Tag: dagoba chocolate nibs

CHOCOLATE NIBS

by admin on Mar.11, 2009, under Uncategorized Chocolate

raw chocolate nibs

The Process of Making Chocolate

By Chris Alleny

порно с анастасией Making chocolate involves a long process, from the cacao tree to the hands of the farmers to the factory to the hands of the master chocolate maker.

From Nature to the Factory

Chocolate comes from processed cacao beans, harvested from the cacao tree. Cacao trees only grow in tropical climates, 10 to 20 degrees north and south of the equator. The first cacao trees grew in the Amazon basins, north of Brazil. Today it is grown and cultivated in many tropical countries such as Ghana, Brazil, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast, which are also four of the largest cacao growers in the world. Cacao trees strive in warm and humid weather with little or no wind. They like loose rich soil and shaded sunlight, usually growing under the shade of taller trees such as coconut, banana, and rubber trees. Cacao trees are harvested only twice a year. The pods, where the seeds or the beans can be harvested, take five to six months to develop. The pods turn to orange or red from a green or yellow color once they are ripe and ready for picking. To harvest the pods, farmers use a machete to cut them off the tree. This is why cacao trees are trimmed to only about twenty feet, because they can shoot up as high as sixty feet. After picking, the cacao beans or seeds are left to ferment for several days, depending on the types of cacao variety. After fermentation, the seeds are wrinkled and darker in color and lose their overly bitter taste. They are the dried under the sun for another several days and then packed in sacks and shipped into factories. In the factory, the beans are cleaned and sorted and roasted at 450 to 350 degrees for thirty minutes up to two hours. Inside large revolving drums.

Making Chocolate Liquor

After roasting, the cacao beans’ outer shell are removed, the process of which is called winnowing. The separated shells are sold as animal feeds and the inner nib is crushed and heated until it melts into cocoa butter and then ground into a thick paste called chocolate liquor. Liquor in this case does not mean it contains any alcohol but simply is in liquid form. This chocolate liquor forms the base of different types of chocolates, including dark, white, and milk chocolate. The concentration of the chocolate liquor will determine the richness of the chocolate’s taste.

Different Processes for Different Types of Chocolate

There are also different processes for making different kinds of chocolate. Dutch-processed cocoa requires an alkali treatment. Without an alkali treatment, the liquor becomes cocoa powder and can be used for baking. To make cocoa powder, 10 to 25 percent of the cocoa butter is extracted from the cocoa liquor using a large press machine. This produces a cakey form, which is then ground and sifted using silk, nylon, or wire mesh. Dark chocolate is made by combining chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, vanilla and sugar. Milk chocolate is also a combination of those ingredients but has less cocoa liquor and milk is added in the mixture. Diabetic chocolate can be processed like milk or dark chocolate but contains no sugar, and instead make use of sugar alternatives.

You may want to check out my other guide on gourmet chocolate gift basket and candy baskets

DAGOBA CHOCOLATE

by admin on Mar.06, 2009, under Chocolate Brands

dagoba organic chocolate

Chocolate - Friend or Foe?

By Rick Rakauskas

Well here is something different from Fitness by Phone!

Like most of you I love chocolate, but did you know good chocolate is heart healthy plus has a host of other benefits? It was noticed in the 1600’s that it reduced angina and heart pain…I am not talking about the run of the mill chocolate from Coles or Woolies here. Milk chocolate particularly is full of sugar, and often that is high fructose corn syrup, a known cause of health problems. And often too it is “Dutch’ processed. To make the chocolate dark and get rid of the acid/bitter taste an alakali is added.In fact lots of “dark” choclates are just dutched and have added sugar to boot…Result? A sticky mess that clogs your arteries because it is so high in fat and sugar!!! However, there is “real” chocolate available that can deliver real health benefits…In fact, the list of our cocoa beans health lifting powers just keeps growing. Research indicates that its active ingredients can help the following conditions ‘
- High blood pressure - Stroke - Clogged arteries - Heart disease - Infectious diseses - Dementia - Prostate and lung cancer - Blood clots - Liver problems - Inflammation - Allergies - Asthma

There is another benefit researchers have discovered.
As you may know one of the big problems with type II diabetes is the way it cuts down blood circulation to extremities. When I was in the heart ward of the Gold Coast Hospital for nine days back in early 2006, I was amazed at how bad the legs and feet of some of those blokes were. (Most were diabetes sufferers and they were in there with heart problems as a result). A couple of them were looking at amputations according to the doctors, on top of all their other problems. Yuk. My ears pricked up when I heard of a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology discovered that cocoa significantly enhances blood flow in folks with type II diabetes (Balzer et al. “Sustained Benefits in Vascular Function Through Flavanol-Containing Cocoa in Medicated Diabetic Patients: A Double-Masked, Randomized, Controlled Trial.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2008. 51:2141-2149)

In that study, researchers divided diabetes sufferers into 2 groups - one group had 1000 mg of cocoa a day (in three doses a day) and the other 25 mg. At the end of one month, the higher cocoa groups circulation had normalised (from “severly impaired”) while the low cocoa group had no changes. I discovered the way it works is this - the cocoa improves the nitric oxide output. The effect is to cause blood vessels to relax and open up to improve circulation. This effectively drops blood pressure and helps deliver oxygen and nutrients more afficiently…Pure chocolate delivers these benefits. When I say pure I mean cacao bean only - no fluff or fillers like added sugar or fat… If you can get it, the pure bean is best. The way it is usually supplied is as “nibs”. What’s a nib? If you open a cacao pod, you find a sort of bean or “nib”. If you want to use chocolate as a health supplement (and who wouldn’t?) then you have to eat the beans only.

To my knowledge there is only one way to get pure organic cacao bean “nibs”. Dagoba Chocolate nibs (which can be obtained cheaply in Austrlaia here) are just lightly roasted organic cacao beans and coarsely ground. You sprinkle them onto cereals etc, on salads (you’ve had pine nuts on salad right?) or snack on from the pack. They are a little bitter, but still nice enough for my taste.

It isn’t hard to eat a gram a day, which is all you need to get the benefits…Speaking of which, here are some other reasons to eat cacao bean nibs.There is a class of chemicals called “flavonoids”. They are actually a poisonous anti-microbial substance, used by the producing plant to fight disease in itself. They are not an antioxidant as first thought. Latest research indicates they are recognised by your body as a toxin, and it tries to eliminate them. (Lotito SB, Frei B. “Consumption of flavonoid-rich foods and increased plasma antioxidant capacity in humans: cause, consequence, or epiphenomenon?” 2006. Free Radical Biology and Medicine. 41(12):1727′46.) Flavonoids are found in fruits and vegetables, coffee, tea, beer and red wine. But cacao has them in the highest concentrations. (Lee et al. “Cocoa Has More Phenolic Phytochemicals and a Higher Antioxidant Capacity than Teas and Red Wine.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2003. 51:7292-7295.)

How does a poison help you stay well then? Flavonoids activate special enzymes and uric acid production. Together these compounds change your body’s response to allergens, tends to disable some cancer cells and cancer causing agents, and flush other dangerous substances out of your system (at the same time it is trying to get rid of the flavonoids). Mind you, if your liver is over stressed (being the main way your body gets rid of toxins) then the benefits will not be as pronounced. I have other articles which cover this problem. So there you have it… another heart healthy treat from nature that reverses or prevents a number of life threatening conditions.

You may want to check out my other guide on chocolate coin and chocolates lindt