A look at how fair trade and similar niche market sectors grew, as well as how they developed. This paper looks mostly into fair trade coffee, but can be applied to fair trade cacao and fair trade chocolate as well.
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What are the main types of chocolate? How do we categorize chocolate types?
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How does sugar impact the flavour of chocolate? Some say sugar brings out the flavour of chocolate, but what does that mean exactly?
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How to find and buy fine chocolate. How does one know what to look for?
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The challenges of selling fine chocolate are often overlooked or not taken seriously, especially by those within the fine chocolate industry who take it for granted what it was to not understand or appreciate fine chocolate.
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Understanding the structure of chocolate looks at the various crystal structures of cocoa butter, and a look at a type of pre-crystallization process to help in tempering.
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Millennials and chocolate product ethics: Saying one thing and doing another.
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Testing two pre-crystallization tempering methods. One conventional and one using Bvi cocoa butter seed in order to see their impact on product quality and storage.
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What you can do with out of temper chocolate!
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An easy and great way to locate fine cacao suppliers around the world so that you can focus on making fine chocolate!
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How starter yeasts impact fermentation, and their impact on flavour precursors such as reducing sugars and free amino acids.
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A detailed look into what impacts the flavour of cacao and chocolate from genetics, to processing, to ingredients. It will also look into ways the flavour of chocolate can be analyzed.
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An overview of the flow (rheology) and textural qualities of chocolate, as well as the impact various processes have on chocolate texture properties. Written by Afoakwa, Paterson, and Fowler.
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The impact of both pod storage time and roasting time on the browning index and colour of fermented cacao beans.
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A study contrasting the CocoaTown melanger and Stephan mixer as an alternative to the 3-roll refiner and ELK’olino conche for small scale bean to bar chocolate makers.
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A scientific explanation for what a chocolate ganache is composed of, what defines it, and the difference between a emulsified and split ganache.
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Raw chocolate versus traditional roasted chocolate. Raw chocolate is a growing sector within the chocolate industry, and often boasts high levels of antioxidants, higher than traditional roasted chocolate. However, we often don’t get a chance to see actual hard evidence of the levels of antioxidants in such foods. Zyzelewicz et al. analyzed how various roasting techniques changed the levels of polyphenols within raw versus roasted cacao beans.
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Chocolate from Peru! Chocolate from Indonesia! Which one is better quality? Or does it really determine quality at all? Learn what origin has to do with your chocolate, and what it doesn't.
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Chocolate Maker versus Chocolatier. What's the difference? Don't they both make chocolate? Not quite. Learn the differences, the grey area, and why it matters to you.
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Fine chocolate, unlike commercial chocolate, contains aromas such as pear, bread, and hazelnut. This is due to the volatile aroma molecules developed during processing. Take a peek into the flavour profile of one specific chocolate bar, Blanco de Criollo by Amedei.
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