Rhapsody in Brown
Getting the Most Out of Chocolate
Story by Steven Krolak
Photo by Frank Barnett

I'm flipping through a new game called ChocolateSmarts. It's like Trivial Pursuit for chocoholics. Inside a small box, about the size of a praline gift assortment, are flashcards with questions and answers on the history, chemistry and culture of chocolate. I learn that most cocoa beans enter the United States through Brooklyn, that chocolate bars were invented in England in the 1850s, that chocolate is derived from a fruit. One card begs another. I'm hooked. It's like . . . eating chocolate.
   ChocolateSmarts was developed by SmartCo, a San Francisco, Calif.-based media company that invites customers to explore life's greatest pleasures, including wine, food, sex and now chocolate. The game is sold at gift stores and other retail venues, but so far, not in an overwhelming number of coffeehouses. This puzzles me. An item like this ought to be front and center, like the product it represents.
   Specialty coffee retailers have a lot to think about. Getting coffee right is a big job, and most shop owners are now expected to have a quality tea selection and the expertise to go along with it. To add a gourmet chocolate "program" to this growing list of responsibilities would seem to be unrealistic, except for one thing: it might significantly add to the value of the café experience, and hence to the bottom line.
   Are you getting the most out of chocolate? And if not, how can you do more?

Chocolate Renaissance
Julie Tucker is the writer of ChocolateSmarts and the co-founder, with Jennifer Elias, of SmartsCo. She denies she is a chocolate expert, but has some key insights. "In the great coffeehouses of Europe, every cup of brewed coffee comes with a small square of chocolate," she says. "You're not charged extra, because there is a perception that the two inherently belong together." The chocolate is part of the coffee.
   In specialty coffeehouses in the U.S., this is not the case. So much attention has been given to reducing coffee to its varietal fundamentals that the actual experience of drinking coffee has been stripped of the magic that often attaches to it in other parts of the world. In the average American shop, chocolate usually means mocha or hot cocoa, perhaps a steamer. Some adventurous shops offer Mexican hot chocolate. Some will have chocolate truffles, others will have bars, probably from a major producer (most likely the vendor of the cocoa powder mix), or perhaps a private label. There may be fudge or brownies in the display case. There are probably chocolate chip cookies or muffins. And that's it.
   Ten years ago, that may have seemed like enough. But today, the world of chocolate has changed dramatically. "I detect something cooking, a quiet revolution in the perception and enjoyment of chocolate," writes Maricel E. Presilla in The New Taste of Chocolate (Ten Speed Press, 2001).
   Chocolate has been "discovered" in the same way that wine, cheese and specialty coffee have been. A new generation of gourmet enthusiasts has changed the public perception of an old standard by reinventing it in response to a new type of consumer demand is based on quality.
   As Dan Bush, director of sales for San Francisco, Calif.-based Ghirardelli Chocolates, observes, "People are becoming more finicky about the types of chocolate they eat. They're moving away from milk in chocolate, They're looking for 70- or 83-percent cacao, which is a direct result of looking for a finer chocolate. Another market looks for organic or country-of-origin chocolate. People are looking for higher-end product."
   Frederick Schilling, founding alchemist of Central Point, Ore.-based Dagoba Organic Chocolates puts it this way, "American consumers are starting to appreciate what chocolate really is."
   What it is, Schilling notes, is not candy. It's a complex product derived from a fruit, like the flashcard says. And it's not necessarily sweet. Those of us raised on milk chocolate candy bars with a cocoa content of around 15 percent were eating a sugar product essentially flavored with chocolate. Today's emphasis is on a higher chocolate content that is less sugary sweet and more varied in flavor, like a food or wine. About a decade ago, chefs and confectioners in the U.S. began expanding the range of chocolate possibilities. The results have changed tastes and markets. Mark Spini, sales director of Burlingame, Calif.-based Guittard Chocolate Company, regales me with a list of infused or flavored chocolates that have lately attracted his attention, including "curry coconut, blood orange, pink grapefruit peppercorn, goat cheese roasted herb."
   Native to the tropics, the cacao or cocoa tree is an understory rainforest denizen that produces odd-looking football-sized pods, from which are extracted pulpy beans. The beans are fermented and dried before being sent to the factory, where they are roasted, winnowed and ground into cocoa liquor, which then undergoes several more steps before it is turned into cocoa powder, cocoa butter, or couverture, the high-quality chocolate purchased by chocolatiers, chefs and candymakers for use in most confections. Criollo, forastero and trinitario are the three major types of cocoa tree, though there are numerous subtypes and hybrids. The chocolate you are most likely to eat will be a blend that, like the best coffee, pools the notes and accents of several continents. Chocolate came to Europe in the 16th century, when the Spaniards conquered Central and South America. Like coffee and tea, it became a fad, a tonic, an elixir and a legend. It also came to be a factory product, and today the industry boasts both vertically integrated giants like Hershey and artisan craftsmen like Pierre Marcolini.

