Single-origin chocolate is chocolate made from only one variety of cocoa bean, it has been grown in a particular region, and reflects a particular harvest season. Much like wine grapes, hop varieties in beer, and coffee beans, the taste of cocoa beans is affected by terroir - the soil, climate, and landscape in which they are grown. This unique combination of factors and timing impact overall flavors, size, color, aroma, and crop yields.
The concept of a single-origin chocolate bar isn’t new, however the surge in popularity of a specific offering has taken off in recent years. Prior to that, the trend was strong in single-origin cocoa liquors, but is making its way into butter and powder. Why? The pervasive belief is that single-origin offerings play into consumer’s desire for premium products. Single-origin products don’t inherently mean better, or sustainably manufactured but there are strong parallels to both. Better quality cocoa also involves better production and manufacturing methods alongside a carefully curated terroir. This is often perceived as higher quality to a consumer audience. Many buyers view single-origin ingredients as more exclusive and therefore more desirable.
Conscientious consumer habits have only increased in recent decades. Traceability is possible with some blended ingredients, through much trickier. Sourcing ingredients from a single origin allows companies to further improve traceability, right down to farming cooperative or even farmer level. Consumers trust when purchasing single-origin ingredients that they are buying a product that was ethically produced and is not excessively harmful to the environment or society.
We’re excited to see customers dive into single-origin offerings by showcasing the concentrated flavors of the beans and creating new tasting profiles. A bar from one origin highlights the specific attributes of its terroir. From an approachable Peruvian cocoa liquor, a bright and fruity Tanzania, or a rich, nutty bean from India. All offer their own benefits and notable features. Most notably, our Trinidad micro-lot projects are opportunities for us to bring single-origin beans to market that are too specialized, remotely sourced, or of a small crop yield that farmers might not be able to move and consumers wouldn’t be able to enjoy. Working directly with farmers at origin allows us to provide customers new levels of transparency and traceability straight from the farm gate.
We expect this trend to only increase and will be a consideration in chocolate for many years to come.
]]>There are four main genetic variants of cocoa beans: Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario, and Nacional.
Parts of Cocoa Fruit
Trinidad has a storied cocoa history and a great reputation for fine-flavored cacao. And while these days, most Trinidad beans get bulked into homogenized containers, there are many small-scale farmers in Trinidad doing amazing and unique things with their beans. Without technical support and market access, their lots still get combined with all the rest.
Since the 2016-17 harvest season in Trinidad, Sarah Bharath has led our Trinidad Microlot Program. Sarah is a cacao expert with more than 15 years of experience in cocoa genetics, agriculture, and processing. She has been on the ground daily with cacao farmers and fermentaries throughout the country, helping them process and select the best beans that they have.
Together with Sarah, Meridian compiles a container of cocoa beans from Trinidad that has microlots from individual farmers and regions, representing the best prepared cacao in the country. Some of the lots are as small as one bag, from an individual farmer. Each lot is a unique representation of the region from which it was grown; we are so proud to be able to offer these beans to our customers here in the US.
Below, Sarah gives us some insight on the history of cocoa in Trinidad based on historical information compiled and published in the works of Michael Anthony (Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago) and Gérard Besson & Bridget Brereton (The Book of Trinidad).
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Trinidad and Tobago is a twin island republic that lies at the southernmost end of the Caribbean chain, just northeast of Venezuela. Trinidad, a small island of 3180 square miles, was initially inhabited by the First Peoples (also known as Amerindians in early literature) comprising several tribes of whom the Caribs and Arawaks are the best known but by no means the only tribes at that time. Christopher Columbus came across Trinidad in his 1492 travels, claiming it immediately for Spain. Under Spanish rule many of Trinidad’s Amerindians died from new diseases introduced by the Spanish settlers. In order to encourage development of the lands in Trinidad, José de Galvez (the Spanish king’s representative in Trinidad) put forth the Cedula of Population in 1783, an edict that allowed immigration into Trinidad primarily from the neighbouring French Caribbean islands (Martinique and Guadeloupe). This marked the start of the plantation economy in Trinidad.
