This week’s blog post explores the delights of craft chocolate’s amazing TEXTURE, as well as the knotty (and quite technical) problem of emulsifiers and lecithins. Even if you think that you’d like to “glaze over” (pun intended) emulsifiers, they are worth understanding and checking out. The use of LOTS of emulsifiers should raise a lot of red flags; they are extensively used in ultra processed foods, mass produced confectionery, etc. And nutritionists are increasingly worried about some of their health side effects, especially to your gut.

But at the same time, there are some cases where emulsifiers can play a role in cooking and even in some craft chocolates.  And there is even some evidence that sunflower lecithin can lower cholesterol.

Texture, Cocoa Butter, Fats and Emulsifiers

One of chocolate’s many wonders is TEXTURE. Its mouthfeel is (literally) unique. It’s the only product that can be solid at room temperature and then, as you place it on your tongue, it slowly melts, conjuring all sorts of unctuous delights and releasing incredible aromas and flavours. (And as a quick side-note: We as humans are also unique in being able to appreciate these flavours as we are the only animal that can detect flavour in our mouths. READ MORE).

In craft chocolate this ‘melting’ is thanks to cocoa butter’s crystal structure. After the cocoa beans have been roasted, they are winnowed and then ground and conched into a fine liquid (think Willy Wonka’s rivers of chocolate). This liquid chocolate is then tempered (i.e. heated, cooled, and reheated) to a specific formula before ‘moulded’ into craft chocolate bars that have the (unromantic) crystal structure “V” or 5. Mass produced chocolate tries to replicate the delights of craft chocolate’s “melt” with a bunch of technologies, fats, and emulsifiers. Some of the technology here is spectacularly creative; for example, it’s no mean feat to create a glossy chocolate that covers a frozen ice cream. But in the case of mass produced chocolate confectionery, the focus on cost is a lot less spectacular. To save costs and improve efficiencies, cocoa butter is replaced and supplemented by other fats, preservatives and emulsifiers. And adding vegetable fats, palm oils, and the frighteningly named PGPR are no substitute for cocoa butter’s amazing melt and texture. So if you are wondering why mass produced bars are often so ‘waxy’, just check the ingredients (READ MORE).

And while you are checking your chocolate bar’s label, remember to look out for emulsifiers (inc. lecithins). Emulsifiers are another mysterious additive in mass produced confectionery, ultra processed foods and even some craft chocolates.

Emulsifiers (including lecithins) are a complex and controversial topic. Below we’ve tried to provide a quick definition, history and overview of emulsifiers. And MIllie has produced a series of quick and introductory videos on the topics.

And we’ve also assembled a bunch of craft chocolate bars that are unapologetically FREE of emulsifiers and then a few that unapologetically CONTAIN emulsifiers.

What is an Emulsifier? Definitions and Examples

As anyone who has ever tried to make a salad dressing with “just” oil and vinegar knows, they don’t easily mix. Sure; you can whisk them together. But soon the oil and vinegar will repulse one another and separate. However if you add a little mustard (or egg yolk), you can ‘bind’ them together so they don’t separate. This ‘binding’ of substances that don’t want to combine is called ’emulsification’. Technically, an emulsifier has one end compatible with oil and the other compatible with water, so it can link with both; so they become ‘bound’ and stick together.

And if you’ve ever made mayonnaise at home adding an egg provides the emulsifier by which the vegetable oil, the lemon juice and other ingredients are bound.

The same is also true of making ice cream; but here the egg’s emulsification properties go beyond binding the ice cream, they also impact the texture, making it far more consistent, and less sticky and gloopy.

Historical Development and Application of Emulsifiers

Cooks, and later food scientists, realised that emulsifiers could not only bind but also preserve foods, as well as improving texture and reducing costs.

The classic example here is margarine which was effectively made possible by the development of various emulsifiers. But food scientists rapidly realised that emulsifiers (or specifically lecithins) would also reduce cost, enhance texture, improve mouthfeel, and could preserve shelf life of anything from biscuits and cakes, to sauces and spreads.

