The Chocolate Life

Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa!

Samantha Madell's Page

Latest Activity

John, regarding cotyledons: you should take a look at some of Koa Kahili's excellent photos on this site. For example, the photo I've linked to below illustrates beautifully how the cotyledons transition from purple to green, and from "seed" to "lea…
on Tuesday
Samantha Madell and Vanessa Chang are now friends
May 28
Hi Geert - thanks for your comment and question. The short answer to your question is: yes, dangerous pesticides are used on cocoa in places other than West Africa. For example, in July 2009 I wrote a post titled Pesticide usage in the cocoa indus…
May 27
Sebastian wrote: "Many people complain about current practices, very few people offer insight or effort as to how to fix it." Sebastian - it's great to see you here, but you're a bit late to the party! Jim, Clay, Duffy, myself, my partner Langdon,…
May 27
Hello Samantha, are these pesticides used in countries other than West Africa? Its embarrassing to see how people let these children work. Also a few weeks ago there was a program on the Belgium VRT (national television) about children working in Gh…
May 5
The different cocoa varieties have been discussed quite extensively on the following threads: Reclassification of cacao varieties? Chocolates of Ecuador -- Arriba, Nacional, CCN51
May 1
There is only one species of cocoa: Theobroma cacao. None of the many varieties of cacao are sufficiently different from one another to be regarded as a separate species.
April 30
By the way, the flavanol content claimed for this Mars CirkuHealth product is absolutely through the roof, and must be the result of some pretty serious industrial chemistry. By comparison, a 2007 study (titled "Consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa a…
April 15

Profile Information

Dark, Milk, White?
Dark, Milk, White
Most memorable chocolate experience:
My first cocoa pod: Sri Lanka, 2004
My favorite chocolate is:
Tava, of course!

Samantha Madell's Photos

Loading…

Samantha Madell's Blog

Samantha Madell

Introduction to Enzymes in Cacao

I frequently receive inquiries from raw foodies who are seeking enzyme-rich, cold-processed cacao - so I decided to educate myself on this subject.

It is extremely frustrating to me that many of the raw foodies I've encountered simply don't know what they're talking about. Rather, they tend to believe (and repeat) the dubious marketing "information" that they hear from businesses which are trying to sell them over-priced raw food products.

Following is what I've learned about enzymes and cacao… Continue

Posted on October 2, 2009 at 12:37am — 3 Comments

Samantha Madell

Rainforest Alliance certification: worse than useless?

Over the years, many journalists and bloggers have portrayed Rainforest Alliance certification as being equivalent to (or even better than) organic and Fairtrade certification. Unfortunately, this simply isn't the case.

In truth, the Rainforest Alliance certification standards contain none of the best aspects of either organic or Fairtrade certification. (And, as has been discussed quite extensively in… Continue

Posted on August 16, 2009 at 9:27pm — 16 Comments

Samantha Madell

Pesticide usage in the cocoa industry

I am a vocal advocate of organic agriculture, so I was more than a little bit surprised to receive an email recently from Gatewick, inviting me to submit a competitive tender for the procurement of insecticides for the Ghana Cocoa Board.

According to the document I was sent (attached below), the Ghana Cocoa Board has allocated a budget this year for 1,000 drums, plus 2,000 cartons, plus 165,000 litres of insecticide:… Continue

Posted on July 7, 2009 at 12:52am — 5 Comments

Samantha Madell

Ancient humans + Theobroma cacao + wild yeasts = alcohol!

(This blog post follows on from my earlier post, Fermentation 101).

In 2007, a team of archaeologists unearthed strong evidence that "humans began exploiting cacao beans for alcohol before they started using them to make chocolate" [1].

In the Ulua Valley in Honduras, these archaeologists discovered traces of theobromine in pottery vessels used for alcoholic drinks. The vessels date back to at least 1,100BC, pu… Continue

Posted on May 14, 2009 at 8:30pm — 1 Comment

Samantha Madell

Antioxidants, flavonoids, flavanols, tannins, and ORAC units ... what does it all mean?

In this blog post, I'm attempting to untangle the fairly complex terminology relating to the subject of chocolate and health. To this end, I've put together a diagram, which is part flowchart, part glossary (scroll down to view).

But here's some basic information and terminology to get started with:

Free radicals
When it comes to maintaining good health, free radicals are bad news. A free radical is an unstable and highly reactive molecule that contains an unpaired electron. Free radica… Continue

Posted on April 21, 2009 at 4:00am — 11 Comments

Comment Wall (4 comments)

You need to be a member of The Chocolate Life to add comments!

Join The Chocolate Life

At 12:42am on September 28, 2009, Samantha Madell said…
Hi Travis,
I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my questions, but I seem to be no closer to obtaining clear answers.
Information pertaining to patents isn't kept secret. In fact, that information must be made public, in order for people to know if and when they might be infringing on an existing patent.
So my original questions remain: what is this patent, and who owns it?
I'm now more curious than ever.
At 6:41pm on September 27, 2009, Samantha Madell said…
Hi Travis,
Regarding the "patented cold pressed system" you mention: I've been asking about this patent for quite a while - for example, what is the name and number of this patent, and who owns it? So far, nobody has responded to my questions, which makes me wonder whether this patent really exists. I'd be grateful if you could provide the relevant details.
Thanks.
At 6:07am on November 2, 2008, Zev said…
Hi,
We are currently working out how to set up our factory and really liked the design of your winnower. Would you mind to please post photos from some other views of your setup, i.e. top and side views. thanks so much.

Zev
At 8:37am on August 12, 2008, Clay Gordon said…
Sam:

Welcome to TheChocolateLife all the way from Oz. I am looking forward to hearing how the business (TAVA) has grown since we last saw each other in Ecuador in 2005. Please say Hi to Langdon.
 
 
 

Member Marketplace

Additional Options

Share TheChocolateLife

Bookmark and Share
Follow Clay on:
Twitter :: @chocophile
Twitter :: @DiscoverChoc
Facebook :: TheChocolateLife

Badge

Loading…

© 2010   Created by Clay Gordon.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service