CACAO LORENZO C H O C O L A T I E R 1818 Pot Spring Road, Timonium, Maryland 21093 (Corner of Pot Spring & Ridgely Roads) Phone (410) 453-9334 Fax (410) 453-9380
Questions & Answers
What is "Fine Chocolate?" Sometimes referred to as "Gourmet Chocolate," there is neither an industry standard nor legality to define the terms "Fine Chocolate" or "Gourmet Chocolate." Unfortunately, lesser quality products on the market are sometimes described as fine chocolate. Sometimes the term has relevance, sometimes not. Caveat Emptor!
What is "Junk Chocolate?" Junk chocolate is an industry term. Cocoa butter, the most expensive and important component in fine chocolate is much more valuable and profitable to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. As such, manufacturers sometimes remove all or part of the cocoa butter and replace it with less expensive and inferior hard vegetable fats (palm oil, coconut oil, etc.). When the original Europeans brought their bon bons and pralines to America in the 1850's, each subsequent generation changed one ingredient. The next generation change one more ingredient, etc., etc. Each compromise and attempt to economize and create short cuts created a vastly inferior product that, at present, has flooded the market.
What does the term "Chocolatier" mean? Unfortunately, like the term "Fine Chocolate," there is neither an industry standard nor legality as to who can call themselves a chocolatier. Anyone can hang a shingle outside their door that proclaims "Chocolatier." Some are professionally trained and educated, but many are not. Many are simply candy makers or candy retailers and may even purchase some or all of their product from another source and resell it.
Cacao Lorenzo Chocolate
What does "all-natural" mean? Your guess is as good as mine! The term leaves tremendous latitude for interpretation. Strychnine, a poisonous white alkaloid, is "all-natural." Corn syrup, palm oil, coconut oil, and a litany of other inferior ingredients that can be mixed with chocolate are also "all-natural." It is also worth noting that organic chocolate may not be the highest quality because chocolate plants are susceptible to numerous pests.
Does a higher price mean I am purchasing a quality product? Absolutely not! Fine European chocolate, imported nut pastes, liquors, lavender flowers, spices, and other upper level ingredients can be very expensive. Some professionals sell their products at a fair price, but there is a certain element, masquerading in the business and marking up lesser quality chocolate and inferior ingredients to far more than they are worth.
What do terms like "buttery," "creamy," and "whipped" mean? Creative writing! "Buttery" does not imply that a product has butter in it; "creamy" does not imply that a product has cream in it. "Whipped" fillings are usually ready-made by large manufacturers and sold to local shops in plastic tubs. They are rock hard when purchased and have to be heated to soften and then "whipped" with an electric mixer to beat air into them to increase the volume. They are usually loaded with transfatty oils, artificial ingredients, dyes, excess sugars and preservatives.
What is a “truffle?” A chocolate truffle is simply a spherical shaped bon-bon.The term simply describes the shape of the small filled chocolate candy and nothing else.The chocolatier can fill the truffle with a ganache or most anything else desired.The chocolate truffle was first created by M. Dufour in Chambrey, France in December 1895.They became increasingly more popular with the establishment of the Prestat Chocolate Shop in London by Antoine Dufour in 1902.
How soon should I consume fine chocolate after purchase? Fresh, filled fine chocolate has a shelf life of about three weeks. However, it is best to consume within one week of purchase.
Why don't some chocolate shops print the ingredients on the packaging? Actually, the FDA doesn't require the ingredients to be printed on the packaging if it is hand packed in front of the customer. However, you still have absolutely no way of knowing when the product was made even when it is hand packed in front of you. Additionally, if the company does not actually manufacture the product themselves, then the company name must be preceded by "distributed by" or "manufactured for." You can only rely on the shop owner's integrity and business ethics. By the same token, the FDA also does not prevent shop owners from printing the ingredients on the packaging. In other words, they could print the ingredients if they wanted to. The explanations as to why the ingredients aren't printed on the packaging are usually very creative and entertaining.
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If the cacao beans come from a particular country, does that mean it's good? No more so than any other food product. Wine isn't guaranteed to be exceptional simply because the grapes are from Italy, France, California, etc. Many variables apply to cacao beans: weather fluctuations, the ethics of the growers and manufacturers, their care of the crop, it's handling, shipping, processing, truth in labeling, etc., etc., etc. As such, the quality of each country's product can vary from year to year. When all is said and done, the best of food products are about as good as the hands they're in. Some have the ability to work sweet magic - some don't.
What is single-origin chocolate? This is sometimes referred to as single-bean or single-source chocolate – made from cacao beans from a single region of the world, or even a single plantation.Once again, there is neither an industry standard, nor legality as to what the terms mean, which allows for tremendous latitude and creativity with the interpretation. Most professionally trained and educated chocolatiers feel the recent trend toward single-origin chocolate is merely crafty marketing hype but doesn’t necessarily represent better quality chocolate. Marketers realize the potential of hyped-up buzz-words and have capitalized on it.As has been said before: “A little bit of education is a dangerous thing.”Take the time to fully educate yourself! Several varieties of cacao plants produce the beans (seeds) that are turned into chocolate and each is affected by differing climates and weather conditions where the plants are grown. Blended cacao beans actually produce the most complex flavors, much the same as blended whiskey, scotch, and wine. Blending varieties of cacao beans is actually a very old practice, unbeknownst to many in this age of consumer misinformation. The new generation of consumer chocolate novices are slowly discovering that blending different varieties of cacao beans produces a superior product.Many, like myself, prefer to select their chocolate by taste and country of manufacture rather than country of origin. It should be known that none of the countries that grow cacao manufacture it. By the same token, none of the countries that manufacture it actually grow it. Cacao Theobroma, the latinized name for the cacao tree, is rather finicky and will only grow in an area known as the "Cocoa Belt," which is 20 degrees north and south of the Equator, encircling the globe. Many chocolatiers realize that single-origin chocolate targets the pseudo high-end consumer with disposable income.Good quality chocolate has always been more about taste and personal satisfaction than region where it is produced.Typically, the more hyped-up the product, the more reason to run out the door.