All these developments were made possible thanks to the extraction of lecithins’ from eggs by TN Gobley in 1846 (if you think you’ve seen this name before, you are right: Gobley also figured out how to create vanillin: READ MORE). And then in the 20th Century, scientists worked out how to extract lecithin from soya beans and later sunflower seeds. In parallel, scientists worked out how to extract and synthetically create other emulsifiers from everything from seaweed to plants, crustaceans to animals. And these newer ‘extracted’ emulsifiers often do much more than bind together liquids and solids which otherwise would not mix.

For example; one commonly used hydrocolloid emulsifier is carrageenan, extracted from seaweed. Carrageenan is regularly used in dairy and dairy-alternative products, particularly flavoured milk and soy mylk. It’s also added to processed meats to soften their texture and help them retain 20-40% water, providing a highly dubious cost cutting measure. On the other hand, without hydrocolloids commercial yogurts would be a lot “soupier” and watery as it ‘gels’ the low fat yogurt together.

Today, the US FDA has approved over 100 different emulsifiers for use in food, drinks and food-like substances. Emulsifiers’ ability to improve mouthfeel and reduce cost were critical in the development of ultra-processed foods (and that’s why Michael Pollan’s advice to check the label, and beware any additive that your grandmother wouldn’t recognise, is so useful).

Trying to contextualize and date all these applications and technologies isn’t easy; but here is a vastly simplified attempt.

Emulsifiers in Chocolate

nsurprisingly, mass produced chocolate rapidly realised the advantages of adding emulsifiers to “chocolate”. In the UK as early as 1929, patents were being made for their use in the making and processing of chocolate by Hermann Bollmann and Bruno Rewald. Firstly, emulsifiers help reduce the cost of ingredients (the likes of soy lecithin and PGPR are far cheaper than even palm oil, and way cheaper than cocoa butter). Secondly, manufacturing costs could be reduced by using emulsifiers: Liquid chocolate all too easily “gums up” machines and emulsifiers, by improving viscosity, means that mass confectionery’s machines can run faster, need less cleaning, etc. Thirdly, they could improve shelf life stability (aka stop other fats going grey etc.). Fourthly, emulsifiers enable food scientists to create all sorts of wacky textures; critical for avoiding ‘sensory specific satiety’ that comes from the short and bland flavours of mass produced confectionery, with its reliance on sugar, salt and fat.

So, as with any other ultra processed foods, if you see a bunch of E-numbers and emulsifiers on the label of your chocolate bar, think twice; it’s a likely sign that your chocolate is mass produced, probably from couverture, nib roasted, and is designed for scoffing not savouring.

Perhaps surprisingly, craft chocolate makers do sometimes make limited use of lecithins; for example:

1. COOKING AND BAKING: Many chefs want some lecithin in their chocolate for making bon-bons, cakes etc. as it makes enrobing, cooking etc. easier. So some craft chocolate will contain lecithin (e.g., Menakao).
2. BRIDGE BARS: Craft chocolate can sometimes be a little overwhelming with labels detailing beans from a place they’ve not heard of, and listing a percentage that seems dauntingly high. So to “bridge” this challenge, craft chocolate makers create bars that appeal to the familiar, using local ingredients, familiar flavours and tourist-tempting ideas. These bars act as bridges between the familiar and the new. But crafting them is hard; and to bind together theses various “bridging” ingredients, a little sunflower lecithin can be very useful (see below for some examples from Omnom, including their famed Black N Burnt and Liquorice bars).
3. MOUTHFEEL: This gets a bit geeky, but depending on the beans, the dark chocolate percentage, how finely you grind and conche, and finally what machines you conche with, sunflower lecithin can help smooth out some of the variations in the coarseness of the chocolate granules. Many chocolate makers use cocoa butter to smoothen the mouthfeel, but this can also create some richness that isn’t always appropriate. But if, for example, you are trying to grind super fine (i.e. below 15 microns) and use a ball mill (as opposed to longitudinal) conche, you can get some noticeable variations in the microns of the chocolate granules which a little lecithin can help smooth over. For an example, please see Firetree’s Mindanao Island dark bar and then compare this with e.g., Friis-Holm or Pump Street, who use cocoa butter.

