[Larry_OHF]

Here's some information I found while trying to find exactly "who" makes the "real" stuff.

A guy named Alessio Tessieri had the idea that if you cannot make fine wine without the proper grapes grown in the proper region, then it could be that the best chocolate could only come from the right crop in the right soil. He found that region and began to grow the criollo beans in an isolated part of Venezuela called Chuao.

It is because Venezuela is the homeland of Criollo, the most noble of all the genetic varieties, yet at the same time, one of the most fragile and least productive, therefore produced in minimum quantities (Criollo and its hybrids represent on 5-10% of world production). In Venezuela, just three tonnes out of every 16,000 are Criollo cocoa in the pure form: the rare and valuable Porcelana cocoa. Amedei has conducted in-depth agronomic research and genetic testing on Porcelana and today it buys up all the stock grown, paying up to eight times more than the Forastero quality. Forastero is most used cocoa around the world, even by the most famous chocolate producers. Criollo offers extraordinarily high quality: its beans are subtler and sweeter than Forastero cocoa. Forastero is the most widely grown cocoa in the world and provides high yields, but has a less complex aroma and is slightly more bitter than Criollo. Only the upper part of the Chuao plantation is planted with one hundred percent Criollo

...he dictated three conditions summarised in a production protocol for fermentation and drying. Since cocoa is like a sponge it will absorb any external odour. Similar to wine, it takes on its aroma from the soil: if you put wine down to ferment in good wood, it will take on the characteristics of that wood. If you leave it to dry on asphalt, it will absorb the taste of pitch (this is what happens in other countries where farmers steal pieces of asphalt to dry out their tiny harvests).

ref: http://www.finedarkchocolate.com/Cho...rces/Chuao.asp


Here are links to this Italian market.

http://www.amedei.com/jspamedei/index.jsp?lang=en

http://www.amedei-us.com/

This website has a group devoted to Chocolate the way wine experts are devoted to the best wines. They rate the chocolate in much the same way, and have a list of the top 10! They also have a forum.

http://www.seventypercent.com/chocop...tail.asp?ID=67

Here is another forum that I like to read from every once in a while.

http://www.chocophile.com

Also, from that reference link, it contains a FAQ that has some great information that I wish I would have come across last semester when I was doing my presentation for school. Ah well...I still got an A.

http://www.finedarkchocolate.com/Cho..._FAQ/Cacao.asp

Sample FAQ from that page:

The International Germplasm Database of Cacao drawn up in 1997 includes about 12,500 cacao clones. Its exactness will be tested only when a cost-effective method for the detection of cacao molecular DNA is designed and used as a bar-code for clone identification. Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario are the three leading types of Theobroma cacao. Their difference results from their pod structure, the colour of their beans and the number of beans per pod. The Criollo varietal was probably grown by the Meso-american civilisations. Its fresh beans are thick and have white or pink cotyledons, low acid levels and low bitterness, and once processed they produce a smooth, very flavored cacao. The Forasteros come from the subspecies Theobroma cacao sphaerocarpum, and have flat, violet-coloured beans, with high astringency. They are divided into two species, growing in the Amazonian Highlands and Lowlands respectively, and the latter is the most commonly grown cacao in the world, especially in Brazil (comun and parà) and western Africa. The Trinitario is a hybrid bean of Criollo and Forasteros, emerged after a natural disaster that occurred in Trinidad in 1727 and destroyed the criollo plantations. Thirty years later the Capuchin friars built their missions again and planted some Forastero seeds, that hybridised with the remaining criollo trees and soon the new varietal of Trinitario was born. The latter combines some flavor and sensory features of the Criollo with the strength and high yield of the Forastero. In terms of quality standard, cacao is distinguished into: flavor or fine or special or sweet cacao and bulk cacao. The first includes: Criollo, Trinitario and Nacional, which actually is a Forastero but is the only flavor cacao of this kind and is solely grown in Ecuador. The second group consists of the Forasteros.

[ 03-22-2007, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]