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| Ripe and ready: brilliant colors of cocoa pods |
Excitement flooded through my veins and arteries as I got closer to Cocoatrait at No. 20 Besant Road, in Royapettah, Chennai. This was the first time I was seeing chocolate up close.
Chocolate memories flashed through my mind. The most poignant being devastated by the news about it becoming extinct by 2020. Disconcerting rumblings continued to plague me through the years via articles in different publications. Result: I ate more chocolate. Every time I took a bite, I would let it linger some more in my mouth. Every tasting brought with it new nuances and textures I hoped to store away in my memory.
However, this was the first time I was going into a chocolate lab run by a professional Chocolate Taster: L Nitin Chordia. The lab is also referred to as Cocoashala.
Cocoatrait signs and arrows led me straight into the ground level setup. Instantly, a heady aroma of chocolate surrounded me.
Building up my expectations, Nitin, with his customary smile, said, “I’ve selected the appropriate stuff to show you… information that I think will interest you.”
Now, I simply HAD to start.
Entering the Cocoshala lab, I saw a whole lot of equipment: a refrigerator, something by the window that looked like an air cooler, but was a de-humidifier, a wine chiller, a chocolate tempering machine, etc.
“What’s that doing there?” the so far overwhelmed Brain kicked in.
As if answering its question, Nitin said, “We maintain the temperature at 20*C: the ideal temperature for chocolate. That wine cooler keeps our chocolate in controlled humidity.”
“See? This is what I’d call innovation,” I tell Brain with a smile.
“I imagined he would be taking a swig or two of fine wine as he worked on single origin Indian chocolate,” Brain sounded disappointed.
Occupying centre stage, the granite table top is from Madagascar.
“Why? Don’t we get granite in India?” I voiced what cynical Brain asked.
“Yes, but the specific Madagascar granite was chosen because it has less porosity and has an ability to stay cooler for longer.” Nitin again.
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| Madagascar granite table top holds (from bottom) cocoa pod, fermented and dired cocoa beans, shells and roasted beans |
I touch its black, grey-flecked surface and find it hard, cold and smooth. The table base and all the shelves in the room are made of food grade stainless steel, a must for the fine chocolate classes that Cocoatrait conducts and for chocolate production internationally.
My first lesson:
- Theobroma Cacao is the botanical name for the Cacao tree that grows the Cacao pod that grows on tree trunks. Theo is a water guzzler, needs shade and looks like a longish segmented fruit. During season (which happens in May and December in India), it grows to the size of a papaya
- It takes three years for the tree to mature and produce its first harvest of cocoa pods
- Once open, the external pod becomes useless for the Cocoa. It is used as manure and put back into the soil
- Inside, the bean is surrounded by sweetish white pulp that tastes a little like a mangosteen, only not as fleshy. FYI, the bean and the pulp neither smell or looks like chocolate
- Extracted beans are fermented with the pulp for five days, giving the beans their flavor, bitterness, and acidity
- Once fermented, the beans are dried for up to two days
- They are now ready for the test by fire - roasting – which further enhances chocolate flavors
- Only 54% of the bean holds real cocoa butter or cocoa fat. All the rest becomes a powder that is very acidic once the butter is removed
- Earlier, this acidic cocoa powder was disposed of. Some people hated to see this brown stuff go and decided to do something about it. They alkalized the powder, added vegetable oil, milk powder, sugar, chocolate flavor and vanilla essence to give it the ‘taste’ we get in commercial chocolate
- ‘Single origin’ means from a single country
- In a 70% chocolate, the cocoa mass is 70% and the rest is sugar
- Cocoa nibs are the latest superfood. They are loaded with far more antioxidants than the blueberry and green tea
- Fact: Switzerland, Belgium, France, UK and USA import cocoa to process into chocolate from the equatorial belt of Theobroma farms in South America, Vietnam, Indonesia, Central Africa, Ivory Coast, India, etc.
- However, countries like the ones mentioned above produce the best-finished chocolate because of their weather, knowledge and technical expertise
When I left Cocoashala over two hours later, I took along a few bars of single origin chocolate. I felt a sense of deep respect and gratitude towards L. Nitin Chordia for spending time and answering all my questions. I am certainly better educated today than I was earlier.
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