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November Recipe Contest

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Chocolate Making 101 CORRECTION January 1, 2012

Chocolate Making 101

Chocolate making blogs will be up on January 1, 2012


We will be covering the following:

• How to procure chocolate, molds, equipment
• How to temper chocolate
• How to make fillings
• How to enrobe Chocolates

If you have any questions prior to January 1, please email me at contest@karolinacacao.com

How do you make Artisan Chocolates at Home?

Artisan Chocolate Making

June 20th Karolina will be writing about how to make beautiful artisan chocolates at home.

What's in the flavor?

Deeper Flavor, Better Quality

Nearly 91 percent of respondents in Mintel’s consumer survey indicated that they like some type of chocolate, either milk, dark or white. Overall, most people favor milk chocolate, but in the specialty food market, darker varieties are popular. Older age groups are more likely to purchase dark chocolate, perhaps because it is an acquired, stronger taste.

Among specialty consumers, the level of quality is even more important than the type of chocolate. Shoppers are well-versed in cocoa content, clean labels and Fair Trade cocoa bean sources. Many confectioners are clearly labeling cocoa percentages on their bars, says Art Mart’s Ballard, whose health- and flavor-conscious customers look to that information as a designation of high quality.

“What's happening to chocolate now is what happened to specialty coffee,” notes Brad van Dam, president and CEO of Marich Confectionery, Hollister, Calif. “Twenty years ago, no one knew what Kenyan coffee was, but now everyone does. People are getting more interested in the specifics and looking for a greater experience with their chocolate just as they did with coffee.”

Fran’s Chocolates, a Seattle-based artisan chocolate maker, has reworked its 22-year-old truffle line to intensify flavor quality. Sean Seedlock, vice president of marketing, says, “We are going more into a darker, deeper flavor. We’re not relying on alcohol as much for flavor. For example, in a coffee truffle, we are focusing on the quality of the coffee and cream rather than relying on Kahlua.” The company is still using alcohol but “in ways where it makes sense, where it creates a richer taste,” notes Seedlock.


Chocolatier Jacques Torres aims to incorporate consumer tastes on an almost instantaneous level in order to ensure quality. In both his Brooklyn factory/shop and new 8,000-square-foot location in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, Torres depends on immediate feedback to test new flavors. Because he’s making chocolate on the premises, he can create a batch in the morning, have customers respond in the afternoon and modify the recipe accordingly for the next day.

His new Willy Wonka-esque location, Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven, which is slated to open in November, will educate and entertain. Customers see how cocoa beans become fresh, hand-crafted chocolate bars. “My goal is to give people more knowledge about the chocolate process—and to make it possible to learn it when buying a bar of chocolate,” says Torres.

The West Coast Chocolate Festival!

The West Coast Chocolate Festival

runs annually from October 15th to November 10th. Opening with Panache, October 15, at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside, over 160 events continue through until November 10. Join us November 7th, at the Port Moody Galleria, with a Chocolate Reception, Chocolate History and afternoon of entertainment, food, beverages and family fun. Mackin Heritage House and Toy Museum, Coquitlam, is Chocolate Festival Headquarters - with a chocolate themed event every afternoon, and most evenings.

What is the West Coast Chocolate Festival?

First launched in 2002, the West Coast Chocolate Festival is a unique and innovative collection of individual high calibre chocolate-themed adult and all-ages events that occurred throughout the Tri-Cities area of Coquitlam, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam. In 2009, the festival expanded to Burnaby and Vancouver, then expanding across the Lower Mainland in 2010. Reflecting emerging trends such as culinary tourism, experiential travel, small affordable indulgences and a rapidly increasing appreciation of the healthy benefits of good chocolate, festival events celebrate the magic of chocolate and appeal to the senses and the soul while attracting guests from surrounding cities, the BC Lower Mainland and beyond. With chocolate as a powerful draw, the festival leverages events to bring people of all ages and cultures together, to raise awareness about proper consumption and lesser-known positive benefits of the incredibly appealing food, and most importantly, to create valuable opportunities for youth mentorship in the local community.






