четверг, 4 октября 2012 г.

Study shows flavanol antioxidant content of US chocolate and cocoa-containing products. - NewsRx Health & Science

A recent study confirms that the antioxidants and other plant-based nutrients in chocolate and cocoa products are highly associated with the amount of non-fat cocoa-derived ingredients in the product. The study expands on previously published results.

The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, was conducted by a scientific team from The Hershey Company, Brunswick Laboratories, and Cornell University, compared the detailed cocoa antioxidant contents of commercially available chocolate and cocoa-containing products sold in the United States.

The flavanol compounds, with the exception of catechin, correlated very well with total polyphenols, the non-fat cocoa solids, and to a slightly lesser degree with the calculated % cacao in the products. 'These studies reconfirm that the amount of flavanols, whether large or small, in products like dark chocolate, milk chocolate and cocoa powder are closely tied to the level of brown cocoa particles in the products.' said David Stuart Ph.D., Director of Natural Products at Hershey's, who led the research team.

In the study, the top-selling three or four brands of natural cocoa powder, unsweetened baking chocolate, dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate, and chocolate syrup were purchased across the United States. Each product was tested for antioxidant activity, total polyphenols, and individual flavanol monomers and oligomers. These results were compared to the amount of nonfat cocoa solids and total polyphenols in each product, as well as to the calculated percent cacao.

The weaker correlation between catechin (a flavanol monomer present in all samples) and levels of non-fat cocoa solids, total polyphenols and calculated % cacao, was attributed by the researchers to differences in manufacturing processes. It is known from other work that epicatechin, the major flavanol monomer present in the samples, can be converted to catechin during roasting and alkali processing.

When products were classified by their composition, each category, except dark chocolate and semi-sweet baking chips which are very close in formulation, separated from each other. The products with the highest level of flavanol antioxidants were cocoa powders, followed by unsweetened baking chocolate, dark chocolate and semi-sweet chips, then milk chocolate and finally chocolate syrup.

'Being able to fully measure and communicate the levels of flavanol antioxidants in products is increasingly important for studying the potential health benefits of cocoa and chocolate and providing information to consumers,' said Debra Miller, Ph.D., Director of Nutrition at The Hershey Company.

This scientific publication is part of series of papers from the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition[R] to investigate and communicate to both the scientific community and the public important compositional information regarding typical chocolate and cocoa-containing products.

Keywords: Agriculture, Agricultural, Chemicals, Chemistry, Cornell University, Food, Food Chemistry, The Hershey Company.

среда, 3 октября 2012 г.

Chocolate Purists Alarmed by Proposal To Fudge Standards; Lines Drawn Over Cocoa Butter - The Washington Post

Rarely do documents making their way through federal agenciescause chocolate lovers to totally melt down. Then came Appendix C.

Accompanying a 35-page petition signed by a diverse set ofculinary groups -- juice producers, meat canners and the chocolatelobby -- the appendix charts proposed changes to food standarddefinitions set by the Food and Drug Administration, including thisone: 'use a vegetable fat in place of another vegetable fat named inthe standard (e.g., cacao fat).'

Chocolate lovers read that as a direct assault on their palates.That's because the current FDA standard for chocolate says it mustcontain cacao fat -- a.k.a. cocoa butter -- and this proposalwould make it possible to call something chocolate even if it hadvegetable oil instead of that defining ingredient. Whoppers maltedmilk balls, for instance, do not have cocoa butter.

Chocolate purists, of which there are apparently many, haveundertaken a grassroots letter-writing campaign to the FDA to informthe agency that such a change to the standards is just not okay withthem. More than 225 comments to the petition have been processed sofar by the agency, and chocolate bloggers are pressing for more. Inthe annals of bureaucratic Washington battles, this is a sweet one.

'If this puts a smile on people's faces even though it's aserious matter, that's what chocolate is meant to do,' saidCalifornia chocolate maker and traditionalist Gary Guittard, whoseWeb site, DontMessWithOurChocolate.com, has led the counterassault.

Other proposals in the petition -- e.g., to market cartooncharacter-shaped pasta as macaroni -- have not caused as muchheartburn. That's because chocolate isn't just food. It symbolizespassion, and for its lovers, it borders on religion. They buychocolate based on cacao content -- some desire 70 percent, otherswill go higher. The most demanding examine labels to make sure it isfrom one region, not a blend, focusing on production methods muchthe same way that coffee lovers home in on where beans are grown.Even mass chocolate producers are trying to tap into this spirit.There's now a Limited Edition Dark Snickers bar.

The industry has also been touting chocolate's health benefits -- it contains flavonoids, which may benefit the heart and arteries;cocoa butter doesn't raise cholesterol levels; and chocolate doesn'tcontain trans fats. Mars has even launched a division called MarsNutrition for Health & Well-Being, which markets chocolate productswith explicit health claims.

Guittard, whose family has been making chocolate since 1868, saidsome big chocolate manufacturers favor the proposed change inregulations because they want to keep prices down on key ingredientsby using less expensive vegetable fat, which can contain trans fats,instead of cocoa butter. That scares him. Cybele May, a playwright,whale-watching enthusiast and Web editor in California, has beenencouraging people to write the FDA with posts on her blog atcandyblog.net. 'Suddenly, we are worried that the chocolate barisn't the same anymore and we don't know why,' May said.

If the change is approved, products would still need to containchocolate liquor, the ground-up center of the cocoa bean. But aconfection such as PayDay Chocolatey Avalanche -- which doesn'tcontain cocoa butter -- would be able to call itself PayDayChocolate Avalanche. It seems like a small distinction, but topeople like Guittard and May, it is not.

An FDA spokeswoman said if -- stressing, if -- the agencydecides to consider changing the standards as requested in thepetition, the process would take several years.

For their part, chocolate makers aren't saying much. KirkSaville, a Hershey's spokesman, said it was 'premature to speculateon any changes before the process is complete.' He was moreexpansive in speaking to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, in thecompany's back yard, saying, 'There are high-quality oils availablewhich are equal to or better than cocoa butter in taste, nutrition,texture and function, and are preferred by consumers.'

Officials from the Chocolate Manufacturers Association declinedan interview request. In a statement, the association said now is anappropriate time to update standards of identity for all foods andadded, 'We want to emphasize that by co-signing the food industrypetition, CMA has not endorsed any particular changes to thestandards of identity for chocolate products.'

From the department of cooler heads comes Nick Malgieri, thedirector of the baking program at the Institute of CulinaryEducation in New York.

вторник, 2 октября 2012 г.

Dark chocolate: morsels, not mouthfuls.(THE SUPERMARKET SLEUTH) - Food & Fitness Advisor

If you're a chocoholic, the news about dark chocolate's health benefits sounds like pure bliss--there's nothing like feeling good about your favorite guilty pleasure. According to Joanne Haire, RD, a dietitian at Weill Cornell Medical Center, 'Cocoa contains many components which can be classified as healthy. It has flavonoid polyphenols, which can act as antioxidants and can also help to lower blood pressure.' Flavonoids, which are particularly potent antioxidants, comprise more than 10 percent of the weight of cocoa powder. The types of flavonoids in cocoa products are catechins, epicatechins, and procyandins. Haire reports that chocolate also contains serotonin, which acts as an antidepressant, and endorphins, which produce pleasurable feelings.

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The dark side of chocolate. Modern chocolate bars are usually a processed whip of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, sugar, emulsifiers and milk that may minimize their potential polyphenol content. In finished products, the amount of cocoa can vary from seven to 35 percent in milk chocolate, and 30 to 80 percent in dark chocolate. Dark chocolate generally has twice the amount of polyphenols as milk chocolate, and white chocolate has none. Haire suggests that you look for dark chocolate as your best source of cocoa flavonoids (dark chocolate containing at least 70% cacao is even better).

Another chocolate shortfall: 'It is a calorie-dense food and can be very high in fat and sugar, depending on what is added to it,' says Haire. At 135 to 150 calories per ounce, chocolate can quickly lose its health benefit if you overindulge. Formulations vary for chocolate products, so keep an eye on the amounts of sugar and saturated fat in your favorite dark chocolate. Filled nougat and caramel centers can further increase the amounts of fat and sugar. And many dark chocolate bars are gigantic, containing as much as 500 calories, 38 grams (g) fat and 24 g saturated fat in a three-ounce bar.

Better by the bite. Chocolate makers have started packaging dark chocolates in smaller, single-serving packages, which makes it easier to stay within your limits. Several single-serving and bite-size dark chocolates made our Sleuth List, such as Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate 100 Calorie Bars, with only 100 calories, 5 g fat, 3.5 g saturated fat and 9 g sugar per 17-g bar, which is slightly more than half an ounce. However, some chocolate bars that may appear to be a 'single serving' are much bigger and provide a heftier load of calories, fat and sugar. For example, Godiva's Solid Dark Chocolate Chocoiste Bar weighs 43 g, and if you eat the whole thing, you'll add 230 calories, 14 g fat, 9 g saturated fat and 20 g sugar to your day. Conversely, some individual dark chocolates are packaged in tiny sizes, such as Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Kisses, at 5 g each. Haire emphasizes that individual portion sizes definitely can help, but beware of an open bag of Hershey's Kisses.

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The wisest approach is to determine how many calories and grams of fat and sugar you can afford to consume from chocolate on a daily or weekly basis and then create your own portion size that matches up.

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понедельник, 1 октября 2012 г.

Complex confections: lines blur as marketers offer more and less in sweets.(STATE OF THE INDUSTRY: Confections) - Stagnito's New Products Magazine

An unscientific consumer poll reveals that consumers don't think 'confections' or 'candy' when asked to name 'health and wellness' foods. It's a sure bet that results would be the same in a scientific poll. Candy might be good for the soul, but teeth, blood sugar, waistlines? No way.

Still, the category that conjures fun and indulgence hasn't ignored health. In fact, there are certain elements in the confectionery category that are boldly declaring health and wellness.

New product growth is robust in the confectionery category. New candy product totals for the year ended June 2007 were 3,500, according to Mintel's Global New Product Database, up from 2,403 for the same period in 2006. More than 38 percent (1,342) of new product confectionery launches through June 2007 contained a health claim, compared with nearly 27 percent (639) bearing a health claim for the year ended June 2006. Total retail confectionery sales for 2006 were $28.9 billion, a 2.8 percent increase over the prior year, according to the National Confectioners Association.

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The real excitement--healthy or indulgent--centers on chocolate.

According to Mintel, sales of chocolate through all channels increased 129 percent from 2001 to 2006, from $896 million to $20.5 billion. It's growing at a rate of about 14 percent a year. The impetus for consumers, it seems, is self-gifting/reward, as well as the positive health appeal of dark chocolate.

