Is Xocai everything it's made out to be?

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Permalink Reply by Alan McClure on August 16, 2008 at 6:13pm

For what it's worth, chocolate connoisseurs almost unanimously agree that:

The best tasting chocolate is made from fermented and roasted cacao.

Scientists would probably almost unanimously agree that:

The healthiest chocolate would be made from raw, unfermented cacao.

You can see the problem.

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Permalink Reply by Sydney on August 29, 2008 at 7:15pm

A friend in VT recently told me about Xocai, and I read all their stuff. The pyramid business put me off, but I do think their chocolate is something special. It is not just the cold-processed cacao beans, but also adding the acai berry for extra anti-oxidants--equiv of eating a lot of spinach or blueberries--and also no caffeine and low-glycemic because they don't use regular sugar. Still, it tastes great. Meanwhile, I also discovered David Wolfe's Naked Chocolate book, and then bought some nibs from my local health food store and some agave syrup (again that 's the low-glycemic sweetener from a cactus). I'm now experimenting with my own concoctions but the nibs are pretty good when you just chew them with a squirt of agave. I think it's very cool that cacao beans can be a super food with tons of benefits. Why knock it? Why take supplements if you can eat berries and chew cacao beans??
Anyway, that's my two cents. I don't really think Xocai is a scam; I think you go into it with your eyes open and if you're the salesperson type, it might work for you because . . . hey, everyone loves chocolate! Also, I'm a little confused by all the talk of cooking and fermenting and heating the beans because the big Xocai claim and Naked Chocolate's, too, is that you only eat cold-processed cacao beans that haven't lost any nutrients.

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on August 29, 2008 at 8:25pm

Sydney wrote: "I'm a little confused by all the talk of cooking and fermenting and heating the beans because the big Xocai claim and Naked Chocolate's, too, is that you only eat cold-processed cacao beans that haven't lost any nutrients."

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I just took a look at xocai.com.au.

Their claim that Xocai products are "unprocessed" is patently ridiculous.

The word "process" means: a series of actions or operations used in making or manufacturing something.

The orange that I ate straight off the tree in my backyard this morning? That was unprocessed.

But ... I'm sorry to disillusion the Xocai believers here ... chocolate doesn't just fall, "unprocessed", out of a freshly picked cocoa pod.

If Xocai want to say that their product isn't alkalised, or doesn't contain any dairy, well fair enough (assuming that those claims are true!). But to suggest that it's "unprocessed" is really bizarre.

How can people believe such claims???

And another thing: Xocai is chocolate brown in colour. You only get that chocolate brown colour in cocoa as a result of chemical processes such as enzymatic oxidation. Hence, if the cocoa product is brown, then I can tell you with 100% certainty that it has undergone chemical "processes", and it has definitely lost some nutrients.

The irony is that no lies or exaggeration are really necessary to promote the health benefits of dark chocolate. For instance, all of the studies I've read which indicate that dark chocolate really does provide certain health benefits have been carried out using commercially processed chocolate products. In other words, even after normal processing, cocoa products still contain exceptionally high levels of antioxidants.

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Permalink Reply by Lowe on August 30, 2008 at 8:29am

What does "cold-processed cacao beans" really mean to Xocai?

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on August 30, 2008 at 8:08pm

Good question, Olorin, although the term "cold processed" was Sydney's term, not Xocai's ... Xocai explicitly state on their Australian website that "Xocai products are produced with unprocessed [...] cacao powder".

Xocai claim that their cocoa products are "cold pressed". (How they can consider pressing not to be a process, I can't imagine).

I've read that the European Union defines cold pressed oil as being oil pressed at a temperature not exceeding 27 degrees C.

By this definition, it would be impossible to "cold press" cocoa, because cocoa butter doesn't even become liquid until about 35 degrees C. You cannot produce cocoa liquor at 27C, and you certainly can't press cocoa butter (in order to get cacao powder) at such a low temperature.

However, my understanding is that most countries don't have a legal definition for the term "cold pressing", so, basically, it can mean whatever Xocai wants it to mean.