Trinidad’s first phase of rapid development was tied the expansion of sugar production, which lasted from the 1780’s to 1820’s. However, even by the 1830’s, Trinidad remained quite underdeveloped, with vast areas of fertile land still under forest cover. The second frontier started in 1870, and involved internal colonisation of the island, with many new settlements associated with cocoa plantations. The mass consumption of chocolate and cocoa beverages in Europe and North America increased the demand for cocoa, further fueling rapid expansion of cocoa production in Trinidad.
Around the early 1720s, Trinidad (and the wider cocoa-producing Caribbean region) suffered major losses of the original cacao types that were reportedly established by the Spanish when they began occupying the country. The scientific and general literature, for a long time, cited that this initial collapse of cacao cultivation was due to a ‘blast’ or ‘blight’ which some interpreted as a disease, others as a hurricane, and still others as some mysterious event that devastated the existing Criollo types. Ultimately, whatever the physical cause of the demise of Criollo-type cacao in Trinidad, the subsequent introduction of Forastero material from Venezuela created a situation in which it is widely believed that remnant Criollo trees hybridized with the new Forastero types, thereby creating the world-renowned Trinidad Trinitario cacao, with delicate flavour notes, generally strong and highly productive trees and good tolerance to pest and disease.
Beginning in the late 1800s, Trinidad’s cocoa production boomed, outstripping sugar to become the country’s leading agricultural export in a few short years. The land area under cacao cultivation expanded from 2400 hectares in 1856 to 90,000 hectares in 1917. Exports peaked in the mid-1920s and accounted for a fifth of global production.
However, over the course of the 1900s, the Trinidadian cocoa industry took huge hits which led to a near extinction of cocoa production on the island. Low world market prices and labor shortages led many plantation owners into bankruptcy. Also, the discovery of rich oil deposits dramatically shifted the country’s focus and worker supply into the oil industry. This continues even today and admittedly, because of continued government intervention since the late 1940s, Trinidad’s cocoa industry still exists - albeit in a considerably diminished form.
This research paper by Frances Bekele of the Cocoa Research Center at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad is a great resource for those interested in a more in-depth version of cocoa in Trinidad. It makes reference to the multiple rehab efforts over the years that have sputtered and chugged along but have never been truly successful at genuinely re-awakening the cocoa efforts. Until now. Today, growing local interest in the sector is fueled by the emergence of the artisan/craft chocolate industry, together with the increased awareness and interest of consumers in what they eat, how sustainably it is produced and a desire to encourage better relationships between producer and consumer.
--Sarah Bharath
]]>Vanilla’s leading flavor is due to the presence of vanillin, an organic compound that delivers those signature sweet, warm, and creamy flavors. Madagascar vanilla has higher concentrations of vanillin than beans from other countries, one reason why Madagascar vanilla beans are so richly flavored.
The humid, northeast corner of Madagascar, known as the Sava region, produces the majority of the world’s finest vanilla beans. The plentiful rainfall and fertile, loamy soil create optimal conditions for these delicate plants.
To use Madagascar vanilla beans, slice the bean open lengthwise with a paring knife. Use the back of the knife tip to scrape out the black inner seeds; this is what is known as vanilla caviar. You can then add the vanilla caviar to cake batter, cookie dough, frosting, sauces, syrups, and more.
Procuring Vanilla Beans:
An Abridged History:
In the United States, we have around fifteen different FDA-regulated types of cocoa products. Below is a glossary of nine FDA-approved designations more useful to small-batch chocolate makers and retailers:
Cacao nibs (Also legally can be called “cocoa nibs” or “cracked cocoa”) - Made from cured, cleaned, dried, whole cacao beans that are shelled and cracked. Usually the cacao beans are roasted before being shelled and cracked, but the FDA does not regulate the nomenclature based on this process. Nibs are unique because they are minimally processed and they retain their original fat content, which is usually around 50 percent.
Chocolate Liquor (Also legally can be called "chocolate", "unsweetened chocolate", "bitter chocolate", "baking chocolate", "cooking chocolate", "chocolate coating", or "unsweetened chocolate coating") - Made by finely grinding cacao nibs. Liquor cannot contain less than 50 percent by weight nor more than 60 percent by weight of cacao fat (cocoa butter). Additional cacao fat or cocoa solids can be added as long as the percentage of cacao fat falls within the required 50-60 percent range. It has no sweeteners added. Cocoa liquor is unsweetened, 100 percent chocolate. It also does not have anything to do with alcohol, as it’s meaning comes from the lesser known use of the word “liquor”, which means a liquid used in a particular process.
