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The Premium Chocolate Movement: The treat of centralisation.
THE THREAT OF CENTRALISATION
Organic chocolate company Green & Blacks were seeking both high quality and organically
produced cocoa when they first approached the Mayan cocoa farmers of Belize in 1993. Green &
Blacks incentivised the growers to tear out the stock of Forastero (a variety that the Hershey
corporation convinced them to plant) and re-plant the native Criollo species. They also offered a
five-year contract for the organically grown beans at a guaranteed price of USD$1.75 per pound.
The quality of Belize cocoa improved to become the best in the region, because growers were
assured a return on the required investment of money and time. The added income also allowed
farmers to send their children to school — high school enrolment increased from 10% of the
community’s children to 70%.
Cacao blanco de Piura
However the Green & Blacks story did not end there. In 2005, amidst a wave of acquisitions
and takeovers of small organics companies by multinational food manufacturers, Green & Blacks
was bought by Cadburys. Each year since, the organic chocolate company have pressured the
Mayan growers in Belize to increase their yields in order to meet the growing demand, an increase
they cannot sustain if they are to continue with their traditional methods of farming. Following the
acquisition of Green & Blacks by Cadbury, the American chocolate giant Hershey bought organic
chocolate company Dagoba. These acquisitions pose a great threat the to the premium chocolate
movement. If large corporations move in and attempt to drive prices down, as was seen in across
the organics movement in the last decade, then premium chocolate will not be able to maintain
their high level of quality, or the new trade links that benefit growers.
As sociologist David Harvey explains “we still live, in the West, in a society where production
for profit remains the basic organizing principle of economic life.” Regardless of their passion for
quality and social values, to exist, a chocolate company must make a profit. This means consumers
must be willing to pay the high price of premium chocolate. Due to its artisanal nature, this kind of
chocolate will never be able to compete with industrial chocolate on price. Consumers can pay up to
eight times as much for a premium bar than they might for a mass-produced equivalent and the
cost to the producer begins with the very first step: the price they pay for quality beans. Alex
Whitmore notes that Taza pay a USD$1500 premium per metric tonne above the New York Board
of Trade price and USD$250 above Fair Trade. The beans they import arrive in small shipments of
jute bags, a more expensive method of transport than bulk container shipping and flat storage, and
their inability to warehouse their ingredients means they must pay the current market price for
sugar, which can vary enormously week to week.iv Their processes are labour intensive and slow,
and their production output is limited by the size of the machinery. In order to remain profitable, premium chocolate producers must be able to cover these costs, and make a margin above them. In order to persuade consumers to pay this high price, they must first be convinced of premium chocolate’s value.
CONNOISSEURSHIP AND AUTHENTICITY
He may be a fondeur and not a bean-to-bar producer, but Linxe is still a very important figure
in the premium chocolate movement. He was a driving force behind the creation of Le Guide du
Chocolat, the Michelin Guide of chocolate, first published in 1981. Anthropologist Susan Terrio
states that this was the first publication to use the language of wine appreciation in order to codify
chocolate consumption. “An explicit goal was to extend the oenological model and to provide the
public with ‘a more detailed, precise, and refined chocolate vocabulary.’”
Linxe’s efforts were rewarded — today a growing group of chocolate connoisseurs, including
producers, journalists and chocolate aficionados, use this borrowed vocabulary in a lively discourse
of chocolate. They discuss bean varieties, growing conditions, plantation and country of origin with
terms such as “grand cru”, “vintage” and “terroir”. They also consider the decisions a chocolatier
makes and how those choices impact on the final product, in the same way as wine connoisseurs
discuss how a winemaker may produce a distinctive wine.
These discussions are happening across a wide range of media. In the last decade, several
chocolate connoisseurs have published books including Chloe Doutre-Roussel, the former chocolate
buyer for Fortnum and Mason, Clay Gordon, the founder of chocolate review website
chocophile.com, and Chantal Coady, owner of Rococo chocolate store and founding member of the
UK’s Chocolate Society. Dozens of chocolate review websites have created a virtual
neighbourhood for chocolate enthusiasts who have a forum to discuss all manner of chocolate
topics from taste, to production, to the sourcing of equipment for chocolate manufacturing.
