At Nitin Chordia’s Cocoashala, it’s all about using pure
ingredients to make chocolate, minus the added emulsifiers and stablisers. What
it also offers you is an opportunity to use home-grown cocoa beans Think
Pollachi, Coorg and Kerala.
“People don’t realise that
chocolate is a plant based product; that cocoa is a fruit. It grows well in
tropical belts and always needs a shade tree to grow. Here, it is primarily
grown in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” says chordia. While the two peak
seasons are February and October, farms harvest cocoa through the year.
Expectedly, some of the best quality beans are found during the peak seasons.
There are three basics of
cocoa – Criollo, the most expensive and premium; Forastero, which is found in
India; and Trinitario, a blend of the two. The colour of the cocoa pods too
changes with the varieties; in India, it is common to find green and yellow; in
South America, it is the more robust purple ones that hang lusciously from the
plant. The flavor profiles too change depending on the terrain while some boast
berry notes; there are others that have a citrusy zing or floral notes. These,
without any added infusions. Indian chocolate has a more earthy flavour
profile.
What also impacts the
flavor profile of cocoa is the duration for which it has been fermented,
aerated, turned and dried,. For instance, a batch of beans that has arrieved
experimentally at chordia’s lab was still moist for lack of proper drying.
Despite vigorous roasting, the cacao nibs from this particular batch lacked the
robust flavor of well-fermented and dried cocoa. The dank smell was dead
giveaway. In some cases, this impacts the finished product, with the chocolate
tasting and smelling odd.
While traditionally, cocoa
beans are roasted in a coffee bean roaster, here we set about doing so in an
open pan, since we were working with a small batch. The roasting is essential
to remove moisture from the bean, though there are variants of chocolate that
skips this process altogether. The roasting also makes it easier to shell the
beans before they are put into the winnower to separate the nibs and shells.
The beans are usually roasted at around 120 degrees C for about 20-25 minutes,
but it depends on the chocolatier’s judgement. What is important, though, is
that the beans are constantly turned to avoid burning.
What follows is the
beautiful process of grinding. Beautiful, because it is this process that gives
chocolate its lovely gloss and smoothness. It is here that the nibs transform
into gooey paste. It is also at this stage that a hint of sugar (more, if one
wants it sweeter) and pure vanilla are introduced, to bring out the robust
chocolate flavours. Typically, cocoa is ground for around three days; this
includes conching ( a low pulsing process used to give the ground chocolate its
characteristics smell and texture). The amount of time for which the chocolate
is conched is also what lends it smoothness and a better mouth feel.
It is after this process
that the chocolate is poured into a mould and readied, either to be shipped to
a chocolatier or to an industry where the chocolate is put between hydraulics
presses to extract cocoa butter, which is used in cosmetic industry. The
residual product after the extraction is used to make drinking chocolate and
compound chocolate (what is available in grocery stores). Fine chocolate retain
the cocoa butter, as this is what it lends chocolate its character.
Chocolate with cocoa
butter is also a lot more delicate and needs to be handled with care. To
develop it further, the chocolate is melted to about 50 degrees C before It is
tempered (expertly swished around on a stone slab to bind all the fatty
crystals in the chocolate) to a temperature of 29-27 degrees.
In this case, it is
Chordia’s wife Poonam, who does the tempering. I watch fascinated as she deftly
handles the mass of gooey chocolate with her spatula. This is again heated to
32 degrees. “This process is important,” says Chordia, “since it gives
chocolate its snap and sheen and brings out the flavors better. For chocolate
with cocoa butter, this is a very important process.” And just like that, the
chocolate is ready to either be poured into moulds to form a bar, or create
truffles and ganache treats.
THE BEAN-TO-BAR COURSE Cocoasala is to launch a course on making bean to bar chocolate starting
March 2017.
The three- level course
will range from five- hour course introducing the participants to the bean to
bar making process, an eight hour certification course with a partially hands on approach, and a two
day advanced level certification course that goes through the whole gamut.
` The fee for the course is
Rs. 7500; Rs 25,000 and Rs. 35,000, respectively.
Details
and registration on www.cocoatrait.com.
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