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Hot Cocoa Mix
What's the "percent?" This question drives professionally trained and educated chocolatiers batty. Most people don't fully understand what they're asking when they ask this question. Chocolate has a percentage of cocoa liquor, a percentage of cocoa butter, and a percentage of sugar. You would also need to know about the bean, the country of origin, and the country of manufacture in order to truly understand what you are eating. By the way, the terms cocoa liquor, cocoa mass, and cocoa solids are all synonymous. Any good dark chocolate should contain at least 50% cocoa liquor. The higher the percentage, the less sweet - or, depending on your perspective, the more bitter, but this is not always the case. One company's 72% cocoa liquor could taste milder than another of a lesser percentage. But this tells you absolutely nothing as to the quality of the product you are eating. To explain: the most important ingredient in chocolate is cocoa butter. This is what you are really paying for in quality chocolate. Higher cocoa butter content results in a fluid, buttery texture and relative low acidity without compromising flavor and aroma. It is much more valuable and profitable for some manufacturers to remove all or part of the cocoa butter to sell it off to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. It is then replaced with palm oil, mango kernel oil, karate, illipe, sal, kokum, or another cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) which gives it an empty "waxy" flavor and texture. Palm and mango kernel oil cost 5 to 10 times less than cocoa butter. I would caution consumers against the mistaken belief that the percentage of cocoa liquor is a kind of ranking, as though the higher the percent, the better the chocolate. IT JUST DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! You can find whatever percentage of cocoa liquor you desire and still be eating vastly inferior quality if the cocoa butter has been partially or completely removed. Buying chocolate by number is just not an intelligent way to buy chocolate.
"People who say they only eat 70% cocoa chocolate need to realise that percentage is only part of the story. A high-alcohol wine is not necessarily better than a low-alcohol one. Nobody would judge a wine on its alcohol content. What matters is its bouquet of aromas, its symphony of flavours. In other words, it's all down to quality of ingredients and manufacture, not cocoa percentage all on its own." - Chloe Doultre-Roussel, The Chocolate Connoisseur.
Cacao Lorenzo Chocolatier Shop
Is chocolate health food? Let's look at what the cacao bean contains: Over half the weight of the cured, dried nib (as the shelled and degermed bean is called) is made up of fat. Although cacao butter is fat, it is one-third stearic acid, which does not boost cholesterol; one-third oleic acid, the same monounsaturated compound found in olive oil; and one-third palmitic oil, which does not raise cholesterol. Cocoa has some caffeine, but a cup of it comes to about 20 milligrams or less, half as much as tea. Coffee has about 115 milligrams.
Besides fat, each cacao bean contains less than 10 percent by weight of protein and starch. It also contains caffeine, theobromine, serotonin, and phenylethylamine. Serotonin is a mood-lifting hormone produced naturally by the brain; phenylethylamine is similar to other mood-changing brain chemicals. Chocolate's reputation as an aphrodisiac (which it is not) goes back as far as the European conquest of Mexico.
Two of the substances, comprising 1 to 2 percent by weight of the cacao, are known to have physiological effects on humans. These are the alkaloids (or, more technically, methylxanthines) caffeine and theobromine. Alkaloids are plant products, complex organic compounds that occur in perhaps 10 percent of the world's plants. Alkaloids form salts when treated with acids, and they have physiological consequences on the animals that ingest them.
Chocolate, tea, and coffee only became widely available to the European public by the middle of the 17th century. Chocolate was the first drink to introduce Europe to the pleasures of alkaloid consumption. The two alkaloids that chocolate brought to the Old World were theobromine and caffeine. Theobromine, like all alkaloids, is a central nervous system stimulant, although it is a mild one. It dilates blood vessels and also has a diuretic effect to stimulate the flow of urine. Cacao is an antioxidant on the order of red wine and tea. Underlying the pathologies of many human diseases are metabolisms which depend on oxidative reactions. It may be speculated that plant materials that are rich in antioxidants are also beneficial to human beings. Cacao is also rich in polyphenols, as is red wine, and may have an effect on reducing blood pressure. It is also flavonoid-rich, as are red wine, tea, and onions and may offer some cardiovascular protection. Flavinol can help increase blood flow to the brain and extremeties, and can regulate the synthesis of nitric oxide to maintain blood pressure. Flavinols might also help dilate vessels and prevent platelets from impeding blood flow.
Chocolate can have differing effects on each individual. What is good for one is not necessarily good for all. The facts of the matter are that the quantities involved are so small that you probably won't consume enough chocolate to make a difference one way or the other.
If you are truly concerned about nutrition, I'd stick with fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meats, whole grain breads and cereals, and low fat dairy products. All things in moderation. Chocolate is one of life's joys; you don't have to justify eating it or drinking it, people have been doing it for 3,000 years. JUST EAT IT!
What is the difference in the terms "cacao," "cocoa," and "chocolate?" The plant and all its products before processing are referred to as "cacao." After processing, the seeds, whether they are in liquid or in solid form, become "chocolate." What Americans call "cocoa" refers only to the dried, defatted powder created by Dutchman Conrad Van Houten in 1828 with the invention of his cocoa press.