Festival Director, Dawn Donahue, says "This not-for-profit festival remains an ambitious, dynamic, volunteer-driven operation dedicated to providing work and mentorship experiences for youth while showcasing emerging talent in the local arts and chocolate industries. The Festival offers something for everyone, and upholds the idea that adults want to support youth. At the West Coast Chocolate Festival people support youth and the arts - by just showing up for chocolate".

Hershey: Cocoa polyphenols show weight management potential

Hershey: Cocoa polyphenols show weight management potential


Post a commentBy Stephen Daniells, 05-May-2011




Extracts from cocoa may block carbohydrate and lipid breakdown in the gut, and aid weight management, says a new study from Hershey.


The 1st report that cocoa polyphenols may aid weight management

Scientists from the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition and the Pennsylvania State University report that polyphenols from cocoa inhibited various digestive enzymes in a dose-dependent manner, meaning the more consumed, the greater the effect.


“The present study provides the first evidence that cocoa extracts and cocoa procyanidins are potent inhibitors of key enzymes in the digestion of carbohydrates and lipids in vitro, and these inhibitory activities are related to polyphenol content in cocoa extracts,” wrote the authors in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

If supported by additional research, the findings suggest that cocoa polyphenols may find a role in the burgeoning weight management market, already estimated to be worth $7bn (€5.2bn) worldwide.

With 50 per cent of Europeans and 62 per cent of Americans classed as overweight, the food industry is waking up to the potential of products for weight loss and management.

Market breakdown
The slimming ingredients market can be divided into six groups based on the mechanisms of action - boosting fat burning/ thermogenesis, inhibiting protein breakdown, suppressing appetite/ boosting satiety (feeling of fullness), blocking fat absorption, carbohydrate blocking, and regulating mood (linked to food consumption).


Cocoa’s benefits
The health benefits of polyphenols from cocoa have been gathering increasing column inches in the national media. To date studies have reported potential benefits for cardiovascular health, skin health, and even brain health.
The majority of science into the potential benefits of cocoa have revolved around cardiovascular benefits of the flavanols (also known as flavan-3-ols or catechins), and particularly the monomeric flavanol (-)epicatechin.


Study details
Led by Penn State’s Joshua Lambert, the researchers tested how cocoa extracts could affect the activity of enzymes associated with the digestion of fat and carbohydrates, including pancreatic lipase, secreted phospholipase A2, and pancreatic alpha-amylase.

Three types of cocoa were tested: A cocoa extract that underwent regular processing; an extract that underwent minimal processing (also called Lavado) that is high in flavanols; and an extract that underwent minimal processing (also called Dutch-processed) that is low in flavanols.

“Among three cocoa extracts, lavado (meaning ‘washed’ in Spanish) cocoa undergoes the least processing (without fermentation or Dutch-processing), and this extract exerted the highest inhibitory activity against all three digestive enzymes,” report the researchers.

“By contrast, the Dutch-processed or alkali-treated cocoa, which is the most highly processed, showed the least inhibitory effect against the enzymes tested.

“Because it is expected that the lavado cocoa extract is the highest in polyphenols and flavanols, followed by the regular cocoa extract, and the least would be found in the Dutch-processed cocoa extract, these results suggest that the inhibitory effects of cocoa extracts are related to their polyphenol content,” they added.

The researchers said that additional in vitro studies would examine if enzyme inhibition activity of the polyphenol-rich cocoa extracts would be related to other metabolic effects and whether such effects would be achievable at doses observed from the diet.


Cocoa is not chocolate

In a recent review led by Gary Williamson from the University of Leeds but with the Nestlé Research Center at the time of the review, it was explained that: “Chocolate and cocoa are two different terms and are not interchangeable.


“Cocoa is the non-fat component of cocoa liquor (finely ground cocoa beans) which is used in chocolate making or as cocoa powder (commonly 12 per cent fat) for cooking and drinks.

“Cocoa liquor contains approximately 55 per cent cocoa butter and together this comprises cocoa solids, often referred to on chocolate packaging. Chocolate refers to the combination of cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar, etc. into a solid food product,” added the reviewers.



Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
“Inhibition of Key Digestive Enzymes by Cocoa Extracts and Procyanidins”

Authors: Y. Gu, W.J. Hurst, D.A. Stuart, J.D. Lambert