The light side of dark

'In years past, milk chocolate was more popular than dark. Now it's the opposite,' says Allyson Myers, director of sales for specialty chocolate manufacturer and retailer Lake Champlain Chocolates, Burlington, Vt., who has seen sales of dark chocolate surge.

'Consumers are reading about the great health benefits of dark chocolate, including antioxidants, how it can lower blood pressure or help pregnant women have healthy babies,' says Myers.

It's not hard to find good news about dark chocolate. A study from the University of Cologne, Germany, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, indicates that dark chocolate lowers high blood pressure.

Another study, from the National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research, Rome, as reported in Nature, reveals that dark chocolate is a potent antioxidant, capable of gobbling up pesky free radicals that are a chief culprit of heart disease and other ailments.

While consumers might be drawn to chocolate for satisfaction, they are wary of fat and calories. Research concedes that to gain the benefits from the chocolate, less of something else should be consumed to offset the added fat and calories. Marcia Mogelonsky, a chocolate expert and author of a Mintel chocolate report, says consumers are okay with eating small quantities of good chocolate, but because they're consuming less, they're more likely buying up when they do indulge. That in turn has led to higher sales of premium and super premium chocolate. Premium chocolates are those priced at $8 or more per pound ($0.50 or more per ounce).

Mintel reports that dark chocolate sales are up 49 percent between 2003 and 2006, from $1.26 billion to $1.88 billion, and premium chocolate sales are up 91 percent between 2002 and 2007.

While antioxidant tags are appearing with greater frequency on packages, more companies seem happy to focus on high cacao content.

'We label the cocoa content, because consumers are now savvy enough to know it refers to higher chocolate content, but we see ourselves as a luxury first, with health as a bonus,' says Lake Champlain's Myers.

Hershey's Cacao Reserve line, for example, displays the cocoa content on the label of its signature products, as do products in the Lindt Excellence line, Ghirardelli Intense Dark, E. and Guittard Chocolate Co., among others.

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Everybody wins

It's not just premium chocolate companies that are cashing in on dark chocolate's healthy glow. Hershey's Special Dark, for example, is a mass market product with a lot of consumer appeal. The product's sales through FDM channels (excluding Wal-Mart) were up 88 percent between 2004 and 2006, according to Information Resources Inc. In May, Hershey launched Special Dark Nuggets with Almonds.

Other mainstream brands hope for the same growth. New under the M&M's banner are dark chocolate peanut candies, launched in June. Snickers Dark and Snickers Almond Dark launched in April. Dove launched Extra Dark Chocolate with High Cacao Content in June, in both 63 percent cocoa and 71 percent cocoa content varieties. Dove promotes its new Dark Chocolate as a natural source of cocoa flavanols.

While currently not resonating with consumers on a large scale, other chocolate trends that tend to keep premium safely separated from mass market include single origin, organic and fair trade.

Mogelonsky says these practices, along with ethics, go hand in hand. 'For now, in the big wide world it's not that big a deal,' says Mogelonsky, whose research indicates these tags resonate most with consumers under the age of 35. She, like other industry observers, believes organic and fair trade will gain in importance in the coming years.

'We find the fair trade message resonates with almost all consumers once they have an understanding of what it means. Consumers who are already aware and looking for the Fair Trade seal include those most attuned to social justice and environmental issues,' says Debra Music, vice president of sales and marketing at Theo Chocolate, Seattle. Theo Origin Bars feature premium dark chocolate from Venezuela, Ghana, Ecuador, Madagascar and the Ivory Coast.

Interesting inclusions are no longer strictly the domain of boutique and artisinal chocolatiers, either. Lavendar or goat cheese may still be in the boutique stage, but other herbs, nuts and berries are going mainstream. On the fringe between artisinal and mainstream are superfoods, such as goji berries and green tea. Currently hitting the mass market are Hershey's Goodness Chocolate's Hershey's Extra Dark Cranberries, Blueberries and Almonds, and Hershey's Extra Dark Macadamia Nuts and Cranberries. Each contains natural flavanol antioxidants and features 60 percent cacao dark chocolate.

Milk chocolate

Dark chocolate may be the darling, but milk chocolate isn't letting go of the spotlight without a fight.

Milk chocolate is in a statistical tie with baked goods and ice cream/frozen yogurt as the most popular of nine sweet foods one could eat to satisfy a craving, according to Mintel. Dark chocolate comes in second.

Mogelonsky reports that milk chocolate still holds a lot of potential, particularly in the premium category.

The strategy being exercised by the Hershey Co., Hershey, Pa., is to extend the healthy message of dark chocolate to milk chocolate. The company is expanding its Goodness Chocolate line with Hershey's Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and Hershey's Whole Bean Chocolate. These products join Hershey's Extra Dark Chocolate and 60-calorie Hershey's Sticks in offering Hershey's chocolate with good-for-you benefits.

'Consumers are very interested in the goodness benefits of chocolate, including the antioxidants found naturally in dark chocolate,' Michele Buck, Hershey's senior vice president, chief marketing officer, said in a statement. 'Hershey's Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and Hershey's Whole Bean Chocolate bring the goodness benefits of dark chocolate to the broader milk chocolate category.'

Hershey's Antioxidant Milk Chocolate features more flavanol antioxidants than the leading dark chocolate while staying true to the taste of Hershey's Milk Chocolate.

Blurred lines

New formats, such as sticks, as well as inclusions--fruits, nuts and other textures--are evidence that the lines between confections and snacks are blurring.

'When asked why they selected chocolate, 56 percent of consumers said it was because they wanted a dessert or snack, so there is the thought that it can be a snack,' says Mogelonsky. 'It's not just a chocolate bar, it's also Luna and Pria that are chocolate ... there's a lot of competition, from ice cream, cookies, pies, etc.'

Mars Inc. is making sure it can provide a snack option for any day part. The Hackettstown, N.J., company has revamped a number of its noted brands to comply with guidelines established by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation. Companies meeting the Alliance's criteria for healthy foods stand a much better chance of regaining valuable vending space in schools across the nation.

Mars is calling the snacks Generation Max, and the line includes such iconic brands as M&M's, Snickers, Twix and 3 Musketeers. Generation Max products include cereal clusters, cookies, brownie bars, crackers and pretzel products, all 150 calories per serving or less, with less than 35 percent of calories from fat, 10 percent of calories from saturated fat, and 35 percent by weight of sugar per serving, along with additional nutrients.

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Kids' choice

Candy, predominantly in the nonchocolate arena, is about kids. Here, where the lines blur between toys and candy, health is worming its way in. Atlanta-based Innovative Candy Concepts took the bold move last year of removing sugar from its products and adding the SmartChoice tag to its popular brands that include Too Tarts and Screaming Sour Powder Pods. These 'better-for-you' sour candies in fruit flavors contain 18 calories per serving.

'As a manufacturer of confectionery products, I believe we have a responsibility to offer healthier alternatives while not just preserving, but actually enhancing the taste profiles of those products so that kids and adults alike will like them,' says Armand Hammer, president and chief executive officer of Innovative Candy Concepts. 'Traditionally, products that were categorized as 'healthier' or 'sugar-free' were perceived as tasting terrible. We strive to change that perception.'

Aside from the notion of sweet treat, Hammer says 'interactive, fun, colorful packaging resonates with kids.' He says that extreme sour remains big with kids, but he's also betting on the success of new spray candies, for kids and adults.

For kids: Melted Ice-Cream Spray Candy, in strawberry, blueberry and banana split melted ice cream flavors. 'These sprays are creamy, rich and taste spot on like the real thing, however, they are sugar free, diabetic-friendly and only 10 calories per serving and the sprays are super-sized, offering more candy for the cost,' says Hammer.

Just as the line between candy and snacks is blurred, so too is the line between candy and the package. Although sales are flat in the novelty sub-category, there's still plenty of excitement.

Funose Inc., Istanbul, Turkey, markets Vitviti Fun and Lollipocus products. Vitviti Fun chocolates are packaged in multiple-part tubes that convert to interconnecting pieces. Different tubes contain different parts that can be connected together for creative play. Lollipocus consists of a line of lollipops with moving parts imbedded in the candy.

Indulgence and fun reign

Health and wellness has permeated the confectionery category, but it hasn't diminished the indulgent nature of the category. Rather, a new emphasis on health and wellness has opened up the confectionery category to more consumers. But at the end of the day, it's all about taste and experience.

'Why do people eat chocolate? For no reason at all; they feel like it,' says Mogelonsky.

Unscientifically speaking, that goes for the whole category.

Sugar lows

Fifty-two percent of shoppers aged 65 or older find the claim 'lower in sugar' extremely or very important on labels, compared to 33 percent of shoppers aged 18-39 years old.

'Considering the greater concerns that older shoppers have about their diets, and the propensity for diabetes to increase with age, sugar concerns are higher amongst older shoppers.'

воскресенье, 30 сентября 2012 г.

Fresh-brewed chocolate.(IN THE AISLES) - Grocery Headquarters

The gap between coffee and hot chocolate has been bridged With Choffy--a drink made from 100% organic cacao (cocoa) beans that have been roasted and ground. Consumers simply brew Choffy just as they would coffee.

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Choffy contains no sugar, dairy or chemicals, yet according to the manufacturer, maintains the health benefits of cacao including antioxidants, Theobromine, improved circulation and 'feel great' properties. Also according to the manufacturer, an 8-ounce cup of Choffy contains more antioxidants than a serving of blueberries.

Manufactured by Vancouver, Wash.-based Choffy, Inc., Choffy is available in two varieties. Ivory Coast Choffy is the signature blend, made from fair trade, organic cacao beans from the Ivory Coast. It has a deep chocolate flavor with hints of natural grains and slightly earthy notes. La Espanola Choffy highlights single-estate organic cacao beans from the Dominican Republic. They impart deep, rich yet smooth chocolate flavors with nutty overtones.

Choffy is available in a 12-ounce bag with a suggested $ 15 retail, as well as a 5-pound bag that has a suggest retail of $85.

суббота, 29 сентября 2012 г.

Raising the bar: Chocolate has always been decadent and delicious; now, it's really, really rich. - The Sun (Lowell, MA)

Byline: Kathleen Pierce

Feb. 7--WESTFORD -- A double, no-foam latte was an effete order a few years back. Now UPS drivers sail into Starbucks in their brown uniforms and rattle off the request with the ease of a well-heeled soccer mom.

Coffee is not the only everyday staple going upscale. This year, it's chocolate's turn. The suddenly gourmet indulgence that has been around since Mayan times now carries the cache of wine. Notice the '70 percent cocoa' stamped on your Hershey's bar. That wasn't there a year ago.