Chocolate in the Coffeehouse
Marketing high-quality chocolate is perhaps easier today, and more fun, than ever before. The chocolate industry has its own Starbucks-like marketing behemoth, Godiva of Belgium, that in the 1980s saturated the malls of America with the basic notion that there is a better quality of chocolate out there. The resulting demand is a boon to both artisanal chocolate makers and retailers. In San Francisco, Adam Smith's Fog City News began as a purveyor of foreign magazines and newspapers. Customers seemed to want more, and Smith added a few imported chocolates. Today, he carries 150 different bars and views chocolate as a significant revenue stream. Across the country, in Lenox, Mass., chocolatier Joshua Needleman has created Chocolate Springs Cafe, a mecca for chocolate lovers. Needleman is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, trained in Paris, with a love for Japan; his café fuses European chocolate traditions with Japanese aesthetics and the American love for experimentation. He also serves illy coffee, encouraging customers to sit, stay and enjoy the cameraderie of these two delights.
   To get the most out of chocolate, you have to put in the time and effort. You can begin by learning the story of chocolate, and then telling it to anyone who will listen. But until you really understand what you're dealing with, it's hard to speak as an authority or convey the message with the passion it deserves. Read books such as Marcel Desaulnier's Death By Chocolate or Maurice Bernachon's A Passion For Chocolate. Visit Web sites such as seventypercent.com or chocosphere.com to get an idea of the range of possibilities. Tour a factory, such as Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa. or the Scharffen Berger works in Berkeley, Calif. Attend a trade show, such as the annual event in New York, N.Y. While in town, you can visit La Maison du Chocolat, Dylan's Candy Bar, Payard's Patisserie and Bistro or other renowned chocolate shops. As you would with coffee, consult vendors and explore possibilities for integrating chocolate more dynamically into your retail operation. If you get really serious, there are chocolate classes at culinary schools and even chocolate tours of origin regions.
   Tastings are one of the easiest and best ways to create instant interest in chocolate, and by association, your coffees and teas. You can invite a local chocolatier or expert to lead the event, or you can do it yourself, provided you feel confident. How do you get confidence? Start tasting. Joshua Needleman suggests buying ten different varieties-bars are fine-from ten different producers in different countries, and becoming familiar with the flavor profiles, the acidity, sweetness or bitterness of each. You could do a tasting based solely on the differences between milk and dark chocolates. But soon you'll find yourself splitting hairs, comparing varying floral accents in diverse brands of 70-percent darks. As with coffee, your palate will become more sophisticated, and you'll soon be able to distinguish different nuances in aroma, color and taste. Blends or single origins? It doesn't really matter.
   Pairings are a natural next step, provided you have a wide variety of coffees and teas and are prepared to experiment. In a sense, anything goes. Needleman has actually been infusing his chocolate ganache with jasmine tea and chai, since tea is easy to meld into liquid chocolate. The same flavor profiles would work for pairings. Schilling of Dagoba has a different approach, pairing chocolates and coffees based on their origins. "These are sister plants," he says, "and are often grown on the same farm."
   While on the subject of origins, make a note: single origins are one key to the new chocolate revolution, and one of the best ways to profit from it. Your coffeehouse is probably based on single-origin roasts and special blends. Your chocolate program can incorporate this approach, too. By explaining the differences between criollos and forasteros, at the very least, you are making a big difference in the status of your shop, expanding the horizons of your customers and giving them another reason to come, and to stick around and buy things besides coffee. You can sell the single-origin concept in the form of chocolate bars, candies or in your drinks. Once you've become versed in chocospeak and competent in the use of chocolates, consider introducing single-origin flavors into your cocoa or signature drinks.
   Pairings can go far beyond the the obvious "this tastes good with that" approach, if you are prepared to think like an entrepreneur or inventor-proactively. Artisan food and drink companies are breaking down the barriers and learning to pool their resources in order to create something unique and unforgettable. If you are a specialty coffee roaster/retailer, why not strike up an acquaintance with a local chocolatier, and see if your beans and her chocolate might not merge in a new product?
   Finally, revisit your point-of-sale technique. Single-origin bars and fine European blends are already sold in specialty food stores, candy shops and online. Names like Michel Cluizel, Valrhona, Domori and Green & Black are no longer out of reach. They could just as easily be sold in your coffeehouse. As Guittard's Spini notes, "The specialty coffeehouse could be the ideal gourmet candy store. Just like coffeehouses have branched out into different areas of specialty coffees, they could do the same with specific chocolates."

Caveats
The whole point is to recognize that chocolate is another realm for you to diversify and exploit. Certainly the big boys are already doing it. Guittard's Spini says, "True entrepreneurs are jumping on the coffeehouse market, including the people who sell truffles and other chocolate items to Starbucks. I know because those are my clients. I sell them millions of pounds of chocolate every year." Why shouldn't you get a piece of this action?    Well, believe it or not, there are a few very good reasons to proceed cautiously. Chocolate, like coffee, has a long and complex supply chain. Where you choose to enter this supply chain is entirely up to you, but should be researched fully. Do you need to roast your own chocolate beans? Probably not. Do you have time to make your own truffles? Maybe. Should you phone the best local chocolatier and order a special confection? Definitely. The key is to be realistic about your expectations and capabilities.
   Another red flag might be the price point. High-end chocolates are expensive. Small squares are a wonderful compliment. But larger bars of very good chocolate can cost more than a specialty coffee drink. Few customers will tack $5.00 onto an espresso on impulse. But truffles and other small morsels are ideal.
   Storage is vital to any serious chocolate program. Chocolate is somewhat volatile. It needs to be kept at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. In chocolate bars, sudden or significant changes in temperature will cause "bloom," a white residue that forms on the outside surface. This is cocoa butter being extruded. It's not a flavor concern, but certainly affects the aesthetics of the product. Timing is also important. Good chocolate has a brief shelf-life, like pasta or coffee, and rather unlike cheese and wine. "Freshness is essential," says Needleman. "It's what separates a really special chocolate confection from the six-month-old store-bought candy bar."
   With these reservations in mind, you're ready to develop a real chocolate program.

Steven Krolak is the editor of Fresh Cup. He can be reached at steven@freshcup.com.