Clay Gordon claims that “appreciation of the chocolate-making process is as invaluable to a
chocolate lover’s enjoyment as an understanding of the winemaking process is to a wine connoisseur,” and many in the premium chocolate industry are offering consumers first hand experience of the process. In my time with Silvio Bessone two separate groups visited his workshop. He gave each group an overview of his chocolate making process and the choices he makes at each stage. The tour included a tasting of selected products to understand better how those choices impacted on the chocolate. Taza chocolatier Alex Whitmore leads tours to the plantations with whom they have Direct Trade relationships to teach consumers about cocoa cultivation.
There are also online videos, such as the popular short film on the process at the Mast Brothers
workshop in Brooklyn, and articles detailing the day in the life of a famous chocolatier.
These tours, books, websites and other media are a platform for the connoisseur, something
Robert Linxe recognised as crucial to the continued success of his industry. Using wine vocabulary
to discuss bean varieties, growing conditions and geographical characteristics, connoisseurs create a
powerful association between chocolate and nature. Additionally connoisseurs highlight the
passion, dedication and sincerity of the chocolatier, and thereby distinguish the chocolate artisan’s product from the anonymously produced industrial version. According to Josee Johnston and Shyon Baumann, these are the qualities associated with an “authentic” framing of a food product. Based on their thorough analysis of gourmet food writing, they list these qualities as: “creation by hand rather than by industrial processes; local settings and anticommercialism; sincere expression distant from calculation or strategy; honesty, integrity, or dedication to core principles; and closeness to nature combined with distance from institutionalized power sources.”
next time: THE VALUE OF PREMIUM CHOCOLATE
Thanks to my friend Susan Hoban who shared this Final Thesis: Master of Food Culture and Communication
The Premium Chocolate Movement: Effecting Change With The Creation Of Value 3
ALTERNATIVE TRADE LINKS FOR QUALITY COCOA GROWERS
Raymond Bonnat, Stephane’s father and the second family member to act as manager, celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Bonnat Chocolate company in 1984 with a world-first idea: single-origin bars. Stephane describes how difficult it was in those days to source quality. Bonnat paid growers premium prices for their top quality beans, he said, but they bought in such small volumes they couldn’t keep these plantations afloat. Family owned plantations of less than two hectares comprise 85% of global cocoa production and when cocoa prices tumbled in the years after market liberalisation, many small plantations were forced out of business. The premium chocolate movement is changing this, driving demand for quality cocoa to
levels that are sustainable for small plantations. The ICCO noted that while the volume of chocolate consumption is increasing at a very slow rate in mature markets such as Europe and the US, the volume of cocoa consumption is increasing rapidly: “The new trend in chocolate consumption has been characterized by the increasing appeal of premium chocolates and, in particular, of high cocoa content dark chocolate…
According to Euromonitor, in the past five years up to 2008, the growth has been mainly driven by single-origin chocolate which grew by over 20% per annum and dark chocolate (up by over 15%).”
Larry Slotnick, co-founder of Taza Chocolate, said that the only way to ensure a supply of high quality beans, and that the premiums they paid made it into the hands of the farmers, was to go to the plantation level.They practice “Direct Trade”, a term used to describe a system of purchasing developed by specialty coffee roasters in the US. It means that Taza chocolatiers visit the plantations that provide their beans, develop long-term relationships with growers, and teach them how to achieve the standard of quality that Taza require for their chocolate. They sign contracts with these growers that guarantee a minimum price per pound that is considerably higher than the average price of the commodities market. The benefit of these relationships to growers is enormous. Firstly they learn how to improve the quality of their cocoa, information lost when the
marketing boards and other government bodies were dismantled. Secondly they offer the growers
a guaranteed buyer for their crop, empowering them to invest in long-term activities that will further improve the quality of their beans.