Hershey just released a line called Cacao Reserve that comes in percentage points according to cacao quantities. Cacao, pronounced 'ka-kow,' the central ingredient in cocoa and chocolate, entered the lexicon as sneakily as words like macchiato did.

'I went down the candy aisle at Market Basket the other day and was shocked by all the chocolate that is stamped with percentage points,' said Geneva Schult of Westford, who is coordinating the St. Mark's Episcopal Church Chocolate Festival in Westford this weekend.

The availability of great quality chocolate at your corner pharmacy has made this suddenly gourmet item accessible to all. At the same time, chocolate's personality makeover is making the shopworn treat highbrow.

'I have noticed a lot of snobbery. People are saying I can't eat that if it's not 60 percent cacao,' said Schult.

Bringing chocolate back down to earth are people like Schult, who is as comfortable making a mock truffle as a decadent chocolate torte. On her kitchen island last week were products purchased at the supermarket, such as fudge mix, Oreo cookies, cocoa powder and candy melts. Zapping the melts in the microwave for 60 seconds, Schult dips the cookies in the chocolate and the dessert is done and looking fabulous.

Alongside her is 12-year-old LillyAnna Kuehl, perfecting her raspberry brownies. Extolling the virtues of working with chocolate in the kitchen, Kuehl said: 'I like the taste, it's easy to deal with.'

But more importantly, 'it gives you that happy feeling.'

Schult and Kuehl took home first and second place respectively at the St. Mark's Episcopal Church's Chocolate Festival last year. Now in its 17th year, the festival, happening this weekend, was ahead of its time.

'People have always liked chocolate, but now it is being considered a great idea for an event or party,' said Schult.

On the other end of the sweet spectrum is Maribel Lieberman. The owner of MarieBelle is doing for chocolates what Tiffany did for jewels, elevating them to a work of art. Coming in sea blue boxes, and in flavors like cinnamon, Earl Grey and cardamom, her chocolates are exquisitely decorated frills that are being gobbled up globally.

'I sell them at Bergdorf's, the Four Seasons Hotel, Japan, France, all over Europe,' said the former fashion designer who trained herself to be a chef.

She opened MarieBelle in New York in 2001 at a time when most stores were closing. Right away, she struck gold.

'I was never pleased with the chocolates sold around here. I felt it was cocoa powder. If it is chocolate it should be cocoa, not powder,' said Lieberman.

Like a chemist, she experimented with Aztec chocolate and found its lack of sweetness pleasing to her refined palate. At the same time, she heard from European chocolatiers that Americans would not take to dark chocolate. By touting its health benefits, she proved them wrong and helped spark dark chocolate's renaissance. According to WebMD.com, dark chocolate lowers high blood pressure and is loaded with antioxidants

Her sophisticated designs are highly graphic, as well as intricate and fun. Sweet Peas in Westford carries the artisanal treats and shop owner Wendy Lepore says they are selling briskly for Valentine's Day, even though the higher price tag, $35.99 per box, would be prohibitive for many.

'They go for it. The concentration is higher and it's just a nicer quality of chocolate,' said Lepore.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church's Chocolate Festival takes place Sunday with seatings at noon and 3 p.m. at the Westford Regency, 219 Littleton Road, Westford. Admission is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. For more information, visit www.st-mark.org.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business

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пятница, 28 сентября 2012 г.

Would you eat chocolate made with - vegetable oil?(N) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Byline: ANDREW BRIDGES

By Andrew Bridges

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Like many battles, this one's being fought block by block. Victory, for whomever prevails, will be sweet. Or bitter - or even bittersweet.

It all depends on how you like your chocolate.

At stake is the very definition of chocolate, and whether cheaper vegetable oils can be substituted for what many consider the very quintessence of every block, bar and square of chocolate: cocoa butter.

In Europe, the cocoa butter vs. vegetable oil fight took 30 years to resolve. In the United States, it's been less than a year since the first volley. Hundreds of chocoholics have joined the fray, the outcome of which could in turn affect the livelihoods of millions of cocoa farmers in Africa and South America.

It all began in October, when a dozen industry groups filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration seeking to amend the standards that guide how nearly 300 foods can be produced, from canned cherries to evaporated milk.

Broadly speaking, the so-called standards of identity are intended to ensure listed products contain the right amount of key ingredients and are both properly made and not deceptively packaged. For example, chocolate in its purest state - the 'liquor' made from ground, processed cacao beans - must contain between 50 percent and 60 percent cocoa butter, also known as cocoa fat.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, Chocolate Manufacturers Association and 10 other food industry groups want more flexibility in those rigid standards. They seek broad permission to add ingredients, use different techniques, employ new shapes and substitute ingredients - something the standards currently don't allow.

The petitioners say it's all about modernizing antiquated standards that now can take years to change.

'If you're trying to innovate, the process is not amenable to introducing change in a reasonable amount of time. It's not efficient,' said Regina Hildwine, the Grocery Manufacturers Association's senior director of food labeling and standards.

Opponents of the change say it's out of step with the times.

'It's a real philosophical thing, just about the foods we eat. There is such a focus on people's wanting to know what's in the foods they eat, how they're grown, where they come from - this seems to fly against the direction of the way things are moving,' said Gary Guittard, the president of California's Guittard Chocolate Co. and a leader of the opposition.

The broadly written petition skimps on the details but includes an appendix that lists examples of proposed changes. Tucked between requests to allow antifungals on bulk cheese and powdered milk in yogurt is what has people riled up the most: a proposal that would let manufacturers 'use a vegetable fat in place of another vegetable fat named in the standard (e.g. cacao fat).'

Manufacturers already can use vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter - they just can't call it 'chocolate.' Hundreds of people have filed comments with the FDA, with the overwhelming majority seeking to keep it that way, according to an Associated Press review of the file.

'It is a passionate debate. You don't get that about yogurt. People feel very protective about their chocolate,' said Beth Kimmerle, author of 'Chocolate: The Sweet History.'

The FDA has yet to completely analyze the petition .

'Greater flexibility is one of the goals of our modernization. However, we always have to look at whether it results in a food that retains the basic nature of the food, retain the essential character of the food and is something that consumers expect. So that would be very difficult to do in a very short time,' said Geraldine June, a supervisor in the regulations and review team of the agency's food labeling and standards staff.

For centuries, if not millennia, chocolate has been made from the cacao bean, with cocoa butter as an essential ingredient. That ingredient is the essence of the taste, texture and 'mouth feel' of chocolate, according to Jay King, president of the Retail Confectioners International, an industry group.

Cacao is grown around the globe, within a narrow band that straddles the equator. As many as 50 million people depend upon cocoa for their livelihood, according to the World Cocoa Foundation.

Allowing chocolate in the United States to be made with vegetable oils could have an 'extraordinary and unfortunate impact' on those millions, Steven J. Laning, an executive with Archer Daniels Midland Co.'s cocoa division, wrote to the FDA.

But the shift would make chocolate cheaper to produce, since cocoa butter can be at least four times the cost of shea, palm oil and other vegetable fats.

The petition comes as scientists find evidence that suggests chocolate - when eaten in moderation - can lower blood pressure, among its other health benefits.

Chocolate makers have capitalized on those findings and trotted out products they tout as healthful, especially dark chocolates high in flavanols, antioxidants found in cacao beans.

'It just seems to position chocolate in a murky field, especially now with all this great news about its health benefits coming into the light,' Kimmerle said. 'It feels like a better time to get clearer about standards.'

CAPTION(S):

четверг, 27 сентября 2012 г.

Le Chocolat Bar unlocks sweet mysteries - The Beacon News - Aurora (IL)

Every Thursday night, Le Chocolat Bar in Naperville holds free taste testings of its large selection of imported and domestic chocolates, from cocoa powder to dark chocolate truffles. Owner Cathy Bouchard has an expansive knowledge of chocolate, from its origin as the baby cacao pod and cacao beans to the various shapes in which it is produced, including authentic Mexican chocolate wafers, dark chocolate shavings, mini chocolate raspberry truffles, triple chocolate truffles, pure couverture chips and pure cocoa powder, all pictured here.

Some people love chocolate. Then there's Cathy Bouchard, who not only loves chocolate, but credits it with saving her life.The owner of Perfect Details gift shop in Naperville, Bouchard recently opened Le Chocolat Bar next door to share her passion with the public. At 2,000 square feet, the homage to chocolate is only slightly smaller than Willy Wonka's.

A nonfiction enthusiast, Bouchard loves diving into a subject, whether it be astronomy, pyramids or chocolate, and exploring it exhaustively. While reading about the Egyptian pyramids, she kept coming across stories about the Mayan pyramids as well. Eventually, she started exploring that topic and picked up on the repeated references to cacao and its healing and empowering tendencies. At about that time the fibromyalgia she had been suffering through had left her almost completely incapacitated. Nothing medicinal was helping. She prayed for either a miracle cure or for God to put her out of her misery.

When she turned to chocolate, she didn't think it was going to solve her problems. She just figured if chocolate was good enough for Mayan warriors -- who were said to take wafers and little else along with them to battle -- then it couldn't hurt her. She began eating two 1-ounce portions of chocolate a day. Slowly, she began feeling like her old self. Six weeks into her chocolate-eating regimen, she felt better than she had in years and was symptom free.

'I had my miracle,' Bouchard said.

And while she says it's possible that the chocolate isn't solely responsible for her return to good health, one trip through Le Chocolate Bar would probably show what little chance there is that she'd credit something else.

She receives weekly shipments from chocolatiers all over the country, who ship everything from truffles to chocolate bars and any other form of chocolate you can imagine. She gives free samples of just about everything at the store. It's part of her effort to increase sales, of course, but also to expose people to a variety of tastes and flavors that you can't get from the candy aisle at the nearby minimart. She calls it chocolate therapy, and plans on hosting monthly events devoted to the history and the mysteries surrounding chocolate.

'I want to start educating people about the benefits of chocolate,' she said. 'Good chocolate. Real good chocolate. Not Hershey's and Nestle's.'

While they have white- and milk-chocolate products, Bouchard tries to steer customers to the dark chocolate, which is a little bit bitter but has higher concentration of cacao. They serve chocolate desserts (they've got more varieties of turtles than the Brookfield Zoo and plenty of toffees and caramels as well), cakes, pastries, bulk chocolate items and cookware. They also serve more than a dozen different varieties of hot cocoa and coffee for those chocolate eaters who don't want another dose in their drink.