To date, craft chocolate makers have used sunflower (as opposed to soya) lecithin, and ensured that this is not genetically modified. Short term this may be trickier as much of this sunflower lecithin comes from Ukraine… so watch this space

This use of emulsifiers is very different to mass produced confectionery’s approach. If you look at the ingredients of a mass produced bar of chocolate confectionery, it will have a plethora of different emulsifiers; for example, a bar of Dairy Milk contains emulsifiers and fats including the emulsifiers E442, E476, PGPR, and both palm and shea oils.

By contrast, a craft chocolate bar in most cases won’t contain any emulsifiers or lecithins. And if they are used, it’ll just be ONE lecithin (and no palm oil or vegetable fats, etc.).

Emulsifiers and Your Gut

One final comment:

There is increasing research suggesting that various synthetic emulsifiers, in particular carboxymethylcellulose, polysorbate and carrageenan, may cause issues with the gut and allergic reactions. At the moment, no one is suggesting that these emulsifiers are another nitrite like problem (nitrites are the carcinogen in many processed meats). But it’s worth keeping an eye out for more research here, and keep up to date with our blog.

On the other hand there is also some research that sunflower lecithin’s supplements can help lower HDL cholesterol (the bad stuff), reduce ulcerative colitis and improve memory loss. Plus sunflower lecithin is good as a moisturizer on your skin (however there really isn’t enough of it in any craft chocolate bar for you to consider using them as an unguent or massage oil… although the cocoa butter in a craft chocolate bar does open up other delights).

As ever; it’s complicated. Please see the blog for more information and video.

And you can also watch me explaining the above points in our latest YouTube video on all things emulsifiers. 

And do treat yourself to some of the bars below!

Spencer

The Academy of Chocolate was set up way back in 2005 by the now sadly departed, and much missed, Sara Jane Stanes OBE. Over the years, The Academy has done an amazing job of surfacing a vast array of craft chocolate makers including the likes of Qantu, Standout, Fjåk, DesBarres, Metiisto, Castronovo, Krak, Åkesson’s, and Duffy’s.

This year’s results have another crop of spectacular bars; with an increasing number from Asia and Australia. And we are delighted to offer a range of gift boxes that highlight some of these many winners.

I also wanted to highlight the critical contribution made to the Academy’s awards by Silvija Davidson. Silvija plays a key role in organising all the logistics of gathering, packaging, dispatching and co-ordinating all the tastings and judging. Along with her husband David, Chantal Coady; Chair of the Academy, Sarah Jane Evans, plus a host of other board members and volunteers, we owe them all a huge thanks.

What’s amazing is the way that Silvija steps back from the actual tasting and judging. Silvija’s modesty and discipline here is extraordinary. For not only is Silvija an expert chocolate taster but she’s quite literally written THE book on tasting and judging food and drinks. Over a decade ago, for The Guild of Fine Food, Silvija produced the first edition of ‘The Language of Taste’, offering insight and advice on products from rice to relishes, pasta to pickles, ciders to cheeses, seafood to sausages, and (of course) chocolate.

Sadly this book isn’t (yet?) commercially available. But it’s a wonderful read; full of insights and humour; here are a few. (Note the whole book is over 140 pages).

It starts with some tactful advice that applies to all forms of feedback, but is especially useful for flavour, taste and texture where often many of us lack insightful words:

“Try not to use any descriptor more than twice …  in particular “good”, “tasty” and “nice”. In fact, do your very best to avoid “nice” altogether … be on a mission to try and avoid”.