Cocoa - A powder that is ground from the cocoa mass left over after cacao fat is partially removed from ground cacao nibs. It is separated into three different types based on the percent of cacao fat remaining:
Any type of cocoa can be either “natural” or “Dutch process”. Dutch process cocoa powder is made by either soaking ground cacao nibs before cocoa fat extraction or by soaking cocoa solids after cocoa fat extraction in an alkalizing agent, which makes the resulting cocoa powder darker in color with a milder taste and a neutral or higher pH. Natural cocoa powder is not alkalized and so retains characteristic flavors, a lighter color, and more acidic pH.
Sweet Chocolate (Also legally can be called "sweet chocolate coating") - Made by mixing and grinding chocolate liquor with a sweetener, and must contain at least 15 percent by weight of chocolate liquor (which is calculated by subtracting the weight of the cacao fat inherent in the liquor and then multiplying that number by 2.2, then dividing by the total weight and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage). It also must contain less than 12 percent by weight of total milk solids. Cannot be called milk chocolate.
Semisweet Chocolate (Also legally can be called "semisweet chocolate", "semisweet chocolate coating", "bittersweet chocolate", or "bittersweet chocolate coating") - Made by mixing and grinding chocolate liquor with an approved sweetener, and must contain at least 35 percent by weight of chocolate liquor (which is officially calculated by subtracting the weight of the cacao fat inherent from the liquor and then multiplying that number by 2.2, then dividing by the total weight and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage). It also must contain less than 12 percent by weight of total milk solids. Cannot be called milk chocolate.
Milk Chocolate (Also can be legally called "milk chocolate coating") - Made by mixing and grinding chocolate liquor with dairy ingredients and sweeteners, and must contain at least 10 percent by weight of chocolate liquor, not less than 3.39 percent by weight of milkfat and not less than 12 percent by weight of total milk solids.
White Chocolate (Also can be legally called "white chocolate coating") - Made by mixing and grinding cacao fat (cocoa butter) with optional dairy ingredients and sweeteners. Must be at least 20 percent cacao fat and not more than 55 percent by weight of sweeteners.
There are no other relevant classifications of what cocoa products are in the FDA register. There is no regulated definition of “dark chocolate”, nor are there any regulated differences between semisweet and bittersweet chocolate. No FDA regulations classify chocolate with greater than 35 percent chocolate liquor into other types of chocolate. The equation the FDA uses to determine percentages has you subtract the weight of cocoa butter and then multiply the weight of cocoa solids left by the number 2.2. The definition of cocoa percentages in chocolate are based on cocoa solids, not cocoa butter. Legal nomenclature makes it hard to differentiate high quality cocoa products within broad FDA regulated terms.
So, what is a fine chocolate-maker to do to differentiate their product? How can we convey a difference when there are no words or labels created by the government to describe those differences?
One way is to make and borrow regulated definitions and types of chocolate from other countries. The European Union (EU) lists a few more versions of regulated chocolate than the FDA. At Meridian, we offer one of these products, called “couveture”, that differentiates our chocolate chips from others in the market.
Couveture - Designated by at least 31% cocoa butter content, a couveture can be white chocolate, milk chocolate, sweet chocolate, or semisweet chocolate. The high fat content of the added cocoa butter means it will be more fluid-like when melted. It is often used by chocolatiers to make a thin chocolate coating over candies and truffles. It has at least twice as much cocoa butter as the minimum FDA requires for semisweet chocolate, four times as much as the minimum FDA requires for sweet chocolate, and seven times as much as the minimum FDA requires for milk chocolate. As far as white chocolate is concerned, the minimum the FDA requires is 20 percent cocoa butter, so with a couveture being a minimum of 31 percent cocoa butter, a white chocolate couveture is not as drastically different than the FDA standard for white chocolate.]]>First let’s start with the plant itself. Cacao is a perennial plant grown in tropical regions and has a long growing season. The cacao tree produces flowers which then turn into fruit. The fruit from the cacao tree are called cacao pods. A cacao pod contains around 40 seeds (eventually beans) that are covered in a wet, white pulp.