Le Chocolate Bar has a private area that can accommodate parties of up to 40 people. Bouchard also caters sweet trays and tables and designs wedding and other types of cakes.

Le Chocolat Bar

408 W. 5th Ave., Naperville, (630) 355-5720.

среда, 26 сентября 2012 г.

Le Chocolat Bar delves into confection's sweet mysteries - The Sun - Naperville (IL)

Every Thursday night, Le Chocolat Bar in Naperville holds free taste testings of its large selection of imported and domestic chocolates, from cocoa powder to dark chocolate truffles. Owner Cathy Bouchard has an expansive knowledge of chocolate, from its origin as the baby cacao pod and cacao beans to the various shapes in which it is produced, including authentic Mexican chocolate wafers, dark chocolate shavings, mini chocolate raspberry truffles, triple chocolate truffles, pure couverture chips and pure cocoa powder, all pictured here.

Some people love chocolate. Then there's Cathy Bouchard, who not only loves chocolate, but credits it with saving her life.The owner of Perfect Details gift shop in Naperville, Bouchard recently opened Le Chocolat Bar next door to share her passion with the public. At 2,000 square feet, the homage to chocolate is only slightly smaller than Willy Wonka's.

A nonfiction enthusiast, Bouchard loves diving into a subject, whether it

be astronomy, pyramids or chocolate, and exploring it exhaustively. While

reading about the Egyptian pyramids, she kept coming across stories about

the Mayan pyramids as well. Eventually, she started exploring that topic and picked up on the repeated references to cacao and its healing and empowering tendencies. At about that time the fibromyalgia she had been suffering through had left her almost completely incapacitated. Nothing medicinal was helping. She prayed for either a miracle cure or for God to put her out of her misery.

When she turned to chocolate, she didn't think it was going to solve her problems. She just figured if chocolate was good enough for Mayan warriors

-- who were said to take wafers and little else along with them to battle

-- then it couldn't hurt her. She began eating two 1-ounce portions of chocolate a day. Slowly, she began feeling like her old self. Six weeks into her chocolate-eating regimen, she felt better than she had in years and was symptom free.

'I had my miracle,' Bouchard said.

And while she says it's possible that the chocolate isn't solely responsible for her return to good health, one trip through Le Chocolate Bar would probably show what little chance there is that she'd credit something else.

She receives weekly shipments from chocolatiers all over the country, who

ship everything from truffles to chocolate bars and any other form of chocolate you can imagine. She gives free samples of just about everything

at the store. It's part of her effort to increase sales, of course, but also to expose people to a variety of tastes and flavors that you can't get from the candy aisle at the nearby minimart. She calls it chocolate therapy, and plans on hosting monthly events devoted to the history and the mysteries surrounding chocolate.

'I want to start educating people about the benefits of chocolate,' she said. 'Good chocolate. Real good chocolate. Not Hershey's and Nestle's.'

While they have white- and milk-chocolate products, Bouchard tries to steer customers to the dark chocolate, which is a little bit bitter but has higher concentration of cacao. They serve chocolate desserts (they've got more varieties of turtles than the Brookfield Zoo and plenty of toffees and caramels as well), cakes, pastries, bulk chocolate items and cookware. They also serve more than a dozen different varieties of hot cocoa and coffee for those chocolate eaters who don't want another dose in

their drink.

Le Chocolate Bar has a private area that can accommodate parties of up to

40 people. Bouchard also caters sweet trays and tables and designs wedding and other types of cakes.

LE CHOCOLAT BAR

408 W. 5th Ave., Naperville, (630) 355-5720.

Noise level: Conversation friendly.

вторник, 25 сентября 2012 г.

Posters for chocolate treats get juices flowing. - Connecticut Post

Byline: Phyllis A.S. Boros

Aug. 23--Mouthwatering.

That's one way to describe a collection of advertising posters, touting the lusciousness of chocolate, that goes on display Saturday at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich.

'Eye Candy: Two Centuries of Chocolate Advertising' will feature 22 large-scale vintage and notable advertisements from the 19th and 20th centuries that were designed to entice viewers into purchasing and consuming chocolate drinks and candy.

The exhibit, which will run through Dec. 2, complements the museum's larger show, 'A Taste for Chocolate,' that opened in July. That exhibition, on view through Feb. 24, explores the commodity's place in the history of popular culture in Europe and the Americas.

Both exhibitions are curated by museum educator Carol Ward, who grew up in a home where chocolate was often the source of dinner-table conversation. Although now retired, Ward's father had been chief executive officer of a chocolate company that supplied cacao to manufacturers around the world.

Ward is a 2003 graduate of Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va., where she majored in art history. In 2005, the college gallery invited Ward to guest curate an exhibition that featured decorative items and paintings -- all with a chocolate motif -- from her parents' collection.

When Ward joined the Bruce Museum staff in August 2005, she suggested that the Bruce consider offering a broader version of her college show. The result is the poster show and 'Taste,' which includes about 50 decorative pieces and historical artifacts that follow chocolate history from about A.D. 600 -- when the Maya established the first cacao plantations -- through the 20th century. Ward explained that the concoction's name came from the early 15th century Aztec, whose royalty favored mixing cacao with water, chili peppers, cornmeal and other ingredients to create a spicy drink called chocolatl.

Ward said that the companion show was put together to illustrate how chocolate advertising and the art of advertising each evolved during the 19th century through the mid-20th century.

The advertising posters are drawn from Wilbur Chocolate's Americana Museum in Lititz, Pa., The International Poster Gallery of Boston, private lenders, and from the collection owned by the curator's parents, Marion and Jack Ward of Mamaronack, N.Y. Through the centuries, chocolate was primarily consumed as a drink. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, the English, Dutch and Swiss learned to grind cacao beans into a powder, which could be made into a liquid and then cooled to form a chocolate bar.

Companies such as Cadbury, Nestle and Lindt began producing chocolate in milk and dark varieties, at prices that were more affordable to the general public, she explained in a previous interview. It was also during this time that the tradition of adding milk and sugar to chocolate powder developed, with recipes akin to the 'hot chocolate' drink of today. Ward pointed out last week that in the late 1800s, most advertisements appeared in newspapers and magazines and 'focused on the perceived health benefits of drinking chocolate,' with the message that 'if you drink chocolate in the morning, you'll stay fresh and energized through the day.'

British companies, such as Cadbury and Fry's, promoted the idea that 'chocolate is good for you . . . and used images of members of the royal family and the prime minister to lend credence' to their claims, Ward noted.

The originals were done in black ink, and often hand-painted in muted colors; examples in the exhibit from this era, created for the Illustrated London News, date to the late 1880s.

It was the French, Ward said, that elevated advertising to an art form in the late 1890s. Paris was undergoing beautification and Parisians were eager to tout all the best in French commodities (wines and chocolates, for example) and their landmarks (such as the Moulin Rouge) in a series of 240 bright and bold prints that celebrated life in La Belle poque.

Printed by Les Maitres de l'Affiche (The Masters of the Poster), the works -- by 90 artists including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard and Maxfield Parrish -- were sold as lithographic artwork in a 12-inch by 16- inch format. The images also were mass-produced in a larger poster format and distributed as advertisements.

In the exhibition are three hand-carved lithographs, including Henri Gerbault's piece promoting Chocolat Carpentier, depicting a cat and dog attempting to get at a bowl of hot chocolate as a mother, with infant, look on.

Examples of advertising from the 20th century include a 1952 piece in which movie star Liz Taylor promotes Whitman's Chocolate for Valentine's Day, while simultaneously promoting her new movie 'Ivanhoe.' In another, from 1956, Disney designer Mary Blair depicts a little girl drinking a tall glass of Baker's Instant Cocoa.

'The show is a nice companion to 'A Taste'; together they show the enormous impact that chocolate has had on popular culture once chocolate became available [and affordable] to the masses,' Ward added.

The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, exit 3 off Interstate 95. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $7, $6 for senior citizens and students, free for children under age 5 and members. Free admission is offered for all on Tuesdays. Museum exhibition tours are given on Fridays at 12:30 p.m. Free, on-site parking is available. The museum is wheelchair accessible. Groups of eight or more require advance reservations. For additional information, visit www.brucemuseum.org or call 869-0376.

To see more of the Connecticut Post, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.connpost.com/.

Copyright (c) 2007, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

понедельник, 24 сентября 2012 г.

The substance of things hoped for on V-Day; Aztecs thought chocolate came from a tree stolen from paradise.(FEATURES)(BOOKS)(Book Review) - The Christian Science Monitor

Byline: Ruth Walker

If high-quality chocolate were a city, it would be one in which there are no starter homes. Most of us are doomed to the slums of 'industrial chocolate,' on the other side of the tracks - the Hershey bars or the Cadbury's or whatever it was we got hooked on when we were too little to know any better.

According to Mort Rosenblum's thorough investigation of the world of chocolate, even some of the most exclusive names rely too much on wax and care more about their gift boxes than their taste.

Reading about food generally leaves me with a new appreciation for whatever cuisine is under discussion, even if it's a temptation from which I wish to be delivered. 'Chocolate,' however, left me feeling that there's less of a there there than I'd imagined.

Rosenblum bounces from South America and Africa to California and New York to Europe; he also bounces among genres: consumer guide here, history there, with liberal dollops of sociology and medical lore along the way.

Some of the 'issues' surrounding chocolate turn out, in this book, to be no big deal after all. Remember the buzz about how chocolate was produced by child slave labor in Africa? Not to worry, Rosenblum says; there are children working for no pay on their families' cacao plantations, but their situation is not materially different from that of young sons and daughters in farm families around the world.

If the cacao exchange in Ivory Coast is a mysterious channel from which wealth brought in from overseas buyers disappears before it makes it to poor cacao growers, the author quotes a French bean trader who diplomatically calls the whole process 'opaque' and then pretty much leaves it there.

If there are health benefits to chocolate, no one really knows much for sure; research funding tends to go to those studying disease, not the sense of well-being that comes from chocolate.

He has high praise for the chocolate of a handful of (mostly) Europeans (Patrick Roger or Michael Chaudun in France or Pierre Marcolini in Brussels). There are moments of passion here and there, as he identifies cacao growers who really do it right, chocolatiers who refuse to cut corners. And there are some brands he acknowledges as offering good value for money (try Cote d'Or or Leonidas).

But unless you live in Paris (as Rosenblum conveniently does), to absorb the connoisseurship offered in this book is to set yourself up for consumer frustration. On the other hand, maybe I should figure out how to spend Valentine's Day in Paris.

* Ruth Walker is on the Monitor staff.

Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light

By Mort Rosenblum

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

290 pp., $24

воскресенье, 23 сентября 2012 г.

