JoMart Chocolates

November 29th, 2009
Posted in News

This story was told to me by a customer yesterday.
Her nephew was given chocolate from JoMart about 2 years ago-when he was 2 years old. Since then, JoMart is the only chocolate he will eat.
Last weekend his parents took him to a “pumpkin launching” in Suffolk County. The details were sketchy, but apparently he won. His prize was chocolate. He was put in front of a microphone to accept his prize. He started to ask questions, is it from Brooklyn?, is it JoMart? Since the mic was close to him, his questions were not immediately understood. His parents knew what he was asking, they had to break the news to him-not JoMart.
In the end-he declined the gift.
True story, but there is definitely a moral. Give children the best and they will accept nothing but, start them off with junk food, you know what happens next.

Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving to one and all…Michael

November 16th, 2009
Posted in News

By now, unless you are living in a cave (without wi-fi) you have all seen chocolate bars touting their darkness. It is no longer unusual to see chocolate bars proclaiming 70%, 72&, 75% 80%, 91% and more.  The numbers are confusing at best and disingenuous at worst.

Let’s try and simplify the numbers game. There are 3 basic ingredients in dark chocolate-chocolate liquor (aka cacao paste, cocoa mass), cocoa butter and sugar. The 2 minor players in the dark drama are pure vanilla (or artificial vanillin) and soy lecithin-an emulsifier. The 3 stars make up 99% of the total weight and the 2 co-stars add the final 1%.

In our store I use couverature that is 68%, 70%, 72% and a new organic that is 74%.  The flavors range from rich to floral to acetic and very complex.  Do the numbers provide a guide, not really, do they indicate an increase in bitterness, sometimes yes other times, not so much. The number reliably only indicates 1 thing-drumroll please……………….sugar content.  Quite simply start with 99% and subtract the cacao (cocoa) content and you are left with the percentage of sugar (99-70, 99-68 etc)

A certain percentage of chocolate liquor is actually cocoa butter, then more cocoa butter may be added to the mixture, this make the cocoa content percentage higher without contributing much to flavor.

The next time you taste a high cocoa content bar and it doesn’t taste  as bittersweet or complex  as you expect- it’s not you, it’s the bar.  Trust your own good taste  and only only only buy what you like. Use the stated cacao (cocoa) content as a rough guide.

A little hint: to get the full flavors out of a piece of chocolate, eat it as room temperature, try to soften it a bit before putting it in your mouth and then, relax, let it slowly melt and enjoy.

November 4th, 2009
Posted in News

I can’t help it, I always think about chocolate.  Lately a lot of discussion has been taking place during my Chocolate Workshops.  I usually spend some time talking about where cacao trees grow. In case some of you do not know, cacao trees grow within 20 degress North or South of the Equator.  Although Latin America used to be the world leader in cacao production, for the past 100 years Africa has had that distinction.  Most African cacao is produced in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire (AKA The Ivory Coast).  Most people have a sense of where chocolate comes from but every so often, a workshop participant is amazed to find out that NO CACAO IS GROWN IN EUROPE.  They just don’t know that cacao is a tropical tree.  Once I start talking about places like Madagascar, The Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, their heads are spinning.  So consider this, now that single origin chocolates are becoming commonplace, why not use them as a teaching tool?

I am sure there are fascinating things to teach about Cameroon. But what could be more engaging than starting the discussion with a taste of chocolate from Carmeroon?

Schools teach us about Christopher Columbus’ accidental discovery of North America. Old Chris came upon cacao bean in Guanaja-he referred to them curious almonds.

Cortez plundered the Aztecs looking for gold.  Instead he made it back to Spain with a far greater treasure-cacao.  Which Spain kept as a state secret of over 100 years.

Are you feeling smarter yet?

Teachers, educators listen up, steal this idea from me. No royalties wanted, just a thank you will do just fine, OK once in a while order a chocolate bar.