And then it dives into the details of all sorts of different foods and drinks:

• If you’ve ever wondered how to evaluate marshmallows, here are some nuggets: “Marshmallows: Even artisans no longer wrestle with the root of the marsh mallow plant with its supposed medicinal properties: Modern marshmallows are an unashamedly indulgent capture of sugar in a foamy mass, stabilized by gelatine and sometimes (and more traditionally) egg white, or in vegan versions, agar-agar and aquafaba … Childhood memories invariably play a part in our take on the ideal marshmallow with some … looking for a firm texture, and others looking for fluffy, ethereal, melt-in-the-mouth experiences. Let’s settle for “pillowy” as an ideal, bearing in mind that vegan versions are likely to be a tad firmer than those made with egg-white … additions meant to deliver contrasting crunch can’t afford to be soggy”.
• Or for custard … “while creme anglaise has a very light pouring consistency with no thickeners added, use of corn starch … is fairly standard in British custard. The best custards, however, manage not to feel farinaceous or powdery … sweetness should be in good balance, … [and] should not be in the least cloying”.
• And in the same section, on brandy butter … “customers have distinct preferences, but what we are looking for is balance, whether the brandy butter is essentially light and creamy or rich, dense and dark. Butter flavours should not disappear altogether, the brandy should be generous in quantity but not hangover inducing”.
• And then moving to savoury marmalade … “look for tender, long cooked vegetables and an appealing, uncloying sweet-savoury balance”. Or to piccalilli: “While recipes vary, everyone expects a British piccalilli to contain cauliflower, onion and gherkin, and have sweetness and pungency from mustard, and a vibrant yellow colour from the addition of turmeric. Crucially the veg should not be mushy … it’s unfair to mark down … if the chunks are small as there is a distinct category of “sandwich piccalilli” where the relish is designed to stay put comfortably inside a sandwich”.
• For chocolate, the advice is similarly wise; covering snap and texture, and explaining the importance of dark vs milk vs white, the dangers of vanilla, etc. And Silvija crucially also encourages thinking along different axes to the simple tastes of “sweet”, “bitter”, “salty” and “sour” by asking if the aromas are “complex or simple”, “distinctive or wan” and “intense or weak”, and to focus on the journey and aftertaste.

And this is where Silvija’s insights and focus on length, balance, complexity and depth of FLAVOUR really come into their own. ‘Tastes’; i.e. sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, etc.; can all be (re)assembled in a factory with additives. And the same is largely true for texture (see next week’s blog post on emulsifiers for more). But flavours and aromas are far, far more complex. Food scientists are only at the foothills of understanding how our olfactory system (i.e. our sense of flavour and smell) works; Linda Buck only won her Nobel Prize here in 2004. We don’t know how to (re)create the complexities and depths of FLAVOUR through additives and artificial constructions in anything like the way we can for taste and texture.

That’s why great chefs, and great chocolate makers, focus on coaxing aromas and flavour notes out of wonderful ingredients (including cocoa beans). Mass produced confectionery and ultra processed foods can’t ‘engineer’ these flavours. And that’s why Silvija’s leitmotif of looking for complexity, balance, intensity and length of FLAVOUR is so important whether it be brandy butter, custard, piccalilli, marmalades, marshmallows or CHOCOLATE.

Silvija is a beacon in her support of REAL food and craft chocolate, and in her condemnation of “lab-created, ultra-processed ‘equivalents’ … the rapidly accelerating drive (and disgraceful propaganda, so often aimed at kids) to undertake  supposed ‘green swaps’ and even, seemingly, to destroy farming and traditional food(s)”.

And if you’d like some evidence of how this works in practice, why not treat yourself to any of the well deserved AoC Award winning craft chocolate bars in the boxes we’ve assembled below.

As ever. thanks for your support, and a huge thanks to the hard work of Silvija, Chantal, Sarah Jane, Marie Pierre and all at The Academy of Chocolate.

Spencer

This week we are delighted to launch a new craft chocolate maker; LIM (standing for “Less Is More”). Please see below for MORE information on them and their bars.

But first; some questions for you to guess LIM’s country of origin…

1. In which country was the first recipe for using chocolate published? (Hint: The product was ice cream, and the book published in 1692, and it also included the first known recipe for tomato ketchup, see HERE for more).
2. In which country did a widow come up with (arguably) the first chocolate Easter egg?
3. In which country does one town still specialise in crafting stoneground bars with over a dozen brands? (And no, even though Taza does make stone-ground chocolate in Somerville, Massachusetts, the answer is not the USA).
4. In which country did a wartime shortage of chocolate lead to the invention (or at least the popularisation) of the much loved hazelnut and chocolate spread?