Clark County at Work: Choffy - The Columbian (Vancouver, WA)

Choffy owners Jason Vanderhoven, left, and Jason Sherwood go overtheir schedules at their warehouse.

A cup of ground roasted cacao on display at the Choffy warehousein Vancouver.

Business name: Choffy.

Owners: Jason Vanderhoven and Jason Sherwood.

Address: warehouse in Hazel Dell.

What the business does: Choffy is the originator of modern brewedchocolate, according to owners Jason Sherwood and Jason Vanderhoven.The company roasts and grinds 100 percent premium cacao (cocoa)beans in small artisan batches to create a rich, full-flavoreddrink. Sherwood and Vanderhoven said Choffy is richer and morerobust than hot chocolate but it brews just like coffee. But unlikecoffee, it supplies you with long-lasting energy without the crashand other negative effects of caffeine, they said. Choffy containsno sugar, dairy, or chemicals.

What steps are you taking to build your business as the economyrecovers: The company has gone from a handful of local fans tohaving a blossoming national customer and independent distributorbase, the owners said. They believe it is their opportunity andresponsibility to develop broad, deep personal skills within each oftheir direct sales distributors. This personal development caninclude everything from communication and sales skills, fiscalresponsibility, to healthier living.

Greatest challenge: The cacao market is in constant flux. As withmost commodities, cacao is subject to many external factors such asclimate change, government (in)stability and import/exportlegislation. These factors can affect everything from cacaoavailability, quality and not least of which, cost. As the companygrows, its internal resources will continue to be critical to theirsuccess, Sherwood said. The company is constantly seeking dedicated,trained personnel and they continue to develop internal trainingmaterials to staff skills.

What is your favorite part of the job: Sherwood says that withoutquestion the best part of his job is working with the people atChoffy headquarters to help teach, build, and support independentdistributors around the country. There is nothing more satisfyingthan seeing others loving the taste and health benefits of Choffy,he said.

What's ahead: The owners said they are working to bring newChoffy products to market. They expect to continue to expand theirdistributor numbers. Despite national economic confidence being low,they feel that the future is exceptionally bright.

Year established in Clark County: 2009.

Employees: Six full-time; part-time staff fluctuates.

Telephone: 360-334-7229.

Fax: 702-541-9934.

Email: info@drinkchoffy.com.

Website: http://drinkchoffy.com.

суббота, 22 сентября 2012 г.

Research from M.J. Payne et al broadens understanding of food science. - Cardiovascular Week

According to recent research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 'Low molecular weight flavan-3-ols are thought to be responsible, in part, for the cardiovascular benefits associated with cocoa powder and dark chocolate. The levels of epicatechin and catechin were determined in raw and conventionally fermented cacao beans and during conventional processing, which included drying, roasting, and Dutch (alkali) processing.'

'Unripe cacao beans had 29% higher levels of epicatechin and the same level of catechin compared to fully ripe beans. Drying had minimal effect on the epicatechin and catechin levels. Substantial decreases (>80%) in catechin and epicatechin levels were observed in fermented versus unfermented beans. When both Ivory Coast and Papua New Guinea beans were subjected to roasting under controlled conditions, there was a distinct loss of epicatechin when bean temperatures exceeded 70 C. When cacao beans were roasted to 120 degrees C, the catechin level in beans increased by 696% in unfermented beans, by 650% in Ivory Coast beans, and by 640% in Papua New Guinea fermented beans compared to the same unroasted beans. These results suggest that roasting in excess of 70 degrees C generates significant amounts of (-)-catechin, probably due to epimerization of (-)-epicatechin. Compared to natural cocoa powders, Dutch processing caused a loss in both epicatechin (up to 98%) and catechin (up to 80%),' wrote M.J. Payne and colleagues (see also Food Science).

The researchers concluded: 'The epicatechin/catechin ratio is proposed as a useful and sensitive indicator for the processing history of cacao beans.'

Payne and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (Impact of Fermentation, Drying, Roasting, and Dutch Processing on Epicatechin and Catechin Content of Cacao Beans and Cocoa Ingredients. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2010;58(19):10518-10527).

For additional information, contact M.J. Payne, Hershey Technical Center, Hershey Center Health & Nutrition, 1025 Reese Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.

The publisher's contact information for the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry is: American Chemical Society, 1155 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.

Keywords: City:Hershey, State:PA, Country:United States, Agricultural, Agriculture, Chemicals, Food Chemistry, Food Science

BELIZE - Caribbean Update

Cacao farmers in the rain forests of Belize are expected to benefit from a new deal with a British food company which is giving them a guaranteed price for their crop for three years. Green and Black's 'Maya Gold' chocolate bar, made from the cacao grown by Maya Indians in Belize's Southern Toledo district, is now on sale the Sainsbury's, the major supermarket chain, and health food shops throughout the United Kingdom. A contract signed with the Toledo Cacao Growers' Association (TCGA) means that all the cacao from over 300 farmers is exported directly to Britain at 48 pence per pound, a price that significantly exceeds that currently available on the open market. The deal was signed by Green and Black's after director Josephine Fairley learnt of the Maya crop while on a vacation. 'We were impressed by the quality of the cocoa beans produced by the traditional organic growing methods that the Maya growers used,' she says. The recipe for the 'Maya Gold' chocolate, using a blend of orange and spices, is based on a method used by the Maya, who were the first people in the world to grow cacao, and turn it into a drink called 'kukuh.'

пятница, 21 сентября 2012 г.

5 questions: Cathy Bouchard; Owner of Le Chocolat Bar - The Sun - Naperville (IL)

Cathy Bouchard knows chocolate. Owner of Le Chocolat Bar in Naperville, she has traveled to South America to learn how Mayan cultures used the so-clled food of the gods. Bouchard said that eating an ounce of dark chocolate a day has cured her of fibromyalgia.

Chocolate is more than a confection to Cathy Bouchard. It is a miracle drug.The 54-year-old Naperville woman suffered from debilitating fibromyalgia for five years when she began eating an ounce of quality dark chocolate every morning. Less than two months later, her symptoms vanished.

Now she is spreading the word about the health benefits of dark chocolate in the seminars she holds as well as at her shop, Le Chocolat Bar, located at 408 W. Fifth Ave. Some of her customers say dark chocolate also has reduced symptoms of such chronic conditions as arthritis and migraines.

Bouchard grew up in La Grange and attended Northern Illinois University. She was a professional watercolor artist for 15 years. While living in Denver for seven years, she owned an art gallery in a mall and had a studio at Stapleton International Airport.

Forty-seven of her landscape paintings were published beginning in the early 1980s and she has sold more than 1 million limited edition and open edition prints in 45 countries. Her work has hung in galleries around the world and she was the best-selling female artist in the United States and eight other countries, she said.

Coming back to Illinois in the early 1980s, she and her second husband settled in Bloomingdale. In 1983, she entered, and won, the Mrs. Illinois Pageant and was third runner-up in the Mrs. America Pageant.

Her world changed when her husband died in 1984. Grief-stricken, she stopped painting. A few years later, heavy rain storms flooded her basement, destroying the majority of her artwork and other important possessions.

Bouchard went on to open a women's boutique in Bloomingdale and later, in Schaumburg. She married Martin Lillig 19 years ago and moved to Naperville. She sold her business and later opened Bouchard Limited, a bridal keepsake company in Naperville, which she ran for 14 years. In 2004, she opened Perfect Details, a women's boutique, and expanded it last fall to include chocolates. Now, operating under the Le Chocolat Bar name, the business will move to downtown Naperville later this summer.

Bouchard is the mother of three daughters.

1. How did you cure yourself of fibromyalgia?

There's a formula, a way that I've come up with, based on all the studies that I did and the research. . . . I came up with something where I tracked down high cacao content, not cocoa content, but cacao. All chocolate is made from cacao which is the bean which is actually the seed. ... I take one ounce a day of dark chocolate, very dark chocolate, 70 percent cacao content, every morning on an empty stomach. That's my theory. I figured it out based on the fact that through thousands of years, mankind has always treated it as a medicine, an elixir, a tonic. ... The conquistadors, the Mayans, the Aztecs after them, all knew that it was a sacred drink. It was always called food of the gods. It was a sacred drink. It was a man's drink. It was used for all kinds of not only religious ceremonies, but for health purposes. ... It was always a drink. It only became a bar in 1870.

2. What makes dark chocolate so good for you?

There are between five and 60 compounds, complex compounds in every food we eat. Broccoli has always topped the charts, tops out at 60. At the discovery of DNA they were able to analyze the foods better and now we've found that cacao has more than 512 and counting. ... Because it's loaded with these 512 complex compounds, it has got just about every good thing coming out of the soil that you need. I'm not a doctor. I'm not even a nutritionist. I just know what happened to me so I just started telling people my story. Then, as I opened the store I would have them buy some of the chocolate and eat it and enjoy it and (told them) here's how much I take and they'd say, I wonder if it will work for me? I said report back to me. ... By now I've got a study a mile long of people who have come back to me with results.

3. What is your biggest challenge as a businesswoman?

The only time I come up frustrated is women dealing in, quote, a man's world. I know it sounds archaic but it's still happening today. I talk to other female entrepreneurs who have the same frustration. It is still a man's world. ... We still have to deal with bankers and businessmen and vendors that don't give you the time of day because they don't really believe you are as big or as good as you say you are. They tend to want to work and deal with men. I had to overcome that and now I'm pretty confident anytime I walk into a trade show that I can command respect immediately.

4. Who inspires you?

I do sort of like watching how Hillary Clinton has commanded respect, gone through what she did and has still come out on top.

5. What is your favorite pastime?

I read approximately 150 books a year (about) the world around us, the pyramids. I'm not an expert on Egyptology, but I do have millions of useless facts, as my husband refers to. I find it fascinating. This is a whole world and when you go and see this King Tut stuff that they've brought up, and everything that I've read and know, I feel like I've been in the pyramids or been in these sacred places. I started studying it all because I thought I'd never be able to travel. So I traveled in my mind. Every night it was my ritual. And to this day, I still read no less than two hours a day and some days I'll read as much as three-and-a-half, four hours every night.

четверг, 20 сентября 2012 г.

Bulgarian Scientist: Chocolate is Sweet Salvation. - Sofia News Agency

Need another reason to eat chocolate? A Bulgarian scientist who reinvented her life in Minnesota says that eating fine, responsibly raised cacao can save the world.

By Kim Ode

Star Tribune

Slow down. Sit on your hands, if you must. First, just look at the piece of chocolate before you. Consider its particular shade. An earthy umber? A glossier Hershey?