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Permalink Reply by John on August 31, 2008 at 9:35am

Hello all. I found this blog by searching for information regarding Xocai chocolate. It seems to be the only unbiased conversation on the Net! I have learned several things from this thread. Samantha, I especially appreciate the time you put into your comments. I am not a chocolate expert but I am looking for a health-related business opportunity. I was approached by the Xocai folks.

I have no clue whether the claims about being 'cold-pressed' are significant. Is being "non-alkanized" important? All of the Xocai products are sweetened. For example, Xocai nuggets are sweetened with raw cane juice crystals. Is this this normal with chocolate?

Most importantly (from a business perspective) is the price. For example, the wholesale price of a single nugget (after shipping) is $1.24 (USD). This supposedly compares favorably to other gourmet chocolates. This works out to approximately $110/month if eaten 3 times daily. The retail pricing works out to $135/month. Maybe some on this forum have some insight to this question.

Blessings,
John

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Permalink Reply by Lowe on August 31, 2008 at 5:20pm

John,

The price per 100G is what I use to compare chocolate prices. So how much does a "nugget" weigh? Or-- to get the end result I'm looking for-- what is the price per 100g?

Eating chocolate 3x per day seems excessive to me, and more than the average consumer. I'd be curious to have an estimate of how many grams per day of chocolate consumption that TCL members average. (And then you'd have to take into account our much greater than average passion for chocolate.)

Perhaps members on here might also want to share how much they average spending on chocolate per month too.

Lastly, I like variety, so I doubt that I'd eat the same brand every day of the month.

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Permalink Reply by cybele on August 31, 2008 at 5:29pm

Olorin - like you I like variety and though I consider myself a chocolate nut, I don't eat that much on a daily basis.

I've tried other "fortified" chocolates and found that they lacked the fat and mouthfeel that I like so much and felt like work instead pleasure.

I don't think I'm in any way normal or indicative of other chocolate lovers in the amount of money I spend or eat. (But I document it pretty well on my blog where I review about 20 things a month, usually 5 high end items in there.)

I find the influx of new members that are solely talking about Xocai a little puzzling. There's so much here and so many incredible resources (people who actually visit cacao growing countries, pick out beans and then make actual chocolate) and here we are talking about something that isn't even made out to be a decadent treat.

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Permalink Reply by Lowe on August 31, 2008 at 8:23pm

QUOTE:"I find the influx of new members that are solely talking about Xocai a little puzzling. "

Actually, I was thinking the same thing when I wrote my last post. There seem to be many, many better chocolates than Xocai that we could be spending time pondering (and dreaming about).

Permalink Reply by John on August 31, 2008 at 8:29pm

Olorin,

Their two most popular chocolates are the Xocai X Power Squares and Xocai Nuggets. The Square weighs 6g (Xocai recommends 3 squares per serving) and the nugget weighs 12g (1 nugget per serving). The cost per 100g for the Squares is $17.86, $16.07, and $13.10 (retail, preferred, and wholesale). The cost per 100g for the Nuggets is $12.50, $11.25, and $10.29. So, how does that compare to other gourmet or top of the line chocolates?

From a business/marketing standpoint, I've seen the products promoted almost like nutritional supplements (hence, 3 times a day) and also like pure decadent chocolate. The appeal to potential distributors is that many people already love chocolate so you are basically getting them to substitute for Xocai. But, that only works if they are already spending over $110 per month!

Cybele, the reason for all the activity in your blog regarding Xocai is due to the Xocai Network Marketers creating 'buzz'. MXI (the parent corp) does no traditional but instead relies on word of mouth marketing through its distributor force.

-John

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on September 1, 2008 at 1:22am

Hi John, and everyone,

In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I co-own Tava, a small bean-to-bar chocolate factory in Australia. We make a 100% cocoa solids chocolate bar with no sweetener, so we (inadvertently) attract a lot of inquiries from the kind of people who Xocai are targeting.

I don't promote chocolate as a health food because:

1. I view chocolate as a luxury treat, not as a silver-bullet to cure whatever ails you, and

2. Here in Australia it's actually illegal to attach explicit health claims to food products (the one exception is in relation to folate, a B-group vitamin which prevents neural tube defects in fetuses)


Anyway, a number of comments and questions have been posted that I'd like to address:

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John wrote: "I have no clue whether the claims about being 'cold-pressed' are significant."