Well done if you managed to guess Italy! Please see further below for answers and comments.

And this week we are delighted to be launching a new Italian craft chocolate maker; LIM; from Federico and Francesca Dutto, who join the ranks of other great Italian craft chocolate makers including Karuna, Ruket and Amaro.

Their Background

Federico, Francesca and the family live in Fossano, a town famous for its panettone that is located about 100 kms from Turin.

Prior to becoming a craft chocolate maker, Federico was a pharmaceutical chemist for over a decade. Indeed, Federico still works part time for a pharmaceutical/nutrition company; although he hopes soon to devote himself full time to craft chocolate.

Conversion to Craft Chocolate

Just over five years ago, Federico was horrified to discover the appalling working conditions of most chocolate farmers (as he describes it; he couldn’t believe that cocoa farmers “[lacked] access to the basic needs [of] water and food, health, education”. In searching for a way to improve the farmers’ position, Federico discovered craft chocolate. And he immediately set to figuring out how to source cocoa beans, register as a chocolate maker, craft bars, and in October 2020 he sold his first bar.

Federico and Francisco named their company LIM, as an acronym of Less Is More. To expand on this a (little) more, as Federico explains:

 “I want to tell myself (and others) that we can find happiness and satisfaction in minimalism. That’s not easy, all of us are living in a world where commercial and social rules dominate. But, I believe, we can find a compromise. With my chocolate I want to guide consumers on a flavour journey. With just 2 ingredients (cacao beans and cane sugar) we can experience the very best that chocolate can offer”.

And they’ve set two simple, clear goals for LIM:

“The first one is to create a great place to work, with loyal employees. I want to set up a rural factory, which, alongside producing chocolate, allows people to relax, work, read, chat, and reconnect with nature“.

“The second goal is to create connections around the world, especially with partners (suppliers, customers, chocolate makers). I want to form partnerships with people who support a completely ethical business model“.

We’d also add that their bars are true to these sentiments. They really do show that “less is more”. These bars epitomise the craft chocolate belief that you can’t beat nature when it comes to flavour. Mass market confectionery believes that chocolate is another commodity ingredient where tastes, textures and (artificial) flavours can all be added in the factory. Craft chocolate believes that if you find great beans, less really is more. You need to coax out the flavour with careful fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding and conching. And then add a (little) sugar to bring out the flavour (note: mass market chocolate uses sugar to give you a sugar spike and create a dopamine hit, get you hooked, etc. see HERE for more). Mass produced bars are designed to make you want to scoff. Craft chocolate bars, like those from Federico and Francesca, make you want to savour.

And one final bonus insight: If you think that the logo on LIM’s packaging looks like an iceberg; you are correct. Federico and Francesca chose this as their logo after a “magical” trip to iceland, shortly after which they became engaged.

LIM only produce a few bars. So in addition to featuring their bars below, we’ve also added a few other great Italian bars from some of their fellow Italian craft chocolate makers: Armin and Katya from Karuna, Marco Colzani from Amaro, and Alessandro and Marco from Ruket.

Enjoy (buon appetito!), and thanks for your support.

Spencer

P.S. A huge congratulations to all of our makers who won at the 2022 Academy of Chocolate Awards. Click HERE or see below for some gift boxes containing these award-winning bars (more on this next week…).

Detailed Answers to the Quiz

• In which country was the first recipe for using chocolate published?

In 1692 Antonio Latini, a steward to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, published in Naples a recipe book with the first known mention of chocolate as an ingredient (for ice cream). And yes, this does seem to predate recipes for moles. For more see HERE.

• In which country did a widow come up with (arguably) the first chocolate Easter egg?

Way back in 1725, Turin, a widow known as MMe. Giambone started filling empty chicken egg shells with molten chocolate. The French like to counterclaim that some of Louis XIV’s crafted chocolate into Easter ostrich eggs; and to be honest, it’s hard to establish who was first really.

• In which country does one town still specialise in crafting stoneground bars with over a dozen brands? (And no, even though Taza does make stone-ground chocolate in Somerville, Massachusetts, the answer is not the USA).