Now bring it to your nose. Rub the chocolate and ponder. Is that vanilla? Raisins? Hay? You may wonder how in the world your brain is saying 'hay.' Patience.

Next, snap the morsel in half. Did the sound surprise you? Has anything filched from the kids' Halloween bags ever cracked like that?

OK, now put a bit on your tongue. Slow down. Let it melt. Close your eyes and think of nothing but chocolate melting in your mouth. Only that.

This is the flavor of revolution.

That's what Anna Bonavita says, at least, and why not believe her? She may have more chocolate.

Bonavita is the champion of what she calls a chocolate revolution that's happening in our midst and, indeed, must happen if we are to preserve the Earth, our health and our peace of mind.

If that sounds a little over the top, so is the story of how Bonavita moved from a career in microelectronics behind the Berlin Wall to leading yoga students in Minneapolis through the finer points of a Trinitario chocolate with 75 percent cacao content.

'We are here to experience pleasure, not just to suffer,' Bonavita said in a Bulgarian accent more musical than you might expect. Yet for most of her life, pleasure was an afterthought. Pursuing a career in science, she moved to Russia at 19 to get a doctorate in microelectronics. Ten years later, she returned to work in Bulgaria, only to discover, with the toppling of the Berlin Wall, the superiority of science being done in the West.

'We were in open waters,' she said of the mixed feelings of freedom and futility. She came to Minnesota to work at Seagate Technology but felt a growing restlessness. 'I wanted a purpose bigger than me,' she said. So eventually she and her Italian husband, Massimo, helped to found the Italian Cultural Center in Minneapolis in 2006, a nonprofit whose language classes enable the center to stage an annual Italian film festival (this year's is March 30-April 1.)

Then in 2009, she was laid off from Seagate, a casualty of restructuring. Again at sea, she decided to visit Italy, ending up in Romagna, in the north region, where on a damp, cold-to-your-bones evening, she decided, on a whim, to attend a chocolate tasting.

Questioning her sanity

'The chocolates I tasted were nothing I had experienced before,' Bonavita said. In short order, she learned about chocolate's role in the world economy, its role in the fight to preserve and restore rain forests, its role in medical discoveries on the beneficial role of antioxidants. She began educating herself about some of the 600 flavor notes in chocolate -- wine, by comparison, has 200 -- by starting each morning with a chocolate-tasting, before her palate had been compromised by coffee, or even toothpaste.

Eventually, she met Gianluca Franzoni, an Italian who makes Domori chocolates -- a level of chocolate that inspires critiques such as having 'extraordinary roundness and great persistence.' He's also a rock star in the sustainability movement, in which cacao growers in Central and South America are allies in the fight to maintain biodiversity in the face of lumber, mining and oil interests. Bonavita's path seemed clear, albeit ill-advised.

'Sometimes I asked myself, 'Are you insane?' At a time when people are watching their budgets, I'm pushing expensive chocolate,' she said. 'But I have to do it if we are going to change into a better world.'

She, Massimo and a friend, Ella Chamba, started Chocolate Bonavita in 2010, offering tastings and classes at the Italian Cultural Center, 528 Hennepin Av. S., and even a tasting in tandem with a yoga class, believing that a calm mind is most receptive to the nuances of fine chocolate.

Chocolates are for sale on the center's website, www. chocolatebonavita.com, where a 1.75-ounce bar of the award-winning Porcelana goes for . Goals include a retail store and development of a curriculum for chocolate sommeliers, in the vein of those for wine or olive oil.

Heart health, brain health

People love chocolate. And while U.S. citizens ate more than 3.6 billion pounds of it in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, we are mere amateurs when compared with Europe, which has 16 of the top 20 chocolate-eating countries.

All predictions point to rising consumption, partly thanks to studies about chocolate's health benefits. The Harvard School of Public Health, in a survey of 65-year-old men, found that eating moderate amounts of chocolate was a factor in prolonging their lives.

Cacao is rich in dietary copper, magnesium and iron, and dark chocolate has been found to lower blood pressure, along with being a source of antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of developing cancer or heart disease, according to Boston University's School of Medicine and the German Heart Journal.

The most recent, and perhaps more controversial, study was published last month in the journal Nature, in which obesity researchers at the University of California argued that sugar is so perilous to public health that it should be regulated as a controlled substance in order to reduce overall consumption. Far from hearing that as bad news, cheerleaders for fine chocolate heralded the findings as another ally. Chocolate with high cacao content actually contains very little sugar, Bonavita said.

Yet it's clear that Bonavita's passion is less about health and more about a belief that chocolate is good for our brains and for the planet. (Ten percent of Bonavita's profits go to the Rainforest Rescue program.)

DARK ATTRACTION: Adventurers in chocolate craft a niche in Chicago. - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)

Byline: Bill Daley

Feb. 7--Chicago has long been known as the candy capital of the world, thanks to large operations such as Brach's, Fannie May and Mars. What may come as a surprise is that the Chicago area is home to many individual chocolatiers, people dedicated to handcrafted bonbons made with artisan chocolate, plushed with flavors exotic or familiar, and shaped to look like works of art. Just be prepared to pay for the pleasure, $2 and up for a bite at some places. Increasingly, folks are willing to pony up to the premium chocolate counter. Sales are up 30 percent over a year ago for the so-called 'gourmet' chocolates sold in supermarkets, drugstores and mass-market stores, said Susan Fussell, director of communications for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a Vienna, Va.-based trade group. These statistics show growing consumer interest in gourmet chocolate, she said, interest that is bound to also affect those artisans crafting chocolates by hand. Artisan chocolate is a relatively new sector within the chocolate industry, according to Andrew Garrison Shotts, owner of Garrison Confections in Providence, R.I. 'As pastry chefs have become chocolatiers, bringing their artistic abilities to the art of making chocolate, the entire look and feel of luxury chocolates have changed,' he writes in 'Making Artisan Chocolates.' Uzma Sharif, chef and owner of Love in Disquise Chocolates Ltd. in Chicago, said the appeal of handmade chocolates is simple.

'People want something more creative that shows what's coming from their hearts,' she said. 'A lot of my customers want something unique.'

More and more chocolatiers like Sharif are seeking to feed the demand, so evident now as Valentine's Day approaches. Most do only chocolates; others sell cookies, cakes and pastries as well. What unites them is a passion for quality you can taste and see, and an innate respect for the mysterious ways of the raw ingredient they're using.

'It's tricky stuff,' said Bob Piron, whose 23-year-old company, Belgian Chocolatier Piron of Evanston, could be considered the granddaddy of the region's makers of prestige chocolates. 'As soon as you think you understand it, it slaps you in the face and you lose a batch.'

Yet, chocolatiers keep plugging away, buoyed by the sense of artistry and creativity given by this ancient food, once favored by the Mayans and Aztecs. Tastes in chocolate are changing, Chicago chocolatiers say, as Americans develop a more European palate for chocolate. That means less sweet, more intense chocolates. Cacao is the bean from which chocolate is made. The percentage numbers found increasingly on chocolate wrappers boasts how much pure cacao bean is in that chocolate. The higher the cacao percentage, the more intense is the flavor.

Knowing the cacao numbers is all the rage these days, with consumers seeking out chocolates with percentages ranging from 64, 70, 75, to even 90 percent. Fussell said this is another sign of how consumers want to know more about chocolate. While cacao affects flavor, the Chocolate Manufacturer's Association noted one can't automatically link the cacao percentage with the amount of flavanols found in a particular piece of chocolate. Flavanols are compounds that researchers believe may lower blood pressure. Health claims have fueled interest in chocolate. Like green tea and red wine, chocolate is rich in good-for-you antioxidants. Dark chocolate is especially rich in antioxidants, and Chicago-area chocolatiers report a boost in dark-chocolate sales. At Belgian Chocolatier Piron, for example, dark has outsold milk chocolate about 3-to-1 in the last year. In years past the demand was more evenly split, Piron said. A number of chocolate-makers are seeking to boost the healthful aura in the choice of the other ingredients used in their confections. Sharif, for example, spoke of working 'super foods' such as blueberries and pomegranates into her chocolates. And Rieko Wada, owner of Sweet Endeavours in Schaumburg, has even made raspberry bonbons using berries from one of her customer's own raspberry bushes. Chocolatiers feeding the area's sweet tooth benefit from the city's long candy history, said Matt Hancock, director of the Food and Candy Institute, a non-profit, public-private partnership working to strengthen the food and candy industries in Chicago. But getting the word out about these artisans is important too. Hancock said many of his friends are surprised to learn that Vosges Haut-Chocolat, a nationally respected maker of gourmet chocolates, was born right here in Chicago rather than, say, San Francisco. 'No one is surprised Hershey's is made in Pennsylvania; we're not as good at promoting our candy,' he said. Many of Chicago's chocolate artists are going about their work in their own way as they hone their vision and express themselves. Their stories appear on this page. Brandy truffles

Preparation time: 20 minutes Chilling time: 30 minutes Freezing time: 1 hour Yield: 36 truffles - This recipe comes from Mary Winslow of Chicago's Chocolate Gourmet, maker of the Ugly Truffles line of chocolate. Center: 12 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup brandy 1 tablespoon corn syrup Coating: 1 pound each: bittersweet chocolate, confectioners' sugar 1. For the center mixture, place the milk chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Stir to melt the chocolate, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in the remaining ingredients. (Mixture will become temporarily firm.) Cover; chill 30 minutes. 2. Beat mixture with an electric mixer (with a whisk attachment, if you have one) set on low until the mixture comes together and is smooth and silky, about 1 minute. (Be careful not to get any water inside.) 3. Scoop small balls of chocolate onto paper-lined pans with a pastry scoop or teaspoon, or use a piping tool with 1/2-inch plain tip to create oval shapes. Freeze about 1 hour. 4. Meanwhile, for the coating, melt the bittersweet chocolate in a bowl over hot water. Sift sugar into a separate bowl. Remove balls from freezer; dip into the melted chocolate, using two forks. Place truffles in the sugar; toss to coat. Let set 10 minutes; shake truffles in a strainer to remove excess sugar. Refrigerate in an airtight container. Let come to room temperature before serving. Nutrition information per serving: 177 calories, 40% of calories from fat, 8 g fat, 4 saturated fat, 3 mg cholesterol, 27 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 13 mg sodium, 1 g fiber Uzma Sharif Love in Disguise Chocolate Ltd. 866-464-9866 loveindisguise.com Big doings are in store for Uzma Sharif, the chef-owner of Love in Disguise. She is poised to move into a 1,200-square-foot facility at 2010 W. Fulton St. that will nearly triple her space. She's streamlining her collection of truffles, introducing a new line called Cocoa Sutra decorated with the imagery of her ancestral homeland, Pakistan. And she's revamping her Web site, important since a retail space isn't foreseen in her business plan until 2008. Not bad for an 11-year food-industry veteran out on her own for only two years. 'I'm learning as I go along,' she said, smiling. 'My biggest lesson is just having patience. I get so excited by new techniques and new tastes.' Sharif clearly brings an energy to her chocolate-making, but then she proudly proclaims there's a little bit of love in everything she makes, hence the company name. 'My life and my passion are in my chocolate,'' she said. 'When I came up with the name, I wanted something that really, really brought that out.' The flavor, texture and appearance of her bonbons are all-important, as one can tell by watching her coat one with plump lashings of melted chocolate until the confection is glossy. She sweats the details, just as you'd expect an instructor in chocolate (at Triton Community College) to do. She works carefully to bring out the artistic touches in her work--even the boxes holding the chocolates are handcrafted.