I would say that the claims about Xocai products being "cold pressed" and "unprocessed" are significant because they are, at best, misleading.

Does the truth matter? Well, it matters to me.

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John wrote: "Is being non-alkalized important?"

The general consensus is yes, it is important, although I've seen different studies that have reached different conclusions regarding the question of alkalization. But, to give just one example, Wollgast concluded that the alkalization of cocoa did cause a significant loss in concentration of polyphenols (i.e. antioxidants).

Ref: Wollgast, J (2004) The contents and effects of polyphenols in chocolate

However, regardless of the effects of alkalization, I think you'll find that the majority of premium chocolates these days aren't alkalized anyway, so Xocai is nothing special in this respect.

Still on the general subject of antioxidants, though, it's worth noting that being dairy-free is definitely important, because the polyphenols in cocoa bind with the proteins in dairy solids, making the polyphenols unavailable to your body. This "problem" extends to situations such as drinking milk while eating dark chocolate, and also to eating cheaper "dark" chocolates that quite often contain milk solids. (If in doubt, check the list of ingredients!)

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Olorin wrote: "Eating chocolate 3x per day seems excessive to me"

Actually, if you're specifically seeking health benefits, there's a really good reason to eat small amounts of chocolate at regular intervals:

"The maximum effectiveness [of antioxidants in cocoa] may rest on their absorption across membranes and availability as antioxidants in critical cellular sites. The plasma of people eating chocolate shows a rapid increase of epicatechin, and an equally rapid decay. Along these lines, the antioxidants after procyanidin intake rises to a peak at 2 hr"
Ref: Weisburger, J.H (2001) Chemopreventive Effects of Cocoa Polyphenols on Chronic Diseases

Hence, if you wanted to use chocolate as a health food, you would expect to get the maximum health benefit by eating a small amount every four hours or so.

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How much cocoa do you need to eat to get a health benefit?

The short answer is: not much!

Health benefits have been associated with the consumption of 100-300 mg/day of procyanidins. (Procyanidins are a category of antioxidants with various health-giving properties. Cocoa is exceptionally rich in procyanidins, and this is the category of chemicals that gets people excited about cocoa's health-giving potential).

So, if you wanted to consume 200mg/day of procyanidins, you would need to eat somewhere in the vicinity of:
5g per day of non-alkalised cocoa powder, or
10g per day of 100% cocoa liquor, or
15g per day of 70% cocoa solids chocolate

These amounts are based on procyanidin levels in non-alkalised cocoa products that contain no dairy.

Ref:
Gu et al (2006) Procyanidin and Catechin Content and Antioxidant Capacity of Cocoa ...

It's worth noting that these numbers are based on procyanidin levels in commercial cocoa and chocolate products from "major brands" that have undoubtedly been processed in all of the normal ways (i.e. the cocoa has been fermented and roasted etc).

In light of these numbers, it's amusing to ponder the fact that, if Xocai really made super-duper "unprocessed" products, packed with all of the original and undisturbed antioxidants found in fresh cocoa beans, then you'd really only need to eat 1 or 2 grams of the stuff each day.

On the subject of cost: you can easily get a beneficial amount of antioxidant-rich, dairy-free, non-alkalised chocolate for a fraction of the cost of Xocai.

Permalink Reply by Sydney on September 1, 2008 at 3:34pm

Hi, John, I was looking at Xocai from the same standpoint as you when I was in Vermont with my friend, but once I got home and did a little homework, I decided that I just wasn't going to be able to sell such an expensive product--not in these economic times. I canvassed some friends and neighbors and they all looked at me like I have two heads. Then again, I didn't have any samples; I'm not very good at the selling aspect anyway.

Also, just to let you know, I found one site that is underselling (if that's the right term) this Xocai chocolate and selling it at less than the distributor wholesale price that you discussed and that my friend buys it for. I just sent her the link because she only buys it to eat it, not to sell it, so she may as well save money. I don't know how this one site can sell it for less than wholesale, but they are: $98 for 100 nuggets and that includes the shipping.

Best of luck to you.
Sydney

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