The International Cocoa Association (ICCO), recognising the potential of this system, have initiated several projects to help reestablish a premium trade chain. These include a supply chain management initiative called “Total Quality”, that separates cocoa bean lots so that quality beans can be identified and sold directly to buyers. They have also initiated a competition called “Cocoa of Excellence”. These awards are modelled on the highly successful Cup of Excellence (COE) awards in the specialty coffee industry, in which small batches of quality coffee are blind tasted by a panel of experts, and given a rating out of 100. The coffees that score over 90 are auctioned to speciality buyers who attend the event. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company audited the award system in Nicaragua in 2006, and determined that it helped Nicaraguan coffee producers, cooperatives and exporters to earn an additional $USD1.1 million profit, and considerably strengthened Nicaragua’s specialty coffee industry. Whilst the ICCO initiatives are in their infancy, they are positive steps to the creation of an alternative system of trade, one that rewards growers financially for quality beans.
next time: THE THREAT OF CENTRALISATION
Thanks to a friend Susan Hoban who shared this Final Thesis: Master of Food Culture and Communication
The Premium Chocolate Movement: Effecting Change With The Creation Of Value 2
THE DRIVE FOR QUALITY: THE PREMIUM CHOCOLATE MOVEMENT
In February 2011 Susie Hoban spent two weeks working with Italian chocolatier, Silvio Bessone, in his workshop in Vicoforte, in the southern part of Piemonte, Italy. Bessone begins his chocolate-making process with the bean. Using an old Vittoria machine, Bessone roasts the beans, 25kg at a time, with a direct gas-powered flame. The time and temperature he uses depend on the bean. For a combination of chone and calceta beans that make up Bessone’s single-origin Ecuador blend known as Quinche, the temperature is 150° celsius and the roasting time 32 minutes. Bessone’s recipe for Quinche, which he devised himself over many years of trial and error, calls for 122kg of beans.
Once roasted, the beans are carried to the winnowing machine which removes the skins and outer shells, and cuts the cocoa flesh into small pieces, known as nibs. From 122kg of beans, Bessone will have 67kg of nibs. These are moved to a mixer which is a large cast iron machine that circulates the nibs under two heavy stone rollers. For Quinche, Bessone adds 60kg of fine sugar powder to the cocoa liquor in the mixer, and lets the ingredients mix for 24 hours. As the nibs are crushed, cocoa butter is released which coats the solid particles of cocoa and sugar. By the end of the process the previously dry ingredients form a paste known as cocoa mass, or cocoa liquor. At the end of the mixing process, the particles in the cocoa liquor may still be up to a millimetre in size. These need to be reduced to at least 20 microns in size in order to give the final chocolate a smooth mouth-feel. This is the equivalent of smashing a brick into sugar grain-sized pieces. Because the sugar content of this particular cocoa liquor is 45% (60kg of sugar to 67kg of cocoa liquor), Bessone can use the five-roll mill. The rollers are stacked vertically and each operates at a different speed, the slowest on the bottom and the fastest on the top. Bessone scoops the cocoa liquor into the bottom of the mill, and it naturally adheres to the faster moving roller, moving up the stack of rollers until, at the top, it emerges as a fine flakey substance. The five-roller mill can process the entire batch of cocoa liquor at once, however it requires a lot of friction which is why it can only be used when the cocoa liquor contains at least 45% sugar. For other cocoa liquors Bessone uses the ball mill, a much smaller machine with a drum in which thousands of tiny metal spheres are rotated to break the particles of the cocoa liquor down. Because of its size, the ball mill can only handle up to 20 kg of cocoa liquor at a time.