'Every chocolate has its own beauty,' said Sharif, a graduate of Chicago's French Pastry School. Her chocolate-covered almonds, for example, first are caramelized by hand so each nut remains separate. Each is then hand-dipped three times in molten dark bittersweet chocolate and finally coated with extra brute (dark) cocoa powder. The result is deliciously illusory. You feel like you're eating a candy bar even though you're not. Customers looking to order her chocolate should visit Sharif's Web site or telephone. Mary Winslow Chocolate Gourmet 1635 W. Walnut St., 312-850-1051 chocolategourmet.com

Ugly may not be pretty but it sure can be delicious. Mary Winslow, owner of Chicago's Chocolate Gourmet, makes and sells a line of hand-rolled 'Ugly Truffles' with such sassy names as 'homely hazelnut,' 'put your clothes on chocolate,' 'you suck lemon' and the biggest seller, 'oozy boozy caramel,' made with a brandy-laced milk chocolate ganache.

These are not the elegant-looking orbs of perfection found in the windows of fancy chocolate shops, but they seem more Chicagoan for their gutsiness--fitting, given Winslow is a native. 'They're all hand-rolled,' she said. 'I didn't want them to look perfect.' Still, the flavor of these 'ugly' truffles is no less sophisticated. Just consider a new addition to the product range, the 'gordito picante.' It's a velvety smooth ball of cinnamony Mexican chocolate warmed with chili spices and ground-up corn tortilla. The chili doesn't kick in for a few seconds, allowing the rich chocolate to fill the mouth first. Then the heat enters. At first it's like a gentle tingle but it slowly blooms and lingers as the sweetness of the tortilla unfolds. Winslow turned to chocolate and cookies (that line is called 'Damn Good Cookies') last year to offset the seasonal variability inherent in her 10-year-old cake business, Take the Cake. Chocolate-making is another way for this mother of two teens and self-described obsessive baker to express her creativity. She said she likes to deliver 'good, basic flavors' but at a high level of quality. She also enjoys playing a bit with spicy or salty tastes as long as they're not overwhelming. Winslow sells her chocolates over the Internet, and customers come to her facility in a warehouse-style building in West Town. The look is bright, clean, modern but warm--sort of postindustrial with a smile. She would like to open a small retail shop at her location someday. Rieko Wada

Sweet Endeavours 1101 Tower Rd., Schaumburg, 224-653-2700

chocolatines.com Perhaps it's the surgical masks Chizuko Edgington and Terumi Shimizu wear, but walking into the chocolate production room at Sweet Endeavours in Schaumburg is like entering a hospital operating room. Hairnets and booties must be worn by visitors watching the two women handcraft dozens of little chocolates with an almost lyrical precision. Owner Rieko Wada would have it no other way. She brings an intensity for perfection to the production of her Chocolatines line. There are 50 flavors in all, and all look like miniature works of art. Just look at the samples in her showroom, which is open to the public. Some are molded into squares, others into circles. Still more are swirled into roses or faceted to look like gemstones or crystals. A few are topped with intricately patterned cocoa-butter appliques while others are adorned with bits of dried fruits and nuts arranged into edible mosaics. Everything is genuine, all-natural, she boasted: 'I won't use any imitations.' Born in Tokyo, Wada came to the United States about 20 years ago intent on earning an MBA degree and then returning to Japan to teach. But fate intervened. She began working as a travel agent to earn money for tuition but found herself drawn increasingly toward food. As a student at the French Pastry School, she loved working with chocolate, partially because of the science involved and the creative ways it can be used. 'And you don't have to have an oven,' she added with a smile. Her background gives Wada unique insight into the chocolate tastes of the region's various ethnic communities, notably the Japanese. Americans like nuts in their chocolate, she said, while the Japanese do not. Americans tend to be vocal in their likes and dislikes; Wada said the Japanese are more accommodating, although they prefer their chocolates to be more traditional and less sweet. Wada is looking to the future. She's working on her own candy molds, including a rose shape that will allow for three petal layers each made from a different chocolate. She's also open to expanding her business into pastry, such as wedding cakes. Bob and Fred Piron Belgian Chocolatier Piron 509-A Main St., Evanston, 847-864-5504 belgchocpiron.com Credit Bob Piron's Belgian-born father for pushing him in the direction of chocolates. It was the early 1980s, fancy imported chocolates were hot, and young Bob was looking for direction and a career. Taken with his father's directive, he moved to Antwerp for a year and apprenticed himself to a chocolatier. Bob Piron and his brother, Fred, who co-owns the business, still make many chocolates according to the recipes Bob learned in Belgium--for the focus at Belgian Chocolatier Piron remains squarely fixed on classic European chocolates done the old-fashioned way. Don't expect to find chichi balls in wild flavors inside the glass-fronted counters. Rather, look for diamond-shaped bites of milk chocolate-hazelnut praline with chopped pecans, rough squares of macadamia nut bark or fingerlike segments of chocolate-covered candied orange peel. 'We stick to our guns,' Fred Piron said. 'We haven't really felt [competition]. Evanston is growing so much our business just grows from the increased population.' At Christmas, 'you work your tail off,' added Bob Piron. 'You've got 500 pounds of capacity and 1,000 pounds of demand.'

Despite a burgundy-colored awning over the store window, the Piron shop is pretty plain. A Valentine's display is in the window, an assortment of pink molded-plastic chairs are aligned in a row, and a set of shelves holds various products, including a box of Tanzanian chocolate. The focus is all on the illuminated glass-fronted candy display cases.

The Pirons and their staff make the chocolates by hand in the large back room of the store, using 11-pound bars of Callebaut chocolate from Belgium as the raw material. It's time-consuming piecework as they coat molds with chocolate, fill the chocolate shells with various flavors, and put the chocolate bottoms on to hold the fillings in place. This is the way it has been done and will be done. 'There's always a certain amount of curiosity for new things,' Bob Piron said. 'Trends are just that. People always come back to the classics.

wdaley@tribune.com

Copyright (c) 2007, Chicago Tribune

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business

News.

Chocotherapy: the daily dose of chocolate: everyone seems to love chocolate. With all the positive news about dark chocolate's antioxidant properties, plus the influx of chocolate ingredients on today's menus--from martinis to cheeses--there has never been a better time to explore the delectable attributes of chocolate.(culinary creations) - Prepared Foods

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With all the positive information coming out these days about the health benefits of chocolate, one should be sure to have a daily dose of this delectable treat. While doing chocolate research, it is delightful to find that a guilty pleasure becomes like a magical food, with a number of health and wellness benefits. Once it becomes a guilt-free treat, it seems worth taking the indulgent bite to reap even a few of its amazing benefits.

Most people have heard in the news that dark chocolate has antioxidant powers, but they may not know that cacao, the source of chocolate, also has antibacterial agents that may reduce tooth decay. Even better, the smell of chocolate can increase brain waves and help relax the body. Maybe that is why cocoa powder and chocolate body scrubs are all the rage at upscale spas around the country--making one smarter while basking in the scent of sweet chocolate. So, when patrons of beauty salons relax while being dipped in chocolate, they should also nibble on a little of the same, as chocolate contains phenyl ethylamine--a mild mood elevator. The list of chocolate's benefits goes on and on, but one favorite is that men who eat chocolate live longer. Ladies should share that box of gourmet chocolates with their guys--with flavors that might pique their mood.

Bacon is something men usually crave. Vosges Haut-Chocolate, based in Chicago, combines exotic infusions of rare spices and flavors with premium chocolate to layer the chocolate experience and test the taste buds. The shop has an intriguing milk chocolate bar infused with Alderwoodsmoked bacon and smoked sea salt. It is quite different, and the flavors really work together. Bring a box of those to the next Sunday football party, and score a touchdown with the best dessert!

Many love the personal indulgence of cheese flavors, and Vosges Haut-Chocolate has an Italian collection that includes an abstractly shaped truffle called The Rooster. It is made with Taleggio cheese, organic walnuts, Tahitian vanilla beans and bittersweet chocolate. The natural saltiness in the cheese enhances the chocolate ganache--just like an old-fashioned pretzel stick dipped in chocolate brings out the best in both the pretzel and the chocolate. These flavors may initially surprise, but the building blocks of flavors are traditional in savory cooking. Balancing sweet, acid and salt is key to any successful dish.

Latin American flavors and concepts are as hot as ever. Many love chocolate and caramel, so why not combine the traditional Argentine dulce de leche with chocolate for a Latin American-inspired truffle? The Mayans first used chocolate in a drink by crushing cacao beans and mixing with water, chilis and Mexican vanilla. This beverage was reserved for special ceremonies. Vosges' Aztec collection revisits these roots of chocolate in Mexico with on-trend flavors like spicy ancho chilis with Mexican vanilla. One can even try a corn tortilla chip dipped in chocolate and finished with a dusting of chili powder--a gourmet take on potato chips with chocolate.

While these may not be the chocolate combinations seen every day, they are representative of the direction in which chocolate is going. Hershey's chocolate bars used to be what everyone thought of when they heard the word chocolate. Now, there is a huge spectrum of chocolate varieties available to fit everyone's palate. Chocolate is as complex as wine, and tasting it can follow many of the same rules. Try tasting three dark gourmet chocolates, side by side: Valrhona, Callebaut and Scharffenberger. They are as different as three pinot noirs. Their bouquet (or aroma), mouthfeel and flavor are distinct. Scharffenberger is the most complex--like a full-bodied red that continues to open up as it melts in the mouth. Valrhona is dark and very smooth, and Callebaut has a versatile, milder flavor. Specialty companies even refer to their exotic bars from around the equator as Grand Crus.