Pods are harvested and then “husked” and the mass of seeds are taken out from the inside of the pod to be fermented. Fermentation can be done on-farm or at a centralized fermentary. The pulp surrounding these seeds is the sugar that feeds the fermentation process, and is one of the main reasons it is important to pick cacao pods at the correct stage of ripeness. In an unripe cacao pod the pulp has not developed enough sugar for fermentation to occur properly, and in an over-ripe pod the pulp deteriorates into diluted, watery sugars insufficient for fermentation.
“Wet” (meaning fresh) cacao seeds are heaped into piles or into wooden boxes to ferment and are often covered with banana leaves to help microorganisms start the fermentation process. Some specialized fermentaries have experimented with their own strains to further inoculate fermenting piles in order to influence flavor profiles. Piles are then turned to properly aerate the microorganisms at work until the process is finished, about a week later. Color changes are a result of good fermentation, where the color of the fermenting seed changes from a dark purple to a dark brown.
Fermentation is not always done well, or even much at all, when seeds are heading downstream to become cocoa beans for mass-produced chocolate. It is the mastery of this step along the way that is key to differentiating the good cocoa beans from the bad, in terms of their potential for good quality and flavor, pre-chocolate.
Next in the process, fermented piles are spread out to dry, either in the sun or with machine driers. It is best to dry them slowly so as not to trap the release of acetic acid, which can taint flavors. Drying too fast closes the membrane surrounding the seed allowing only the release of water, concentrating acids in the finished bean. Cocoa beans should be dried to about 7% moisture content and are then ready for sorting and bagging.
After cacao seeds are fermented and dried into cocoa beans, the beans are graded, usually by government entities of each country where they are grown, into either “bulk” or “fine flavor” categories to distinguish cocoa beans meant for mass-production and those with the capacity for a full flavor profile. This designation, in large part, comes as a result of fermentation techniques.
All the cocoa beans we offer at Meridian are “fine flavor” beans produced with superior fermentation techniques. They are all meant to be representative of the potential flavors inherent to a flavor map of a single country of origin, which is why we classify them by country and by estate. Single origin cocoa beans are what make single origin chocolate so unique. Check out this great link by Megan Giller for more information about single origin chocolate: http://www.storey.com/article/what-is-single-origin-chocolate/
Resources:
http://equalexchange.coop/products/chocolate/steps
http://www.dandelionchocolate.com/process/#anchor
https://www.dandelionchocolate.com/2017/04/28/education-station-is-that-cacao-pod-ripe/
]]>Single Estate - A single estate has the smallest footprint on the map of origin. It is a specific land-holding or regional collection of farms all owned by the same entity that both grow and process their own cocoa beans under one label. They grow, ferment, dry, sort and bag from start to finish at the same source. They transform their own cacao pods and seeds into their own finished cocoa beans.
Centralized Fermentary - A centralized fermentary is more of a regional hub, not tied to a particular farm. It is an independent processing center that buys “wet” (fresh) cacao seeds from neighboring farmers and blends them together to ferment in coherent batches. After fermentation, they also dry, sort and bag their finished cocoa beans. A centralized fermentary doesn’t grow the cocoa pods and seeds they process.
Cooperative - A cooperative can take many forms. It is a legal business structure where people own equal shares of a business together. A cooperative could own a farm, a centralized fermentary, a marketing label, or any other business in relation to the cocoa industry. Most cooperatives in the industry are individual farmers who own a centralized fermentary together. A cooperative does not denote a process, but more an organization of ownership.
The advantage to buying from a single estate is the control and potential influence they have over all inputs and processing that the other structures do not have, unless a cooperative of farmers also owns a single estate together. They have the potential to experiment with small batches and different types of flavor profiles for superior quality and flavor variation. The advantage to buying from a centralized fermentary is the potential for a more standardized flavor that is replicable, using standardized fermentation processes.
The advantage to buying from a cooperative is variable, depending on the type of business, and is usually more about supporting an egalitarian and democratic ownership structure. Often this involves farmers who may not traditionally have access to owning a business, many work towards issues of social justice, both in the global market and in their own communities.
Cooperatives allow for a more diverse representation of farmers, often allowing women more access to the industry, and links to articles: http://www.storey.com/article/what-is-single-origin-chocolate/