Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa!
Cocoa butter and cocoa solids
Hans has a very thought provoking article in Cocoa Content called "Why cocoa content matters". In it he shows a very insightful way to determine the amount of cocoa butter. Here's the essence of it:
Cocoa content only tells you how much of the bar’s weight is comprised of cocoa solids. Now, it’s important to understand that “cocoa solids” refers to the chocolate’s combined weight of cocoa butter and dry cocoa particles (i.e. cocoa powder). You can find the amount of cocoa butter from the amount of fat, though. Once you have that you can determine the percentage of the rest of the solids.
Follow these steps from the nutrition label:
1. Note the serving size, since it varies.
2. Note the Total Fat The Fat is from cocoa butter
3. Divide the Total Fat by the Serving size (Fat/Size), then multiply by 100 to get the percentage of fat
4. Subtract the percentage of fat from the cacao percentage and the difference will tell you what percentage of the bar consists of dry cocoa solids. Cocoa butter percentage + cocoa solids percentage = Total cacao percentage.
For example, consider a bar of Lindt Excellence 70%. The Nutrition Facts show the serving size as 42g, with 17g of fat. Divide 17 by 42 and multiply the result by 100, and you’ll get 40. This means there’s 40% cocoa butter. Subtract that number from 70, which in this case is 30% dry cocoa solids . (40 + 30 = 70)
-----------------------------
What do you think of this?
Cocoa content only tells you how much of the bar’s weight is comprised of cocoa solids. Now, it’s important to understand that “cocoa solids” refers to the chocolate’s combined weight of cocoa butter and dry cocoa particles (i.e. cocoa powder). You can find the amount of cocoa butter from the amount of fat, though. Once you have that you can determine the percentage of the rest of the solids.
Follow these steps from the nutrition label:
1. Note the serving size, since it varies.
2. Note the Total Fat The Fat is from cocoa butter
3. Divide the Total Fat by the Serving size (Fat/Size), then multiply by 100 to get the percentage of fat
4. Subtract the percentage of fat from the cacao percentage and the difference will tell you what percentage of the bar consists of dry cocoa solids. Cocoa butter percentage + cocoa solids percentage = Total cacao percentage.
For example, consider a bar of Lindt Excellence 70%. The Nutrition Facts show the serving size as 42g, with 17g of fat. Divide 17 by 42 and multiply the result by 100, and you’ll get 40. This means there’s 40% cocoa butter. Subtract that number from 70, which in this case is 30% dry cocoa solids . (40 + 30 = 70)
-----------------------------
What do you think of this?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Daniel O'Doherty on -
Hi,
I have a friend who is huge fan of such products and makes such chocolate himself; he uses the term "unroasted chocolate". I'm not sure that the term raw is always used correctly, especially with regard to "raw chocolate". Unless the beans used to make this "raw, unprocessed, organic..." chocolate are unfermented, it cannot formally be considered raw. Yes, they may not be cooked in the traditional sense, but the fermentation of cacao pulp causes the bean temperature to rise around 40 C and higher in some instances, and this is at or above the limit specified by many raw foodists.
-
Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on -
Daniel - to the best of my knowledge, there is no "formal" definition for the term "raw".
Furthermore, I know from first-hand experience that (to give an example that's relevant to my business) the NSW Office of Fair Trading (in Australia) accepts fermented cocoa beans as being raw.
-
Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on -
Sam -
You are right, there is no "formal" definition of the term raw. Conventionally, the raw food movement uses a maximum temp of between 115-118 as the upper limit.
Daniel -
There is some variability in maximum pile fermentation temperatures and if I remember correctly Sam has written on this; max pile temps are between 115F (46C) and 125F (51C) depending on the source. So depending on the particulars of a specific fermentation process, the temps can stay below the magic 118F figure, be fully fermented, AND be "raw."
However, during drying surface temperatures (e.g., concrete pad in the sun) can easily reach 140F (60C) and no-one really pays attention to what happens to temps during drying.
