|
|
|
|
"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:04:28 GMT in
> >,
> (Michael Sierchio) wrote :
>
>>Alex Rast wrote:
>>
>>Excellent, well-informed post.
>>
>> > ... Country of origin is never a reliable indication of quality.
>>
>>When I first read that I thought you were talking about the raw
>>material. It is interesting to taste those "estate" chocolates
>>from a single confectioner.... I don't think it's just a gimmick,
>>there are cultivar and terroir, etc. to provide differences.
>
> Yeah, when I said country of origin I meant country of origin of the
> manufacturer. Country of origin of the cocoa beans themselves makes a big
> difference in flavour, although even there you can't be assured of quality
> based on bean source. For instance, although beans from the Ivory Coast
> are
> generally thought of as "low-grade" and potentially involve slave labour
> to
> boot, some Ivory Coast beans are excellent, and not all plantations use
> slave labour either. Meanwhile although beans from Venezuela are generally
> thought of as being "premium" beans, there are plenty of Venezuelan beans
> whose quality is less than great. Even chocolate produced from the same
> source can be different depending on the manufacturer. For instance,
> Dagoba
> and Domori (2 quality chocolate manufacturers) both make a single-source
> chocolate from the Conacado cooperative in the Dominican Republic. But the
> Dagoba chocolate is really quite poor whereas the Domori chocolate (Chacao
> Absolute) is one of the greatest chocolates that has ever been produced.
>
> It is indeed interesting also to see how different factors play out in
> single-source chocolates. There are influences from bean type, roasting
> time, ferment time, and terroir among others. I generally believe bean
> type
> and roasting time tend to have the largest impact. It's often hard to
> separate bean type from location because a given region typically
> specialises in a given bean variety. For instance, Barlovento in Venezuela
> is a superb chocolate-growing region and tends to produce chocolates with
> an exotic flavour of tropical fruits and sweet spices, but this is at
> least
> as much because in the main the bean type there is Carenero Superior.
> Madagascar chocolate usually has strong citrus notes, but there again,
> they
> tend to be from similar Criollo bean genotype.
>
> And there are cases that are hard to classify. For instance, Chuao, a
> single village in Venezuela, produces a fantastic cacao, with very
> characteristic, strong flavours of molasses and blueberry, along with an
> unmistakeable power and a slight bitter hit at the end. And at the same
> time there's a tendency to talk about the "Chuao" bean, even though beans
> from Chuao have something of a mix of genestocks. But it's fair, by and
> large, to speak of a Chuao varietal because they've used the same trees
> for
> generations and not planted in new clones from elsewhere. So over time a
> cacao type has emerged, with a mixture of backgrounds but with very
> specific properties. As if that weren't enough, most people generally
> classify the type as a Criollo even though it has a certain percentage of
> Forastero genes (Criollo and Forastero are basic genotypes in cocoa).
>
> Back to the single source, the roast and ferment times are likewise
> variables that affect the result. A dark roast, for instance, tends to
> flatten out individual distinctions of bean type and origin, but sometimes
> this is in fact desirable because otherwise the chocolate might be too
> "bright". For an Ecuador Arriba, a light roast would in fact be poor
> because with its Forastero lineage that would make it bitter and harsh,
> and
> furthermore most of the quality flavour characteristics in that bean,
> leaning towards blackberry and aromatic woods, shine better with a dark
> roast. Such a choice, however, would be disastrous for Porcelana beans
> whose light, strawberry-and-cream essence, would disappear.
>
> This is why the best (and in any case most pleasurable) option is to try a
> variety of single-source chocolates from a variety of manufacturers, and
> see which ones you like best. It's a valuable journey to take because then
> you can identify the style and origins that you like and continue to try
> new chocolates with a better concept of which ones you'll prefer.
>
>
> --
> Alex Rast
Alex, I thought I had already posted this query, but can't find it. Have
you ever heard of the 100% chocolate brands Luker and Corona, both from
Colombia, South America. I found both in the Global (Asian and Mexican)
market I shop in occasionally. I can't recall the price, but it was not very
expensive.
Thanks.
Dee Dee
|