Indonesia celebrated it 63rd anniversary of Independence on Sunday 17Th August. In my community there was a lot of chocolate at our Traditional Foods Bazaar which was the main part of our celebrations. I sold 56 bars of Silver Queen Chunky(my best ever record in 6 hours) which is a 100gm long corrugated bar with lots of bite and mouth feel. Other stalls sold homemade chocolate tarts,chocolate biscuits,chocolate rice buns and various other chocolate pastries.
I paused a bit to consider,was chocolate really a traditional Indonesian food? I sell Silver Queen(among others), the brand which has dominated this market for over 50 years. There are numerous home industries that have been operating with chocolate for years.According to a manufacturer of chocolate ingredients, they have a list of over16,000 such industries in five major cities in Java. I have even had the privilege of visiting some of them recently. Traditions of chocolate at home and hearth are strong.
This country provides,what the World Cocoa Foundation says, is "an efficient, good quality 'bulk' beans and products supplier to World Markets." Their figures also say that we provide 16% of the World's Cocoa and Cocoa products market.
It is not perhaps a well known that the Petra Foods Group which has several manufacturing units in Indonesia( the Group,s heritage has strong Indonesian roots) is the third largest manufacturer of cocoa products in the world.
Exports of cocoa products by Indonesian processors is worldwide. BT Cocoa regularly supplies Cargill, Unicom International, Theobroma. Olam, Barry Callebaut among others.
Indonesian products even go to South America, if you forgive my cliche, is rather like shipping coals to Newcastle. A full circle completes! In the late 16 Century cocoa arrived from Caracas, Venezuela from Indonesia.
Indonesia cocoa development programmes include Farmer Field Schools, CPB Control, Applied Research. Pilot Activities Scaling up Successful Innovations and Improving Farm Level Incomes, Productivity and Quality.It may be possible that by 2020 Production could could double to one million metric tonnes, supplying a fifth of World market requirements.
I am a little envious of Vietnam's programme with the WCF Partnership. Here Long Lam University with WCF Funding has programmes of germplasm,breeding and setting up of demonstration plots on cocoa-agro systems.Plantations in Java have implemented cocoa-agro systems growing vanilla and other crops alongside cocoa. But it can be more wide spread and growing with research and technology guidance.
It must also be noted that Indonesian cocoa meets all the ethical and moral requirements of world trading.
Showing posts with label silver queen chunky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silver queen chunky. Show all posts
Monday, 18 August 2008
Thursday, 31 July 2008
2007-2008 ACADEMIC YEAR FOR CHOCOLATE,
This ha been a great academic year for chocolate in Universities in Europe and America, Here are some of the honours that chocolate has added to its credits.
American Chemical Society: Found a link of "love for chocolate" to a specific chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system. It is detectable by laboratory tests,
It was found, as suspected that "lovers of chocolate" had a metobolic profile that involved low levels of LDL-cholestral(bad cholestrol). They also had slightly elevated levels of albumin(a benefical protein).
The amazing thing is that "lovers of chocolate" expressed this profile even when they ate no chocolate.
The gut microbes in "lovers of chocolate were also different from "non-lovers of chocolate."
For more information on the above study read the Nov.2 issue of the Journal of Proteome Research--if you dare!
German University Hospital, Cologne: dark chocolate can lower blood pressure.
University of California, Davis: chocolate can improve blood vessel function.
University of Nottingham: Chocolate improved cognitive skills by increasing blood flow to certain areas of the brain. As I said earlier eat some before taking an exam.
University of Chicago: Study claimed that those who had a chunk of chocolate generally were better disposed to others than those who had none. Wish we had flown some chunks of Silver Queen Chunky to the delegates of the recent WTO conference.
And Nestle announced the establishment of the Chocolate Centre of Excellence, dedicated to the development of luxury chocolate, at Broc. It will be operational in 2009. Persumably Nestle was encouraged by the "premiunisation" of Cailler, Baci, Nestle Noir and Perugina. Our great chocolatier Pierre Marcolini has been seconded to provide the inspiration.
I am beginning to fear that like like most common needs and joys of life, including air and water, chocolate too may eventually be priced far beyond our budgets. Hopefully Beng Beng may still be around at 10c a bar.
American Chemical Society: Found a link of "love for chocolate" to a specific chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system. It is detectable by laboratory tests,
It was found, as suspected that "lovers of chocolate" had a metobolic profile that involved low levels of LDL-cholestral(bad cholestrol). They also had slightly elevated levels of albumin(a benefical protein).
The amazing thing is that "lovers of chocolate" expressed this profile even when they ate no chocolate.
The gut microbes in "lovers of chocolate were also different from "non-lovers of chocolate."
For more information on the above study read the Nov.2 issue of the Journal of Proteome Research--if you dare!
German University Hospital, Cologne: dark chocolate can lower blood pressure.
University of California, Davis: chocolate can improve blood vessel function.
University of Nottingham: Chocolate improved cognitive skills by increasing blood flow to certain areas of the brain. As I said earlier eat some before taking an exam.
University of Chicago: Study claimed that those who had a chunk of chocolate generally were better disposed to others than those who had none. Wish we had flown some chunks of Silver Queen Chunky to the delegates of the recent WTO conference.
And Nestle announced the establishment of the Chocolate Centre of Excellence, dedicated to the development of luxury chocolate, at Broc. It will be operational in 2009. Persumably Nestle was encouraged by the "premiunisation" of Cailler, Baci, Nestle Noir and Perugina. Our great chocolatier Pierre Marcolini has been seconded to provide the inspiration.
I am beginning to fear that like like most common needs and joys of life, including air and water, chocolate too may eventually be priced far beyond our budgets. Hopefully Beng Beng may still be around at 10c a bar.
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