-
Permalink Reply by Daniel O'Doherty on
-
Hi Sam and Clay,
Thanks for your prompt and informative comments. I suppose I should be more careful with my wording (e.g. formally) when in the company of other scientists. I've only joined the site a few days ago and am impressed by the insightful discussions that often take place here. Regarding the ferment, I meant to specify the usual temperature as circa 45C, but I had not considered the high temperature that develops during drying (many people in Hawaii dry on metallic mesh racks with hinged plastic lids to drop in case of rain... since we typically experience cool breezy tradewinds, I'd imagine the temperature stays very low compared to a concrete pad). Another interesting consideration is the temperature rise during liquor production; many home producers use a Champion grinder, and I've measured liquor temperatures directly out of the screen as high as 121 F (49.44 C).
I feel very lucky to be working on cacao in Hawaii with Dr. Skip Bittenbender who has allowed me the intellectual freedom to experiment with all aspects of cacao ranging from tree propagation all the way through to tempering and pouring chocolate. I'm particularly interested in the influence of fermentation on the quality of the final product and am fortunate enough to have access to fresh fruits from a variety of sources. I am not experienced yet in traditional natural fermentation, but have experience with "microferments", often from a single tree, using specially designed vessels and an incubator. It is quite amazing to see and taste the diversity of qualities when comparing single-tree nibs/chocolate (if anyone is interested, I have pix of side-by-side winnowed nibs from single tree ferments) .
I have made good progress in producing large numbers of grafted trees that start growth with seedling-like orthotropic growth habit and do not produce undesirable rootstock suckers. Hopefully in a 3-4 years, we will be able to make large quantities of single-tree chocolate, which I believe will allow tremendous improvement in uniform fermenting and roasting due to pulp characteristics and seed size (i.e. processing protocols can be tailored for each tree type).
Well, that's enough rambling from me, I just wanted to let you guys know where I'm coming from. I'm relatively new to the study of chocolate but am eager and hope I can make a meaningful contribution to the field. I hope that I will be able to learn from the broad experience of everyone here at 'the chocolate life' and wish to share my learning as it progresses.
Aloha,
Dan
-
Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on
-
That all sounds fascinating Dan. I'll be keeping an eye out for some future blog posts from you!
-
Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on
-
It is quite amazing to see and taste the diversity of qualities when comparing single-tree nibs/chocolate (if anyone is interested, I have pix of side-by-side winnowed nibs from single tree ferments) .
Yes, please.
-
Permalink Reply by Daniel O'Doherty on
-
Winnowed nibs from three different trees on Oahu. All beans were fermented, dried, and roasted in the same manner and with the same conditions. Very different flavors when made into single tree chocolate bars.
-
Permalink Reply by Nancy Nadel on -
I'm very interested in this. I and a Jamaican friend taught ourselves to ferment in Jamaica and dream of experimenting with fermenting and influence on flavor. I can only be there in August due to other job requirements, out of harvest season, so I don't get enough to experiment with from a single tree. I have worked with single farmers with very small cocoa walks and really see the difference in flavors from one farm to another. You mentioned having photos and I would love to see them.
-
Permalink Reply by Grant S of Grant Candy Co. on -
What if it is milk chocolate? It has the fat from the whole milk powder... I make homemade chocolate and i know that milk chocolate has fat from the milk unless the chocolate companies use skim milk like I do. I read the labels and I know that the other companies use full fat milk.. Actually some companies use both skim and full fat milk. Anyway... That is a good way to see the amount of cocoa butter is in the dark chocolate, or sweet chocolate (chocolate with no milk)...
-
Permalink Reply by Lowe on -
I'd like to share a few preliminary observations. To the seasoned experts this is probably nothing new, but just remember that I'm a neophyte who's having fun learning about all of this.
So far I've gathered the fat content data on 55 bars. Here are a few early observations:
-The fat content varies from 30-50%
-The higher the cacao content the higher the fat content. That makes sense since there is less sugar, so to make it more palatable there is more fat.
-I see no relationship between fat content and my quality ratings. But since I don't like >80% as much as bars in the 70-79% range and I generally like >90% even less, even though these have the highest fat percentages they have lower ratings (according to my preferences).
-
Permalink Reply by Lowe on
-
I'm not sure who you're asking permission of or who would grant it, but you can surely use any information that I've provided.
Would you please post the URL of your site here, though, so that we can all see it?
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next ›
© 2010 Created by Clay Gordon
