Baking Heaven April 2020

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Chocolate experts Food Thoughts (www.foodthoughts.co.uk) share

everything you need to know about the good stuff...

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All chocolate

is NOT created

equal...

M

ost of us adore chocolate.
Eating it, baking with it,
drizzling, licking, dipping
and generally enjoying its
heavenly taste and texture. But chocolate
aficionados out there will know that not all
chocolate is created equal. The pleasure is so
much greater if you choose the very best.
Chocolate is made from the simple cocoa
(or cacao) bean and, just like Champagne,
the quality of cocoa beans varies greatly. For
cocoa, this depends on the variety of the
bean, the soil it’s grown in and how it’s
grown and processed. That’s why the
International Cocoa Organisation grades all
cocoa beans. Only 8% deliver the exquisite
aroma and f lavour to receive the prestigious
cacao ‘Fino de Aroma’ stamp of fine quality

• the Grand Cru of the cocoa world.
  Most Fino de Aroma cacao is grown in South
  America and the Dominican Republic, which is
  why at Food Thoughts we only source our
  products from these regions. This means we
  can guarantee the very best f lavour and texture
  to ensure amazing results every time.

The chocolate

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The chocolate

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The chocolate

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C

ocoa and cacao come from the

same bean, the difference

occurs during processing. At

Food Thoughts, we use beans

from select cacao tree varieties and process

them as naturally as possible.

HOW ARE THEY MADE?

Once the cocoa pods have been harvested,

the beans are taken out of the pods and

dried in the sun. To make cacao, the beans

then go through a ‘cold-pressing’ process to

remove some of the fat (cocoa butter),

allowing the natural nutrients to be

retained before the cacao beans are roasted

and ground to create natural cacao powder

or crushed to produce roasted cacao nibs.

During processing, the beans selected to

become cocoa powder go through an

additional stage called alkalisation (or

dutching), which removes some of the

bitterness of the beans and mellows the

f lavour. Unfortunately, this process

destroys some of the bean’s natural

nutrients. The less the beans are alkalised,

the more nutrients they retain. This is why

we only very lightly alkalise our cocoa

powder to retain as many nutrients as

possible, while still maintaining a

wonderfully rich, fine taste. We’re also

pleased to say that both our cocoa and cacao

powders are also 100% Organic and Fairtrade.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

The upshot is that cacao has far greater

nutritional qualities than cocoa and is in

fact packed full of healthy f lavanols,

antioxidants, iron, magnesium and so much

more. Did you know that cacao has more

calcium than cow’s milk and 50 times more

vitamin C than blueberries? Cocoa powder

still has good nutritional benefits, just be

sure to choose brands that don’t add any

sugar or additives.

So what’s the difference between

COCOA & CACAO?