For anyone heading to Italy, near Modica, you’ll be hard pressed to miss their predilection for stone-ground “Mexican-style” chocolate bars. Sadly most of these are made from couverture, and the makers aren’t really crafting the bars, but we’re hoping to be launching a Modica-based craft chocolate maker (Donna Elvira) soon; watch this space.

• In which country did a wartime shortage of chocolate lead to the invention (or at least the popularisation) of the much loved hazelnut and chocolate spread?

This one (again) is controversial; with the French claiming that they invented praline paste, (also called praliné (prah-lee-NAY)); a groundnut paste made from almonds or hazelnuts, and sugar; way back in the 16th century. But the idea of gianduja (jon-DOO-ya), i.e. combining hazelnuts and chocolate in a spread, is generally credited to a wartime shortage in 18th/19th century Turin where a chocolatier named Michele Prochet extended the little chocolate he had by mixing it with hazelnuts from the Langhe to create a paste that ensured the people of Turin could continue to savour chocolate.

It’s almost the end of the school year here in the UK, and almost all exams are over. So we thought it appropriate to design some novel gifts; with members of the Cocoa Runner’s team each designing a craft chocolate box for different school subjects.

• To thank your English teacher, Millie has created a gift box appropriately named ‘Shakespeare: The Chocolate Bar-d Box‘ where she’s matched five of Shakespeare’s plays (Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV, A Winter’s Tale, and The Taming of the Shrew) to bars from Friis-Holm, Zotter, Omnom, Raaka and Dormouse. See below for more on the plays and their bars.
• To thank language teachers, Iona has covered French, Spanish, German, and Italian with bars from (respectively) Bonnat, Utopick, Zotter, and Karuna in ‘The Polyglot Box‘. Again see below for more details.
• Nick has built a box for a geography or biology teacher, which spans the world and explains the crucial importance of craft chocolate to the environment. He’s chosen bars crafted from cocoa beans that are sourced from all over the world: from Brazil to Uganda, and Ecuador to the Congo, and made both at origin (i.e. the bars are made in the same country as the beans are grown) and also internationally (with bars crafted in The Netherlands and Switzerland). Each of the bars in ‘The Environment Box‘ also showcases the environmental advantages of craft chocolate. And Nick has also included a couple of bars with intriguing inclusions; one with coffee from Latitude and another from Luisa Abram that contains Theobroma grandiflorum, a closely related, but very different tasting relative of Theobroma cacao (the tree on which cocoa pods and seeds grow).
• Cecily has built a box for science teachers, with bars that cover physics, chemistry and biology. Included in ‘The Experiment Box‘ is also a pair of taster bars from Fresco that show how scientific experimentation can reveal radically different flavours through tweaking the way the same beans are roasted and conched. Again, please see below.
• Hannah has built a history themed box that showcases the history of craft chocolate bars, tracing the ways in which craft chocolate bars have evolved from rustic, stone ground bars in the 1840s, through to smooth conched bars, and onto milk, and finally white chocolate bars in the 1930s. See her ‘Origins Box‘ below for more details.
• Iona has built a box to delight any art teacher; with packaging and bar moulds inspired by, and designed by, artists from Karuna, Omnom, Rózsavölgyi Csokoládé, and Chocolate Tree. See her ‘Paint Box‘ below.
• And last but not least, Nick has also engineered a maths inspired box, with bars from Formula 1 engineers (Duffy’s), maths professors (Luisa Abram), plus bars with puzzling percentages (Åkesson’s “101%” Brazil Bar with cocoa nibs) and fractal, geometric designs (Chocolate Tree) all in ‘The Numbers Box‘.
  Each of these boxes comes with a Cocoa Runners gift box, and we’ve also taken at least 10% off the price of each box’s components, so these make great buys too. In addition, there are downloadable PDFs on the website that you can personalise, and learn more about, the bars and themes. Please see their dedicated page for more details.

If we’ve not managed to cover the subject taught by one of your teachers, we apologise. And may we suggest that you give any of these teachers one of our ICA award winning boxes instead?

As ever, thanks for your support; and thank you for thanking your teachers!

Spencer