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.

I was reading an online coffee forum where there was an active discussion about the advantages of making ones’ own chocolate syrup from scratch in a store daily, as opposed to buying one that is ready-made. A lot of the comments were accurate, such as the ability to customize a particular taste profile by working with different cocoa powders, sugar ratios, and unique formulas.

The forum discussion reminded me of an event involving a highly successful chain of coffee shops that used to make its own chocolate syrup from scratch in their stores - daily. When we first approached this company, it took great pride in their unique chocolate syrup that incorporated cocoa powder, sugar, and water. They already had a number of stores and each of these stores created their syrups every day.

Mont Blanc presented the executive team - all of whom are well-respected for their coffee expertise - with several of our syrups and we invited them to do a blind tasting. In the blind tasting, all five of the tasters - including their coffee roaster and CEO (who at the time had been in the business for over 20 years) - all ranked the drinks made from their homemade syrup last.

The result was they switched to one of our syrups. But there was high-level concern that store managers would be upset they were “selling out” by purchasing a ready-made product. To the contrary, all of their store managers and many of their baristas were thrilled they no longer had to make a mess in their stores every day by mixing cocoa powder on the counter in full view of customers.

Their employees understood the tradeoffs and decided that although the idea of a store-made syrup was appealing, the reality was that a ready-made syrup gave them consistency, portion control, increased food safety and ease of use.

That blind tasting was nearly 10 years ago and we continue to supply their chocolate syrup. And every year they sell more mochas than the last.

Now I would never discourage shop owners from trying to create their own products to use in their stores. But before embarking upon the path of creating a unique syrup from scratch, it’s useful to keep five points in mind. I’ll talk about those in my next post.

I’m curious. Do any readers of this blog currently make their own chocolate syrup from scratch?

Chocolate and coffee are inextricably linked in today’s coffee culture, as epitomized by one of the most popular drinks sold in cafés, the Café Mocha. The mocha is a combination of espresso, steamed and foamed milk, and chocolate.

Most café owners don’t pay much attention to their mochas, and many of them add a cheap, grocery store chocolate syrup to the beverages they serve. The irony is that café owners spend an inordinate amount of time and money tasting, testing and monitoring their coffee. Why not do the same with their flavored drinks? Like coffee, chocolate has many different flavors and aromas, as well as varying degrees of sweetness and mouthfeel. (Mouthfeel refers to how something feels when you taste it. Is it heavy, like cream, or light, like gelatin? Thick like a hollandaise sauce or thin like water?)

Offering a distinctive and rewarding mocha requires pairing the type of espresso used in the drink with a chocolate that will complement, and not overwhelm, the flavor of the coffee.

Some key questions that can be asked about the espresso are whether it is a dark roast or light roast. If it is a darker roast, then a less sweet chocolate offers a more intense flavor throughout the drink. A sweeter chocolate lightens the overall tone of a beverage.

Try this as an experiment:
Make two identical mochas, but in one add an inexpensive chocolate syrup from the grocery store. In the second, add a premium chocolate that contains more chocolate and cocoa flavor. Taste and compare the results for yourself. Let me know how your tastings go; I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the difference a quality chocolate can make.

One of my favorite products Mont Blanc has ever created is a blender drink we formulated for one of our clients. A well-known coffee company had created this drink but was looking for a way to offer it to their customers so that it was easy to make and serve. This unique frozen coffee beverage is mixed in a blender and combines fresh espresso with milk and ice. It has the smooth and creamy taste of a coffee milkshake, and is one of the most popular menu offerings in their stores. Because it was so popular, however, there were operational problems with being able to make and serve a high volume of drinks while customers waited.

We proposed to create a liquid base for our client, using their coffee, that didn’t require the mixing of powders and fresh espresso in each store. What made this project so interesting was that it took two manufacturers to create the finished product. One of our suppliers used our client’s coffee beans to make an espresso extract. The extract then was shipped to a second manufacturer who combined it as an ingredient into the final blender drink base.

The product is still available and is packed in a 46 oz. container. When stores receive the mix, the entire contents are combined with a half gallon of milk into a one gallon pitcher. When the drinks are ordered, baristas simply pour the mixture into a cup filled with ice, blend, and serve.

Since we created this product, the drink’s sales have consistently increased and baristas are happier because making and serving frozen drinks is so much easier. One of the most gratifying aspects of my job can be the result of working with a customer that allows Mont Blanc to innovate - and then share in our client’s success.