An Academy Of Chocolate Evening, July 12th 2018
To The Library above L’Escargot in Soho’s Dean Street, a suitably erudite venue for a fascinating evening spent discussing and tasting the art of the specialist chocolate-maker.
In the Academy we spend a great deal of time and care identifying and promoting chocolate made from great quality cocoa beans with distinctive flavours. And quite right too – nobody ever made great chocolate from bad beans. But how do you get the best out of your beans? How can a chocolatier bring out all the nuances of great cocoa and ensure they are expressed in the finished chocolate?
Tonight we were fortunate to have three exciting chocolate makers to guide us through this process and show how the same cocoa beans can result in very different chocolates depending on how those beans are processed.
Sophie Jewett of York Cocoa Works was up first. She explained a little of York’s history as a centre of chocolate production, and her own personal journey to becoming a chocolate manufacturer. Sophie used the example of Gran Nativo Blanco cacao from Peru to illustrate different roasting profiles and tasting experiences, including two 63% Dark chocolates that are made to the same recipe but using different machines and in different styles, plus two chocolates made to the same recipe but with higher and lower bean roasting profiles.
Dom Ramsey explained how he moved from chocolate blogger, to author , to proprietor of Damson Chocolate. Dom had brought with him his standard 60% Dark chocolate – again made using Gran Nativo Blanco beans but lacking the strong acdity of Sophie’s version. Roasting and grinding his beans with a fine Peruvian coffee made for a wonderful combination, whilst addng 10% cognac made for a chocolate that was hard to handle but easy to eat.
Finally Isobel Carse of Dormouse Chocolates lead us through how she went from cocoa-head to manufacturer and how Dormouse are on the move. Her samples, again made from Gran Nativo Blanco beans, included an 80% Dark with smoked seasalt and a 60% Milk. An experimental taste of caramelised cocoa nibs with Christmas spices was received extremely well by the 35 or so enthusiasts in the room and looks to become a popular addition to the Dormouse repertoire.
I then lead a lively Q&A session which included what chocolate makers look for in a cocoa bean, how economies of scale work the wrong way when you are importing tiny quantities of beans and the likely effect of the forthcoming EU legislation on maximum cadmium levels (summary: bad).
We promised attendeees “a great evening of tasting and discussion and some damn fine chocolate” and our three chocolate makers delivered exactly that. Bravo!
Thanks to Jennifer Earle for the photo.