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A trip to the store can be like embarking on a tropical vacation. The cacao tree only grows within 15 degrees of the equator, and it requires constant warmth and rainfall. Think of this shopping trip as a gourmand vacation that brings you to exotic regions like Venezuela, Ecuador, Java and Madagascar. Hershey's Cacao Reserve line even has signature and single-origin chocolate bars.

These trends and flavors are being incorporated into desserts around the country. Just as the savory side of the menu lists out the 'organic and grass-fed' branding on a meal, keep an eye out for beautiful chocolate desserts that list out the brand and origin of the chocolate used. Taste the out-of-the-ordinary, but extraordinary, flavor combinations being used, and step outside the chocolate box to try a never-imagined combination. For all who crave a piece of chocolate at the end of the day because it lifts the mood--go ahead and indulge the senses!

Juliet Greene, Corporate Chef Charlie Baggs Inc.

среда, 19 сентября 2012 г.

Single-Origin Chocolate Goes Mainstream - AP Online

WASHINGTON - Call it chocolate with a pedigree. Like a good Bordeaux or Chianti, some chocolate comes from a particular place - the Indonesian island of Java or Venezuela's Sur del Lago, for example.

As with wine grapes, the source of cacao beans is supposed to result in distinct flavors and aromas. Chocolate from Colombia might seem peppery while chocolate from Venezuela might smell like vanilla.

'It's like colors on a palette,' says Gary Guittard, president and chief executive of San Francisco's Guittard Chocolate Company. 'There is a tremendous parallel between wine and chocolate.'

He mentions terroir (pronounced tehr-WAHR), a French word used for wine and coffee that translates loosely as 'taste of the earth.' The idea is that beans grown near a vanilla orchid plantation may carry notes of vanilla, depending on fermentation and processing.

'Terroir, weather - there are so many things that are very similar to wine,' Guittard says. 'I think people are beginning to understand that complexity of flavor.'

Guittard was among the first U.S. companies to make 'single-origin' chocolate, which had been available in Europe for many years. The term refers to chocolate made from beans from a specific region or even a single farm. Most choices today are dark chocolate, though milk chocolate varieties are produced.

Like other single-origin chocolate, Guittard's is sold in upscale supermarkets and specialty shops.

Until recently, high-end retailers such as Whole Foods Market have been the province of pedigreed chocolate.

But this year, Hershey's began making single-origin bars that are sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and most grocery stores.

'It's all about the exploration of chocolate and learning about different cacao levels and how that influences flavor, as well as the origin of the beans,' says Tom Hernquist, senior vice president of the Hershey Co., the country's biggest chocolate company.

Labels on single-origin chocolate say how much cocoa - really cacao - the chocolate contains. Cacao percentage has become important as people explore the potential health benefits of eating dark chocolate.

Cocoa beans have natural antioxidant compounds called flavanols. Many studies suggest flavanols help ward off vascular disease, which can cause heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, dementia and hypertension. A Hershey-funded study in 2005 found the more cacao in chocolate, the higher the antioxidant levels.

The higher the cacao percentage, the higher the price tag. A giant-size 5-oz. Hershey's bar costs $1.59 - 32 cents an ounce. Hershey's single-origin bars cost $3.29 for a 3.5-oz bar - 94 cents an ounce. Guittard chocolate costs $1 for a 10-gram bar - $2.86 an ounce.

People want higher-end chocolate with more distinctive flavors, Hernquist says. Baby Boomers are aging, have more disposable income and are looking for quality over quantity, he says.

In pursuit of those high-end consumers, Hershey's recently purchased three premium chocolate companies, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker Inc., Joseph Schmidt Confections Inc. and Dagoba Organic Chocolate.

Wine drinkers are also trading up. The strongest sales growth over the past year has been in wines priced $12 to $15, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen.

Part of the fun of eating single-origin chocolate is comparing chocolate from different places.

The various flavor notes can be subtle and harder to detect than in wine, so companies are providing guidance.

Hershey's bar made of beans from the African island of Sao Tome has 'hints of aromatic coffee,' according to its package. Guittard provides a pocket guide with its tasting kit of bars from Venezuela, Madagascar, Ecuador and Columbia.

Industry consultant Joan Steuer describes how to do the chocolate version of a wine tasting:

-First, notice whether the chocolate has a high gloss or sheen, an indication of quality. Listen as you break it to hear the snap, then smell the chocolate to see if you can detect specific aromas.

-Then put the chocolate in your mouth and hold it against the roof of your mouth. Is it creamy? Smooth? Chalky? Move it from side to side as different notes - perhaps fruity, toasty or tart - come through.

-Unlike wine tasting, do not spit out the chocolate, Steuer says with a laugh. But do not bite it. 'These are bars you really should let melt in your mouth and not bite,' she says. 'We're tasting, not just eating.

'This is not chocolate to be gobbled,' she says. 'This is chocolate to be savored.'

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On the Net:

CHOCOLATE'S SWEET ALLURE.(News) - The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA)

Byline: Sandi Doughton; Seattle Times science reporter

If the healthful benefits of broccoli could be distilled into a pill, veggie haters worldwide would rejoice.

But who would choose to get their chocolate fix by gulping a tablet?

The rush to cash in on chocolate's apparent ability to lower blood pressure, improve circulation and maybe even fight diabetes is threatening to take the fun out of indulgence. Products like purified cacao capsules are already on the market. A Texas company filed a patent last year on chocolate bars bulked up with fiber.

Not exactly the kind of thing to make a girl swoon on Valentine's Day.

Brace yourself for more of the same as manufacturers push to turn chocolate into what a recent trade article called 'a suitable vehicle for functional confectionary.'

One small Seattle chocolate company hopes to subvert that trend.

In a former brewery in Fremont, Andy McShea of Theo Chocolate is trying to tease out the molecular basis of scrumptiousness. In the short term, the former pharmaceutical-industry biochemist is using scientific insight to optimize Theo's artisan approach to chocolate making. In the long term, he's aiming for the same goal as the candy industry's biggest players: a way to maximize chocolate's health benefits while minimizing its baggage of fat and calories.

But if it isn't delicious too, what's the point? asks McShea, Theo's sole scientist and chief operating officer. 'The hair-shirt approach doesn't work.'

Consumers were not enamored of Cocoa Via, one of the first health-themed chocolate products. The granola-type bar from candy giant Mars, Inc., was fortified with flavonols, the antioxidants credited with many of chocolate's health effects. Mars' newest attempt is a dietary-supplement drink mix billed as a 'concentrated source of cocoa flavonols,' and next up is a fruit-flavored drink fortified with flavonols from cocoa.

The company is so convinced of chocolate's biomedical potential it created a new division to develop and patent foods and possibly drugs based on cocoa and its components. Mars is even helping sequence the genome of Theobroma cacao, the species that is the source of so much delight -- and Theo Chocolate's namesake.

'We see a lot of potential,' said Mars spokesman Hugo Perez, who estimates the company has spent tens of millions of dollars on cocoa research.

If McShea is fazed by the competition's scientific firepower, he doesn't show it.

'We're going to do things better,' said the cocky Brit, who studied at Harvard and also worked at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The tough talk comes from a company 4 years old, with about 50 employees. But Theo's organic, fair-trade products, like dark chocolate with dried cherries and almonds, have earned raves in publications from Time Out New York to O Magazine.

Theo says it's the only Northwest company that manufactures chocolates from beans to finished product.

An artisan operation has advantages over megacompanies when it comes to producing a healthful product, McShea says. Industrial processing can destroy flavonols and other key compounds. McShea says his lab analyses of popular chocolate brands show mass-produced candy doesn't have as complex a flavor profile as artisan chocolate.

McShea also has graphs and charts that show the heirloom varieties of cacao trees favored by Theo produce more flavonol-rich and flavorful beans than the varieties that dominate large cacao plantations.

The main stumbling block to a yummy chocolate health food is the fact that flavonols are bitter, McShea said. Chocolate stripped of sugar has a mouth-puckering quality. Chocolate that skimps on cocoa butter is chalky.

'We're working hard to figure out a way to separate the health effects from the calories and retain the flavor,' McShea said. 'Nobody has been able to do that yet.'

His chemical analyses, which are helping reveal what makes chocolate taste, feel and smell good, are a step in that direction. But the goal isn't to engineer chocolate into something else, McShea said. It's to find that magic mix of tree, bean and roasting method that will lead to the prize.

To get there, McShea will need to make the most of every advantage he has.

His Super Secret Chocolate Laboratory is the size of a bedroom. He turns to researchers at the University of Washington and their million-dollar machines to help him bore into chocolate at the nano-level.

McShea also acts as his own guinea pig. He says he logged a 20 percent drop in blood pressure after dosing himself with pure chocolate extract. He self-medicated a back strain by eating cocoa nibs, and claims the anti-inflammatory effects sped his recovery.

Don't try this at home -- and don't take McShea's high jinks as proof. But reputable research does appear to validate many of the medicinal effects first noted by the Maya and Aztecs.

More than 200 clinical studies have shown eating small amounts of dark chocolate can lower blood pressure, improve circulation, reduce levels of bad cholesterol and increase sensitivity to insulin, a marker of diabetes resistance. Most of the studies are small, though, and most were paid for by candy makers.

'The evidence is not conclusive,' said Jeffrey Blumberg, director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University. The research has largely focused on indicators of health like blood pressure, rather than actual heart disease, Blumberg pointed out.

'I think it's critically important to remember, no matter how you cut it, chocolate is still not a health food.'

Blumberg doesn't dismiss chocolate's potential. But the reductionist approach of isolating compounds, putting them in pills or powders and expecting the same benefits as from eating carrots, oranges and other whole foods has failed repeatedly, he pointed out. Beta carotene didn't live up to its hype, nor did vitamin E.

Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW Center for Obesity Research, endorses the value of whole, healthful foods, and considers good chocolate among them. While chocoholics await the supercharged confections of tomorrow, he says it's possible to maximize health benefits today by eating only premium dark chocolate, in small quantities.

'Do not accept inferior imitations,' said Drewnowski, who nibbles from a fine French chocolate bar every day. 'If you're just grabbing bags of Hershey Kisses on the way to work, you're not doing yourself any favors.'

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com

CAPTION(S):

Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times: Can Valentine chocolates be both delicious and good for you? (0411358342)

Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times: Licorice ganache enrobed in dark chocolate from Theo Chocolate. The Fremont candy maker is working on making a more healthful and still tasty chocolate. (0411358333)

Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times: Erin Holzer, chocolate maker and chief engineer, and Andy McShea, chief operating officer, of Theo Chocolate. (0411358304)

Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times: Suzann Vaughn works on the luscious treats at Theo Chocolate in Fremont. (0411358297)