What is happening with chocolate?
Chocolate production and consumption is undergoing profound changes. The seemingly endless expansion of the chocolate shelves at your local food store is only the visible side of the deep metamorphosis happening to the aging chocolate industry. Heavily relying on new technologies at all levels, every player involved in the chocolate chain needs to adjust to new realities. The large international companies are finding harder and harder to obtain cocoa beans in volume and at prices they like. Farmers are frustrated to be living at or under poverty levels even twenty years after the advent of “Fair Trade”, and consumers are increasingly demanding “authentic” products providing cocoa sensations while respecting people and nature. At the same time, new hardware is being manufactured that allows passionate chocolate lovers to start producing their own chocolate.
A movement?
In changes reminiscent to the growth of micro-breweries twenty years ago, everywhere in the world, cocoa hobbyist are becoming “Bean to bar” chocolatiers. They excitedly attend chocolate fairs and “Salon du Chocolat” in search of new flavors, new farmers and the perfect cocoa bean. Meanwhile the established chocolate manufacturers renew their devotion to cocoa farmers and their well-being while investing on the most successful bean to bar businesses.
Authors
Written by a bean to bar maker based in the Caribbeans, in association with a certified taster from the Academy of Chocolate Awards, this book provides a thorough view of this new chocolate scene, focusing primarily on the fine and specialty chocolate makers and their supply chain. The lead author, Alain d’Aboville, presents a dozen interviews of farmers and new chocolate makers from countries as diverse as Madagascar, Colombia, the Philippines and even Myanmar, among the many he has met all over the world.
Raising the Bar, bat Pam Willams & Jim Eber.
Pam William, the Founder of the “Ecole du Chocolat” teamed-up with Jim Eber, a professional writer to deliver a thought provoking and enlightning book about science and chocolate, cacao and genetics, chocolate and society. A serious content that read like a thriller but has the depth of an encyclopedia.
A must read for serious chocolate lovers!
Click the link to buy the Book Via Amazon
