There were certainly plenty of drink choices here at SIAL. Coffee and tea, fruit juices, water, soft drinks, energy drinks, wine and spirits. Aisle after aisle — and there were hundreds of aisles — showcased bottles, cans, bags and boxes of beverages.  The trick, of course, was standing out in the crowd.

My favorites were the fruit drinks from West Africa. Unusual flavors, such as baobab, soursop and tamarind, are interesting to try. I got some samples to bring home to the lab to see how we might use them in some drinks. I’m thinking about a white chocolate hibiscus drink. I wonder how it will taste … ?

Cocoa powder is the fine powder that results from pressing cocoa butter from chocolate liquor. Different cocoa powders yield different flavors; to understand this more it might be helpful to first know how cocoa powders are processed.

After cocoa beans are roasted, they are shelled and the nibs are separated and ground.  The grinding produces a dark brown liquid called chocolate liquor. The liquor is comprised of fat and solids and it hardens at room temperature.

In 1828, a Dutchman named Coenraad Van Houten sought to separate the two components and, in turn, invented the cocoa press. The press took the solidified chocolate liquor and, by using a screw process, separated out two distinct products:  pure cocoa butter and a cocoa “cake.” Van Houten then took the cake and pulverized it to create the first known cocoa powder.

Different types of cocoa powders

•    Dutch process cocoa powder – Cocoa powder in its purest form is quite acidic. Our Dutch inventor, Van Houten, cleverly added alkali to mellow its naturally acidic taste in drinks. To this day, the addition of alkali is known as Dutching and the end product is Dutch process cocoa powder. Alkalized cocoa powders tend to be smoother and darker in color.  When reading ingredient labels, alkalized cocoas might also be described as cocoa powder with alkali. A natural cocoa powder with no alkali added will have a more acidic flavor.

•    Low-fat and high-fat cocoa powders - When the cocoa cake is pressed, most of the cocoa butter is removed. But invariably some fat is left behind. And the amount of fat present in the powder leads to another classification. High-fat cocoa powders have 18 percent to 24 percent cocoa butter, while low-fat cocoa powders contain between 10 percent and 12 percent cocoa butter.

•    Single-origin cocoa powders - Cocoa powders can be made from blending cocoa beans from different growing regions. Powders also can be made using beans from a single origin.  Differences in flavor will result from both types with single-origin powders yielding a fruitier, richer chocolate.

At Mont Blanc, we like to use cocoa powder because of its versatility and concentrated flavor. In addition, because we make so many syrups, it works better than chocolate because having too much fat in the form of cocoa butter can overwhelm the finished flavors of a drink, giving it too much mouthfeel and affecting the viscosity of the syrup.  We constantly experiment with different cocoa powders, low fat and high fat, natural and alkalized, blending them to achieve what we consider the perfect combinations for our syrups.

Denver temperatures remain in the 80s after a month of record-setting heat. It’s hard to believe that the winter holiday season is almost upon us.

But at Muppet labs we have been hard at work creating seasonal drink mixes for this fall and winter, and two projects are now complete. Both are following the trend this year toward comfort-food drinks. This will be a strong season for flavors associated with a traditional home kitchen.

For one customer, we developed a Pumpkin Spice syrup. Our second formulation involved creating a ginger spice latte.  We are extremely happy with the results in both cases.

From a flavor standpoint, customers also have begun inquiring about our spicy chocolate syrup which has a chocolate base and is flavored with peppers, ginger and cinnamon.

As people grapple with political, economic, and financial uncertainty, the consumer shift to the comfortable becomes even more pronounced.  So this year, get ready to enjoy the taste of pumpkin pie, gingerbread and chocolate and cinnamon in your special beverage.