I am working with a client on sourcing cocoa powder for a drinking beverage. The company's current product is a dark, rich cocoa powder with a high fat content, and it's blended with sugar. The preparation is meant to be steamed with milk, just like steaming milk for an expresso, to make a thick, frothy drinking chocolate. To increase the solubility of cocoa powder in a liquid, alkalinization is the standard process used. Until I began to investigate, I had no idea there were so many ways to produce cocoa powder and get different results. It seems, since there are more avenues for manipulation...


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Join us on our first podcast. Hear about our upcoming chocolate tours from Ecuador Chocolate Tours and Ecole Chocolat and Nacional cacao beans.


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One of our favorite tools around here is the immersion blender. We're not big enough to warrant buying a Stephan, we use a Robo Coupe sometimes, but a hand blender is the easiest, most convenient tool for making ganache in our chocolate maker's arsenal. Sure, stirring ganache by hand is satisfying in its own way, seeing the emulsion of cream and chocolate come together so unctuously in the middle of your bowl as you stir in small circles, gradually increasing their size as the emulsion forms and you incorporate more chocolate. But for pure speed and effectiveness, when you need it done...


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I get lots of requests for raw cocoa beans or products, see lots of raw claims, and continue to wonder what the *&@* raw is...you probably do too. I've read that foods remain raw if the food has not been heated over 118°F, or 114°F. Supposedly this protects any naturally occurring enzymes as well as the nutritional value of the food. When it comes to chocolate, lower processing temperatures help preserve flavanoids and anti-oxidants. But to make even some of the most rudimentary chocolate products such as cocoa powder or butter, or even nibs, temperatures can and often do easily exceed...


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