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A Fine Thing By Sonia Lyris |
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A man in white is decorating a tray of brownies with orange ganache. Nearby is a display of chocolate-making machines. I'm fascinated. I greet a woman behind a stack of chocolate bars and ask: "Why are you here?" She tells me she comes to FCIA to take the pulse of trends in chocolate. And what are those trends? She says people are increasingly interested in natural ingredients. They're also interested in sustainability, but--she gives me a knowing expression--it's not yet clear they are willing to pay extra for that sustainability. And flavor, she says. Chocolatiers aren't afraid of experimenting. Bacon is passe, of course, and everyone does chili, but there are so many other flavors, from tropical fruits to camel's milk chocolate--rare stuff! (I try to imagine milking a camel and see her point.) So watch chocolate for interesting flavors.
A number of displays advertise single-origin chocolate. I wonder how important that is. I don't understand the connection between taste and tree, I realize. Is there a way to look at chocolate that makes sense to everyone, from farmer to consumer? These and other questions are on my mind as I find myself talking to the researcher leader of the USDA/ARS Sustainable Perennial Crops Lab, Lyndel Meinhardt. I ask him why he's here. He says it's to be part of an initiative to find, analyze and categorize cacao trees into a national collection. I'm insanely curious about how cacao trees are categorized and I beg him to help me understand. He tells me that we've identified 14 distinct populations of cacao. He shows me a graph with clusters of dots--genetically analyzed cacao trees.
"Most commodities don't have wild relatives," he explains, "because their environment has been destroyed. But we can still find wild cacao in the Amazon. At least for now." We both consider his last statement. "How do we protect these trees?" I ask. "The push for quality has to come from consumers," Lyndel says. "We need to connect the trees to the people who buy chocolate. The farmer and the end-consumer have to understand each other." He adds: "Think of heirloom vegetables." "Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes," I say. He nods. "We have those because farmers and consumers talked to each other at markets, and the consumers said, 'We like this! Give us more!'" So what will we see in the future with fine chocolate? How will the consumer understand what, exactly, they're eating? Lyndel says it's going to look a lot like wine does now: type of cacao tree, region of origin, and manufacturer. So: cultivar, terroir, and brand; or: what, where, and by whom; not one thing, not two, but all three.
The formal part of the evening begins with a presentation by FCIA
founder Joan Vieweger. She announces the heirloom Cacao Preservation
Initiative, a FCIA project that will have the participation of the
Sustainable Perennial Crops Lab, USDA/ARS, headed up by That's a great mission, but how does it work? The focus, says Joan, has to start with fine flavor. HCP will form an expert tasting panel whose job it will be to identify chocolate that is exceptional. Then the cacao trees that made that chocolate will be genetically identified and categorized and HCP will help preserve them. There are still a lot of details to be worked out. Among other things, the HCP group is working on standards for identification, a database of heirloom trees, how to find at-risk heirloom populations, and so on. I'm intrigued. After all, the point of fine chocolate is that it tastes great. If HCP can connect taste identification to genetics, and genetics are connected to location, we may well have a commercial-yet-virtuous way to protect and nurture cacao for all stakeholders: consumers, manufacturers, and farmers--and future generations! As Lyndel Meinhardt of the USDA says, the push to preserve heirloom cacao ultimately has to come from us, the consumers. And we do care about sustainability of cacao trees, rainforest, and farmers. But only if we can get our hands on great chocolate, too. Maybe if a bar's been through an expert tasting panel who says it's something really special--an heirloom that tastes great--we might have reason to care even more. And that would be a fine thing! To read about the Northwest Chocolate Festival by Sonia Lyris on ClocolateAtlas Click Here For more information visit http://www.finechocolateindustry.org and http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=11348 |
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As I wander I'm offered many samples. It's delightful but I've
learned to be selective after the Northwest Chocolate
festival. But can I say no to Amella's caramels made with cocoa
butter? I can't, and it's richer than any caramel I've ever had,
worth risking over-indulgence for.
We are, he says, still finding cacao in the wild. This is important
because it supplies natural genetic diversity, the sort that leads
to rare and exceptional heirloom trees. Chocolate treasures.