How you can enjoy two chocolate bars with the same cocoa level but vastly different tastes.
Line up two bittersweet bars, both marked 80% cocoa, one next to the other. To the eye, they look the same. But break 'em, and the discrepancies start to be revealed - the gloss of the surface, the scents they emit, the way the chocolate flattens between the teeth, the speed of melting.
And those differences are no accident. They stem from a confluence of decisions taken months or even years before chocolate ever makes it to your home: planting the first cacao pod, choosing which type of pod to plant, processing the beans, and then the cocoa maker's choices in blending and refining those beans and then, at the other end of the line, how that decision might impact the taste of your final product.
Terroir: Where Flavor Begins
Chocolate starts as a fruit. A pod forms on a cocoa tree, and the cocoa beans inside are an agricultural crop, just like all the others, and will bear the marks of where and how they were raised.
The concept of Terroir in Chocolate is relatively new. It was virtually nonexistent until the early 1990s, and today no chocolate aficionados would dispute it. According to the book, 'it is an amalgamation of four factors: origin, variety, environment and the mastery of the hands that make it'.
Variety. There are three primary families of cocoa trees: Forasteo, Criollo, and Trinitario. Forasteo is said to be more bitter and astringent, whereas Criollo is smoother with more berry, nut, and honey flavours.
Environment. Sunshine affects the polyphenols of the beans, and rain contributes to fermentation.
The farmer's hand. The times of harvest, fermentation, and drying are either times of aroma production or loss. A simple mistake in headspace, fermentation, or drying method can leave a funky fingerprint: mold, smoke, or acidity.
But terroir alone isn't enough to make sublime chocolate. As the book draws a parallel with wine: "The vintner who steers the best grapes from his vineyard has a little bit of his soul in the bottle. The superpatissier who wrings the best out of his plantations has his imprint in the chocolate. The terroir offers the possibility. The craftsman decides what the consumer eats."
Expertise: Two Kinds of Knowledge
On the plantation, much of the information growers have is ad hoc, passed down orally and not written down or recorded from person to person. It has to do with harvesting, fermenting, and drying.
From bean to bar- the recipe book is mechanized and industrialized, a nineteenth-century invention - a product of its era. Modern chocolate doesn't look anything like the flavored, spicy grated cacao of the Aztec and Mayan cultures, which was consumed as a drink instead of a solid food. Among the key innovations the book calls out are:
1820: the chocolate bar (it would, of course, be concocted by a Swiss confectioner).
1831: Charles-Amédée Kohler coats the paste in hazelnuts.
Casparus Van Houten presses the remaining out of it to create powder.
1879: Conching and adding cocoa butter transform chocolate into a smooth, silky texture, thanks to Rodolphe Lindt.
Not much has changed since. But judgment is still variable. Roasting and conching are determined by the ability of a master chocolate maker, who understands the cocoa so well that he/she knows the factors that contribute to achieving the fragrance and texture needed.
Terroirs and Aromas: Not So Clear Cut As In Wine
Where a wine's terroir is expressed in its most extreme form, chocolate is sadly still in the early stages of development. The book states, "Cocoa races are further apart than grape varieties. Farmers in the past have simply blended their own stock, hoarding one variety from a neighbor or grandfather, and the cocoa tree has been studied for yields and disease more than aroma."
Nonetheless, bakers and chocolate aficionados are placing more and more emphasis on terroir and flavor. Indeed, the book poses an interesting question: Will we someday have origin appellations for chocolate?
Creativity: Chocolate Is a Recipe
It may sound odd, but when it comes to chocolate, you are following a recipe. The label for mass-produced chocolate can be stripped down: it has to be a minimum amount of cocoa, sugar, one teaspoon of lecithin, and some natural vanilla extract - and nothing else.
Words such as intense, elegant, sleek, or sublime are used to describe chocolate, with no truly revealing information as to where the cocoa may be from or how good it is. The more accurate explanation involves species, origin, and processing of the cocoa.
It's a skill to ensure the same taste. Producers in large quantities have to produce the same 60 %, 70 %, 80 % chocolate, so they create blends of beans with similar aromas. The book shows master chocolate makers as whisky cellar masters ensuring a whisky blend is the same every time.
Another is the personality. A handful of craft chocolatiers and a handful of industrial manufacturers try to be more specific by allocating an aromatic profile to each chocolate, with the pursuit of a typical taste.
Enjoy The Taste of Quality Chocolates With Valrhona
The Valrhona Approach: Provenance as a Signature
This announced Valrhona as a pioneer. It introduced the first grand cru chocolate, composed exclusively of black Criollo cocoas from the Caribbean, in 1987; the first single-origin domain chocolate, Gran Couva 60% (from a single plantation in Trinidad), was introduced in 1998. Its cocoa selection is built on three families:
Blended grands crus: cocoas sourced from multiple plantations, spanning different countries.
Terroir lots: cocoas from a single country of production.
Single-origin chocolates: cocoa from a single plantation.
You can also taste the difference. Andoa 70%, a combination of grands crus, and Nyangbo 68%, a single-origin grand cru, differ not in strength but in aroma, texture, and "color". Andoa has bitterness, with citrus and roasted coffee notes. Nyangbo is more chocolatey, with light spices and roasted nuts.
The Chocolatier's Instrument
For the chocolatier, it is the one who must determine the correct balance of chocolate and sugar and the pairing of one cocoa with another. Today, the two main trends are a return to childhood chocolate, at a round dosage and with a very marked vanilla note, and the quest for authenticity that maintains the bitterness of the raw cocoa in the finished product. Between the two, endless possibilities.
In the same way that an organist pulls down the stops of an instrument, the chocolatier is seen in the book to be switching between aromas from the strongest, freshest to the freshest, most bitter to the mildest, floral to the fruitiest.
Taste with Intent
The opening words of this book-‟aspect, aromas, texture and melting quality all differ"- could also be used as a taste-test. Take two chocolates from close to the same cocoa percentage, compare their colour and surface, break and smell to identify fruit, roasted character, spices or nuts, then let them melt and study the texture. Then consult the wrapper for the country of origin and cocoa percentage.
Final Thought
It's about all the invisible choices, the bean varieties, the fermentation and drying practices, the roasting and conching decisions, the artistry of a creator who's using this brown palette. It is, if you will, just the beginning when it comes to the percentage of cacao on the wrapper.
Source: Cooking with Chocolate: Essential Recipes and Techniques, Edited by Frédéric Bau and the École du Grand Chocolat Valrhona, Foreword by Pierre Hermé (Flammarion). From the "Secrets of a Quality Chocolate" theory section, pp. 138-139.