However it is milled, the cocoa liquor will then go to the conche. During this process the cocoa liquor is kneaded until it reaches a viscous-liquid state, in an open-top vat which allows volatile phenols to escape, taking with them some acidity that Bessone does not want in his final product. The beans used to make Quinche are delicate and quite mild in flavour, so in this instance the cocoa liquor is conched for only 24 hours. Other cocoa liquors may require up to three days in the conch in order to achieve the ideal flavour attributes. In the last hour, Bessone adds 18kg of additional cocoa butter, and a small amount of soy lecithin. The extra cocoa butter gives the chocolate a creamier mouth feel and the soy lecithin acts as an emulsifier, connecting particles within the cocoa liquor to create new surfaces that will be covered in the cocoa butter fat.
The final step in the chocolate making process is tempering. This involves increasing the temperature of the cocoa liquor to approximately 38° celsius, then reducing it quickly to around 29°. This process sets the cocoa butter crystals in the formation required to achieve a sheen on the chocolate’s surface, and a good snap when broken or chewed, both desirable attributes of quality chocolate. The tempering machines work in a circular fashion. Cocoa liquor is heated in a vat then pumped upwards and poured out of a tap above. Within the tap are cooling elements that quickly reduce the temperature of the flowing chocolate. To make a chocolate bar, a special attachment on the tap directs the chocolate flow into nine thin streams that align perfectly with the squares in a chocolate mould. Using a pedal to briefly pause the flow, Bessone places the mould directly under the streams to fill the squares, and then refrigerates the mould to allow the chocolate to set.
Silvio Bessone marks every item he makes with his own image: his chefs’ toque and signature goatee are captured in a silhouette that sits above his name on almost all his packaging. And why not? His product is as individual as its maker. Bessone is one of a growing number of chocolatiers who are creating chocolate from the bean. Known as “bean-to-bar”, these small artisanal chocolatiers are creating truly individual chocolate by controlling the entire process, making dozens of decisions from the moment they select the bean till they wrap the final bar of chocolate.
American company Taza Chocolate create a unique product by choosing to champion the bean and not the machine. Eschewing the mill and the conch, Taza simply roast their beans, then grind them with a stone mill and mix the cocoa liquor with sugar. The result is a course and grainy bar with a high level of acidity, complemented by intensely fruity notes and balanced by the overt sweetness of coarse sugar grains. This is chocolate as it was made centuries ago, before the
industrial revolution transformed it into a smooth and refined substance. “It’s a polarizing product” admits Taza chocolatier Alex Whitmore, “there are people who are totally into it and that’s all they buy.” Then there are those who “eat it and spit it out”.
Gianluca Franzoni of Italian chocolate company Domori is also a champion of the bean. Their famous Chuao and Criollo chocolate bars are made with cocoa from the Hacienda San Jose plantation in Venezuela. Here Franzoni works in partnership with the plantation to revive nearextinct strains of the Criollo variety of cocoa. Franzoni never adds extra cocoa butter to his chocolate, instead he relies on the cocoa butter that exists within the bean to carry its flavours. Domori bars have a stronger snap than most, and it takes a little longer to melt in the mouth, but once it begins, Domori chocolate releases a rich complexity of aromas with an unusually long finish.
The quality of the bean is paramount to Stephane Bonnat too, but for him, it has as much to do with the person cultivating the bean as the bean variety or its location. In the Bonnat Chocolate workshop Stephane is very careful with his use of sugar. He believes a 65% bar (constituting 65% cocoa solids and cocoa butter, and 35% sugar) can be more acidic than a 75% bar, because sugar accentuates the acidity and bitterness of the bean. It is better to add more cocoa butter, rather than
add more sugar, because cocoa butter is a vehicle for the subtle aromas of a bean. Bonnat chocolate has a low-snap and creamy mouth feel with a rhythm of aromas that move in succession across the palate.
next time: ALTERNATIVE TRADE LINKS FOR QUALITY COCOA GROWERS
Thanks to a friend Susan Hoban who shared this Final Thesis: Master of Food Culture and Communication
WHY DO WE LOVE CHOCOLATE? 