The Science of Chocolate

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Comment by Deanna Pucciarelli on August 29, 2010 at 5:12pm

Maria
The reason that the higher Kcal count for the 100% cocoa, is that cocoa is high in fat which has 9kcal/g versus sugar 4kcal/g. The more the sugar in a product and the less the fat (cocoa butter) the lower the total kcal. But also the lower the mineral/polyphenols, etc that comes from the cocoa bean.

Comment by María Soledad Troya on August 29, 2010 at 3:40pm

An answer for Ilana about calories in liquor. We just exported 100 % coberture and 77% coberture. The official tag said that the 100%'s have 7260 calories per k. , while surprisingly the 77%'s have 5100 calories per k. I would have thought that more sugar , more calories, what seems clear is that chocolate alone is got more calories than sugar.

Comment by John Hepler on August 29, 2010 at 12:06pm

A few issues:
Unfermented cacao is used locally (within the countries of Mexico and Nicaragua, and liekly the rest of them in Cent Am), I'm thinking because its less trouble, thus cheaper.
This is very rough stuff, I made 20 lbs of chocolate from it and it was inedible, very acid. The locals get around this-- I've seen it plenty firsthand-- by roasting right up to the point of burning the stuff. Terribly sad to see. Then they have a near-burnt cacao, very strong which they can dilute greatly, add a lot of sugar and make a quite passable beverage.
ALL cacao for export is Fermented
By the way, the chocolate I made 3 years ago from raw beans is almost palatable now, the amazing power of aging the chocolate.

Distinguishing criollo from forastero: my guess is that these names represent the two endpoints on a genetic spectrum and there are 1000s of hybrids in between. The USDA has a program of testing, contact
Dapeng.Zhang@ARS.USDA.GOV who says they can distinguish the gene content by percentages.

This is not to say that the very old time criollo types are superior to the ubiquitous forastero. In fact the purple color of the forasteros are surely more loaded with ORAC, and all that colored goodness that nature provides-- moreso than the pale colors associated with criollos.

But I am interested in the tastes of the criollo. And it looks like they need some help to survive.

And finally, for the Atkins diet question, I think it is clear that apart from the substantial recognized health benefits of eating almost ANy chocolate, the problem of weight control, hunger and satiation remain.

Briefly, there is likely a cutoff point of sugar content relative to the fat/protein combination: the high sugar side leads to faster absorption, more insulin stimulation (thus greater tendency to fat storage), more hunger sooner thereafter, and less long term satiation.
I think it is safe to assume that this cutoff point is about 25% sugar, aka the 75% bar. Maximum satiation per unit ingested is what we are looking for. The 70% bar is probably close but it all looks pretty impossible to get more specific.
Total carbs in a 100 gram 70% bar (by an interesting net calculation, see www.Proteinpower.com) is 120 calories. However, this may well be mitigated by all that fat that slows down the absorption.

Comment by Ilana on March 6, 2010 at 11:37am

a friend of mine is on the Atkins diet. He asked me about carbs in chocolate. I just don't know! Does anyone know for 70% and also for 100%(liquor)? Interesting...

Comment by xinhong liu on February 10, 2010 at 11:24am

Hi Nancy,

Your observation is still very helpful to me. Thanks.

Xinhong

Comment by Nancy Nadel on February 10, 2010 at 11:14am

Thanks for the explanation and correction to my guess. Because I am still working another job as well as being a chocolate maker/chocolatier, I don't have much time to study and my guess was from observation from the between harvest times I am in Jamaica.

Do you know the midge's range because I do see lots of growth on the branches as well as the trunk. Now that I think of it, I see a lot of overripe pods on the branches as opposed to on the ground. I think I've seen whole pods on the ground but they might have a little nibble in them from an animal, typically rats in Jamaica, that made it fall as you described.

Comment by xinhong liu on February 10, 2010 at 5:15am

Hi Mark,

Thanks so much for your respond for my question. After having read it twice I still think I need to read again to make sure I fully understand the science behind my curiosity so I can give a faily good answer to the poeple who asked me.

I have learnt a lot so thanks again.

With kind regards,

Xinhong

Comment by Arun Bhargava on February 10, 2010 at 2:20am

Hello Mark,
This is a beautiful explanation. Thanks for sharing the info.

Comment by Mark J Sciscenti on February 9, 2010 at 5:51pm

In answer to the question "why do cacao pods grow from the trunks and large branches...?"

I am surprised that this has not been answered yet.

Theobroma sp. is a very old species - about 1 to 3 million year old. Botanically it is considered an "inferior" species - not to be confused with

Most of the T. sp., of which there are around 25 known sps., actually do not produce fruit pods at all but propagate through suckers growing out from the main tree stem.

The Theobroma sps. that do produce fruit pods, about 5 or so including the T. cacao, the one we make chocolate from, has a very specific reason for having the fruit growing low down on the tree.

The chief pollinators of T. cacao is the midge, tiny flies of the dipteran family. These midges live in the damp leaf litter under cacao tree and their flying range is quite limited. A survival evolutionary response by T. cacao, in order to compete for pollinators within the surrounding rainforest species, was to evolve flowers that grew within the midges flying range.

The other reason T. cacao developed low growing fruit was to provide access to seed dispersal vectors, i.e. providing sweet tasty fruit for animals within easy reach. It is quite known that spider monkeys, parrots, bats and other animals will break off the cacao pods, open the husk and eat the fruit but spitting out the bitter seeds, often in a different location then the original tree. The seeds drop to the forest floor where if conditions are ripe, the seeds will germinate.

One must realize also that T. cacao does not drop it's fruit when ripe, contrary to several statements I've read. The reason for this is that if the fruit were to naturally drop off the tree when ripe, very often the fruit would be missed by animals, the husk not broken open and the seeds would rot inside the husk, thus no germination. Another plus for the fruit pods to not drop off the tree is that often animals will break open the husk while the fruit is still on the tree, eat some of the fruit then leave. This creates another possible habitat source for the midge - wet and dark.

I highly suggest reading Alan M Young's book "The Chocolate Tree, A Natural History of Cacao" 2007 (revised edition from his same book published in 1993), University Press of Florida.

Hope this answers some questions. -Mark

Comment by xinhong liu on January 23, 2010 at 4:17am

BTW,

How much different in price for different types of beans?

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