Decoding Chocolate — The Glossary
We’re in the business of breaking boundaries. Whether that’s breaking down the dark truths hidden under the shady canopy of big cocoa; reinvigorating the food-service chocolate market, or here, breaking down the linguistic barriers to truly understanding cocoa and chocolate.
The world of craft and fine-flavoured chocolate is imbued with industry-specific jargon that can often be articulated with a little superiority, perhaps a touch confusing, and sometimes even down-right misleading.
Get a grasp on cocoa with this go-to glossary. Learn the lingo and speak fluent chocolatier. Understand and ASK QUESTIONS of your current cocoa and chocolate supplier. Share wide and far and spread the knowledge.
Bean-to-bar
The company selling the chocolate is responsible for the production of that chocolate from cocoa bean stage, as opposed to buying in pre-made chocolate and remoulding and flavouring it. This can mean they are an artisanal producer who source cocoa beans responsibly and craft chocolate consciously. However, it can also apply to industrial chocolate makers who buy cocoa beans on the world market and make it into chocolate for commercial production.
Cascade fermentation
This is a process where cocoa beans are fermented over a number of days and moved between different fermentation containers. Firstly, the wet cocoa beans are contained in a box and covered so that anaerobic fermentation can take place, where the yeast feasts on the sugary pulp of the cocoa beans. Secondly, oxidisation. By moving it to another container, and oxidising the cocoa beans, ethanol is produced and temperatures increase to around 32°C. As the fermentation continues, the cocoa beans heat up further and ethanol is eventually oxidised into acetic acid. By continuously rotating and oxidising, you get a greater depth of flavour in the finished cocoa beans.
cacao
Cacao is a raw material. This is the raw pod containing cocoa beans which have yet to be processed, fermented or treated in ay way.
cocoa butter
Cocoa butter is the fat of the cocoa bean. It is extracted by grinding roasted beans to a liquor and then pressing this. In doing so, you extract the butter and are left with a ‘cocoa cake’ which is then blitzed to form cocoa powder. Cocoa butter is added to cocoa liquor to give chocolate a balanced flavour and texture.
cocoa mass
Often found on chocolate ingredient lists, cocoa mass refers to 100% pure cocoa beans which have been ground into a liquor. This is then combined with sugar and cocoa butter (and sometimes milk powder and emulsifier) to create chocolate. The percentage of the chocolate is determined by the total cocoa content, this includes cocoa mass AND cocoa butter.
conching
Conching is a process of chocolate making. After the cocoa beans have been roasted and ground to a liquor, the cocoa butter, sugar and emulsifiers (and milk powder) are added, and the mix is then agitated over a period of time which can be between 4 hours to 48! This process generates heat from friction but is sometimes also heated externally. The heat and agitation slowly dissipate any flavours and acidity unwanted by the chocolatier. The longer the conch, the lower the acidity and thus levels of cocoa flavonoids. As a general rule, better quality cocoa needs less conching.
Couverture
This refers to a good quality chocolate with a minimum of 31% cocoa butter. It is free of additives such as vegetable oils that will interfere with the properties of the cocoa butter. It is often used to describe chocolate that is created to chefs and chocolatiers to work with, rather than consumer chocolate bars.
dry cocoa
This is cocoa that has been harvested, fermented and dried. It’s brown in colour and dry to the touch. This is how most of the worlds’ cocoa beans are sold and purchased. When purchasing beans in this way, most of the chocolates’ flavour has been predetermined in the fermentation process. The chocolatier can then work with the palette of flavours they have in the beans to enhance or minimise flavonoids as they wish. Industrial chocolate makers will roast cocoa hard and conch for a long time to create a neutral flavour.
Dutched Cocoa Powder
A cocoa powder which has been artificially altered to have neutral acidity of ph7. This is achieved by treating the cocoa with an alkalising solution such as potassium carbonate or sodium carbonate. This creates a powder with dark brown colour and more neutral flavour and reduced amounts of cocoa flavonoids.
fermentation
After harvest, cocoa beans are fermented. The wet cocoa is brought together, covered, allowing fermentation to occur spontaneously. Natural yeasts start to feed on the sugars in the cocoa pulp and over a period of 5-7 days, the fermentation will transition from anaerobic to aerobic. This process is crucial to developing the flavours of the finished cocoa beans.
liquor
This is used to describe the mass of roasted cocoa that has been ground to a thick liquid. This sets solid if allowed to cool and some chocolatiers will store liquor before turning it into completed chocolate.
Natural cocoa powder
A cocoa powder which has not been subjected to Dutching, sometimes referred to as ‘un-dutched’. This is cocoa that has been roasted, ground and pressed to remove the majority of the fat content. Natural cocoa has a pH of 5-6 depending on terroir, farming, processing, and roasting conditions.
Roasting
Generally cocoa is roasted before it is turned into chocolate. The temperature and time cocoa is roasted for is down to the art of the chocolatier. They will understand that different weather, humidity, bean variety and harvest seasons affect the roasting conditions needed for each batch. Roasting develops the flavour of the cocoa, reduces the moisture content, kills bacteria and releases the outer shell of the cocoa that needs to be removed before grinding it to a liquor.
Seed-to-bar
The company selling the chocolate is responsible for the farming of the cocoa and the production of the chocolate from cocoa bean stage, as opposed to buying in beans to make chocolate. This can mean that they are consciously managing every step of the farming, processing and chocolate making to deliver a superior product. However, it can also be hijacked by big chocolate business, buying up a small proportion of the land they source their cocoa from and utilising this for PR & marketing purposes.
Single Estate
Single Estate refers to the origin of the cocoa beans used in a chocolate. It means that the cocoa beans have been sourced from a single farming estate. It generally gives a good level of assurance that the cocoa is well sourced as the chocolate maker/business will proudly associate their name with that of the estate.
Single origin
Refers to the origin of the cocoa beans used in a chocolate. This can often delineate well sourced cocoa, directly from farming cooperatives or growing regions. However, it can also be used to attribute the cocoa to a single country which gives no assurances on provenance, practices or product.
tempering
Cocoa butter is the ingredient of chocolate which needs to be tempered. Doing so provides the luxurious texture synonymous with chocolate. In order to create chocolate which holds shape, looks and feels smooth and shiney, breaks with a snap and melts evenly on the tongue, it has to be heated, cooled and reheated to prescribed temperatures before being set in a final shape.
Wet Cocoa
This refers to cocoa beans that have been freshly harvested and extracted from the cocoa pods they grow in. The beans themselves vary in colour from white to purple and are covered in a white, sticky pulp made up of predominantly water, sugar and citric acid.