AFFORDABLE LUXURY CHOCOLATE.

I was just beginning to get seriously worried that chocolate will indeed be beyond the wallets of ordinary Joes, when I recalled Steven De Vries. Chocoholics will know De Vries as the man who took chocolate a hundred years back at his factory and shop in Denver Colorado, USA. A long way from Java Island but his existence is reassuring.

De Vires began by working closely with small plantations in Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela. Being a small artisan manufacturer he goes directly to small growers with very good beans. But in such small quantities that they don't interest the big manufacturers who have to buy big. De Vries goes to growers that grow on ten acres or less and produce one to two tons of dried beans per year.

He hit upon the artisan technique when he was in Costa Rica seven years ago. He brought back 30 kilos of dried beans in his bags. He roasted some in his oven. Peeled them by hand and ground them in an old grain grinder. The chocolate that emerged was gritty but full of "complex" flavours that he had never tasted before. He decided that he was not going to miss out in the "complexity and intensity" of these chocolate flavours in the production of his chocolates.

De Vires inspired by his "discovery" took classes in chocolate making in California, scoured libraries throughout the country and all the way to Amsterdam and Spain. He visited dozens of chocolate factories. He says that he discovered that the people who made the best chocolates used the oldest equipment. With slower operating speeds and lower temperatures the old machines, he says, nurture flavour development.

De Vries monitors the first crucial points of processing. He does not want the beans ever to be rushed. Fermentation and sun drying stretches over two weeks. Later low temperatures and slow roasting preserve the aromas that can be burned up by high temperatures. De Vries then winnows cracked shells by hand to avoid husk being blended with the chocolate.

De Vries's recipe is simple:77 percent cocoa. The rest is sugar."Dark and intense," says a reviewer,"it pushes the upper limits of portability." Lately he has begun to age his blocks of chocolate for two months before releasing them for sale.

In tasting sessions at Berkeley California, De Vries chocolate took top spots over the big, big names.

At the moment he has been sourcing from Mexico, Venezuela and Costa Rica. But he says, he is certain that many more flavours are currently available. I have made it a point to email him about cocoa beans in our region.

He has not blended beans yet. He says he has his hands full with single origin cocoas at the moment.

Finally, what does De Vries chocolates cost? He told an interviewer once that"Chocolate is the only product where the difference between a run-of-the-mill chocolate bar and the best chocolate is only about five bucks."

And since he says his aim is to make the best chocolate in the world, it is certainly reassuring for us ordinary Joes. It is wonderful if great chocolate can remain egalitarian.

WHAT REALLY IS JAVA?

I had a few emails asking for more information on Java. And why is it so important, in my opinion,to chocolate? Well here is a lesson on Java.

It"s one of the 17,000 island of Indonesia. The most populated. About 124 million people live on this island which is approximately the size of the United Kingdom. It is 1300 km long and 300km broad at the widest point. It has a very impressive mountain range as a backbone with volcanoes; some live, some simmering and some dormant. This much perhaps, and the tourist attractions,you can get from the Internet if you search for Java, Indonesia.

But what the Internet does not tell you is that almost 60% of the Javanese are engaged in some way or other, big, medium and small, in the industry of preparing food to sell. Everyone in Java knows, some one involved in the food industry. My wife sells chocolates(of course) and recently health foods.Her uncle is in fried rice. Her aunt makes tempe. A C Neilsen, will give you nice categories of occupations which they say occupy the Javanese. But they don't mention the numbers engaged in the food industry.

Along any street in Java you see carts, makeshift tents, little hole in the wall establishments offering straight from the pan absolutely superb assortment of foods with intriguing combinations of tastes, flavours and textures and immensely satisfying for prices no more that $2.

Javanese work very hard at it. The street out of the housing complex, I live in,springs to life at 4am with offers of porridge, soups, noodles and rice dishes, the flavours and tastes of which,I guarantee, Ferran Adria or Heston Blumenthol, could not possibly imagine.

These establishments are depleted of their stock by 9am. At 11am a new crop,of similar establishments spring up to serve lunch. A bigger bunch of restaurants now winding into side lanes and car park spring up for dinner. Some switch menus at 11pm to serve some innovative suppers till 2am. You see this happenning all over Java.

These are separate from the posh air conditioned and chic sidewalk cafes, restaurant which often reach to the heavens of fine dining. There are in Jakarta, the capital city, over 3000 such institutions. This does not include McDonalds, Dunking Donuts, KFCs, Burger King, Wendy, etc etc.

Java is also home to the world largest instant noodle industry. Coming soon, the instant rice-porridge industry. All with a fascinating array of flavours and mixes.

Then there are the small snack industries; Home enterprises that compete with the numbers bakeries. I believe that Bandung, a hilltop city, about two hours drive from Jakarta, is the world's cap[ital of snacks. I all my travel I have never seen such a variety of snacking foods, baked, fried or steamed.

It is possible for each Javanese entrepreneur to stay in business, support their families(some send their sons and daughters to US and Australian universities to specialise or learn new trades) and be competitive because the backyard is simply alive and bristling with appropriate resources.

Java for centuries was the hub of the Spice Islands.Here exists every spice known to man, cloves, herbs,flavours, aromas, sugars, medicinal plants and other culinary treasures. There are notorious recipes from almost each of the 17,000 islands. There are also resources from the seas that surround these islands and 360million chickens strutting around.

Here came, among others, Ptolemy and Marco Polo. Indian, Arabs, Chinese, Malays, the Portuguese, Dutch and the English came. Nearly all of them stay long enough to blend their cuisines with the Javanese. The result is that there is lot to be inventive on.

Many of the recipes have been copied and taken inside the posh restaurants where they have been prepared with the "finest ingredients money can buy". But is not the same as sitting on precarious bum-hurting stools, under a canvas roof,with the perspiring cooking stirring up your breakfast or dinner, in a noisy sizzling wok hidden under a aromatic haze of smoke. So many of those copy cats have dropped out of the race and tried Italian or Turkish.

Coming back to chocolate, what makes Java so special is the unique soil of Java, the mighty amount of culinary resources and the inspiring inventiveness that hangs around like a holy aura. This is an ideal chocolate laboratory.

Java chocolate has made a small impact on the world scene. I particularly like a review on the l'artisan de Chocolate's Java. 72% cocoa. "An Indonesian on the wild side. Unlike anything in the chocolate world. Components of leather and bizarre peaty flavours.Suggestion of smoke and tobacco." Spicy and Satin smooth.

What possibilities and opportunities to start from.