TIME TO TAKE A RIGHT ABOUT TURN WITH CHOCOLATE?

(from which chocolate is derived from)Since 3000 years, chocolate has come an incredible long way. Imagine an Olmec, holding a cocoa pod, scratching his head and saying to his wife, "Can we eat this?" As it turns out his wife, like most wives, was right when she answered, "Honey what you have there, in 3000 years, is destined to be better than sex." It was likely that the wife was subsequently sacrificed to a ferocious Deity. The grieving husband got drunk from the alcohol made from the white mucus that covered the beans inside the pod and was buried with the remains of the drink.

The Aztecs learned to crack the bean, extract the nibs, crush them to paste and make a bitter drink which they believed kept them in excellent vigor.In time the learned to mix it with maize gruel and honey. Montezuma, the great Emperor of the Aztecs, drank it dyed red.And beaten to a froth. In fact, whatever the experts may say, the word "choicolat" means "beaten drink."

Later they experimented with extracts of vanilla, chili and annatto.

The Dominican Friars introduced it to Spain.The ancestors of El Bulli and Chocovic then took over and Chocolate began the first step towards an incredibly wonderful future.

But the chocolate of today bears little resemblance to its origins. It is being sissified so that we, who don't quite measure up in spunk to the Aztecs, Mayans an Olmecs can find it palatable. And pleasureable. Are we missing out in the real pleasure of chocolate?

French pastries are concoctions with chocolate. They do not offer the unique pleasure that chocolate is meant to offer. They use chocolate for sensational gimmickry.The mass manufactured chocolates,rich with alpine milks and cane sugar, laden with nuts, are say what you may are not the stuff that braced up the Aztecs. In some of the mass produced chocolate, you can still taste a trace of palm oil. These manufacturers, would have promptly beheaded by Montezuma. Justly so.

The chocolate revolution led by the Artisans, Amano, De Vries, Tim Childs, Bonnat, Cocoa Farm of Australia(though this one is a bit too civilised) to name a few, that restored some of the mystic and adventure of chocolate. They have brought back the passion and romance and their chocolate can justly be gifts of love on Valentine's Day. Then there are others who have come up with a "new idea" chocolate revolution.

The chocolate experience I took immense pleasure from was a moist,rich velvety, utterly sinful "cake" from "awfully chocolate".It's really not a cake, but a gloriously round of superb chocolate.There a bit of fudginess in it somewhere. This one you dream about.It is not a return to the origins but it has reinvented the chocolate experience.

The company "awfully chocolate" is, I am told was founded by Singapore lawyers. Which explains the exactitude of the definition of chocolate, in 2008, or what it legally should be. The "awfully chocolate" shop in Jakarta, is almost sterile.It's bare. There is no display nor evidence of chocolate at all. You walk up to the counter and ask for the chocolate. There is one ONE kind. Customers keep coming back!I must say, lawyers are far smarter than we usually credit them for.

It is the right time to go back a 1000 years or so and look at recipes that seemed to have worked well with chocolate,and ingredients like honey, vanilla, cinnamon. annatto and chili. And giving it a good beating in-between.Bring back the boldness and the savage romance!

JEMBRANA CHOCOLATE?

Art Pollard of AMANO Chocolate announced the launch of Jembrana Chocolate recently. Naturally it got us very excited. Jembrana is in Bali, Indonesia. The district is at the very tip of Bali and at the narrowest point only 60 meters from the tip of Java island.

AMANO announced that their 70% chocolate was made from cocoa beans from Jembrana, It has a fine rich flavour, with fruit notes and with nutty overtones.It has left us puzzled. Jembrana is indeed very fertile. Soil is volcanic. Cloves are grown but the main crop is coconut, Plantations of coconut blend into the jungles and rises over 1000 meters into the highlands.

In the lowlands are rice fields.Rice harvests are celebrated enthusiastically with buffalo races.


Overland travellers from Java Cities take a ferry from the southern tip of Jave and travel through this district to Denpasar, capital of Bali. The problem is we could find no cocoa plantations.Balinese in the area were doubtful of cocoa plantations in that area. If they did exist, they would have merely produced unfermented beans.

In all likelihood the beans secured by AMANO probably came from across the straits from the Java, where indeed there are large cocoa plantations which process high quality beans. These beans are Java and as chocolatiers know, regarded very highly, in the chocolate world.

There is geographical evidence that these areas were connected. The soils tend to be similar. Crops of cloves, rice, rubber and quality coffee besides cocoa is grown on the Java side.Java cocoa besides being fruity has a leathery hints Bonnat of France has produced bars made of Java.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO YOU NEED TO BE A CHOCOLATIER?

Suddenly the banker down the street I live has started to produce some rather pleasant and creative pralines in her kitchen.She has had no experience in chocolate making.She just loved chocolate. It makes me wonder what kind of experience do you really need to become a cholatier, specifically an artisan chocolatier? Can Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin become chocolatiers?

Over in San Francisco,a guy who built vision-tracking systems for NASA space shuttles is now a very respected artisan chocolatier. And don't forget Art Pollard, who studied physics and was a software developer, founded Amano Chocolate up there in the Utah mountains.

The NASA guy is Tim Childs.The quality you need most to be a good chocolatier, he says,"Be obsessed. Be very obsessed."There is hope for me! Tim says he was "seduced by the bean" This quote I love:"On a molecular level, making chocolate is enrapturing".

Tim ignores the usually way of classifying chocolate by the cocoa content or even origin. Imagine, he says, settling down with a good book and a bar of chocolate that says 60% cocoa. What does the number mean? However if you sit down with a good book and a chocolate that says "Nutty" you will immediately anticipate a nutty taste. You have chosen it because you were curious to taste how chocolate on its own can be nutty.

It is obvious, Tim adds, that without context and meaning, complete enjoyment of chocolate is impossible.

Tim sources some of his beans from a Peruvian Cooperative farm discovered accidentally. They were already well experienced in flaor nuances growing coffee. Having decided to grow cocoa alongside, their treated their new crops and beans with love, care and of course obsession. The cocoa not only tastes great but is distinct in genetics and terroir. After much testing and tasting down at the lab Tim coaxed the "Nutty" flavor, stealthily out.

It is my hope that Tim and the new crop of high-tech chocolatiers will travel down this way through the Indonesian archipelago to discover some unique cocoas. I believe that some of our littler plantations are truly destined for artisans.

Tim says that that classifying chocolate bars by cocoa content simply does not equate. Instead he labels his bars as,"Nutty", "Fruity", "Earthy".
, "Floral","Citrus" and "Chocolatey".People buy food and wine by flavor, don't they?
I presume, that is also why the banker down my street, sold out all her pralines.

The bars come in plain brown packs labelled "beta".Curiously it seems to added some intrigue and even appetite appeal. Besides being inviting. Tim, I am happy to say sells his chocolates the way I(and my friend the banker down the road) do, through special, interesting and fun social channels.

This morning's news on the global economy was very bleak. However I take some consolation from Joan Steier, President of Chocolate Marketing LLC, who said," Chocolate is an affordable indulgence. No matter how difficult economic times get, we will always treat ourselves." Eapecially as it never seems to stop being surprising.