to be Forastero sub-type exhibiting many

              Criollo characteristics

Tree:      Similar to Trinitario

Pod:       Similar to Trinitario

Bean:     Size: medium to large

              Interior Color: ranges from violet to pale

Flavor:   Nuanced and robust; considered to be fine flavor cacao

Inside of dried Cacao Pod with pale interior color: