Comments on Chocolate in Context: Green & Black's Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake

This is my very favorite dessert - and I do make i...

2009-11-21T19:54:56.849-05:00

This is my very favorite dessert - and I do make it with Green & Black chocolate. Actually, I once used another brand and was disappointed. To make it even more special, I serve it with a raspberry sauce and a dollop of whipped cream!

what craig said makes perfect sense to me.... and ...

2009-10-31T00:35:26.244-05:00

what craig said makes perfect sense to me.... and i bet you organic chocolate is more nutritious too! tastier and healthier! love that the trees produce their own defences to ward off pests and disease! nature at work... adore G&B and going to try the cake next week... wont have the gold dust tho!

I’m surprised that tbe ‘word on the street’ among ...

2006-08-29T15:39:00.000-05:00

I’m surprised that tbe ‘word on the street’ among chocolatiers and pastry chefs is that no organic chocolate tastes as good because the trees are not old enough. This is questionable on a number of counts:
1. Cacao trees live longer under organic cultivation because they aren’t subjected to the pressures from intensive cultivation, lack of shade and chemical fertilisation, all of which shorten lifespan and increase disease susceptibility
2. Organic chocolate is grown by smallholders, never on plantations. On plantations there is pressure to harvest the pods too soon, to rush the fermentation and to use heat-assisted drying to shorten the drying time. Time is money for a plantation, for a smallholder time is flexible, if they aren’t doing something with cacao, they can plant beans, weed corn or some other farm jobs. Getting the moment of harvest just right, doing the fermentation slowly in small batches and sun-drying the beans once they’ve fermented all encourage the enzyme activity that develops good flavor precursors in cacao and drive out astringency. Then roasting just tweaks those flavors instead of having to drive out bad flavors.
3. The varieties of trees (Amelonado, forastero, trinitario and criollo to name a few general categories) hugely affects flavor and blends can capture the complexity of different varietals.
4. A lot of flavor comes from anthyocyanins and polyphenols that the plant produces as a defence against disease and insects. Organic cacao has to produce more of these as it isn’t protected by pesticides and fungicides. Strong, healthy, disease-resistant trees produce less cacao, but the quality is consistently good.

Our experience at Green & Black’s is that all these factors are more important than the age of the trees (though some of our growers have trees that are 100 years old and most were planted in the 1970 and 1980s and went through the 3 year conversion period to organic. It’s a fallacy to assume that all organic cacao comes from trees that were newly planted, (though new plantings are definitely on the increase).

Craig Sams (founder of Green & Black’s, with Josephine Fairley, in 1991)

Mmmm, yum, have that book & havent tried that reci...

2006-08-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

Mmmm, yum, have that book & havent tried that recipe yet, was it legendary as expected?

Hmm, that's interesting about pastry chefs you've ...

2006-08-15T09:06:00.000-05:00

Hmm, that's interesting about pastry chefs you've mentioned not liking organic chocolate. I've tasted, and used, several of the organic brands and like them very much, including Dagoba, Callebaut organic, and Green & Blacks. I would suspect some professionals don't use them since they may not be available in large blocks (which are more economical and easy-to-use) and they don't have the marketing (or perceived cachet) of some of the bigger brands (who heavily promote their chocolate.)

The Dagoba dark chocolates, especially, have really been impressing me lately. They have a new Ocumare coming out that I'm looking forward to tasting.

Wow! I have been looking for some recipes to use w...

2006-08-14T19:01:00.000-05:00

Wow! I have been looking for some recipes to use with our gold dust. Great job Thank you!