Love chocolate? You have fungi to thank for that! On today's show we are walking you through the complex journey between the cocoa bean and a chocolate bar. The unmatchable decadence is achieved by unique fermentation methods and microbes. Yeast, filamentous fungi, and bacteria are all at play and today we have a chocolate scientist and PhD candidate, Caitlin Clark, who has dedicated her research to chocolate fermentation.
Topics Covered
- Lactic acid fermentation versus chocolates specialty microbes
- The complex and ethical journey of chocolate making
- Alkalizing chocolate
- Polyphenol content in a variety of chocolate products
- Psychoactive properties in chocolate’s constituents such methylxanthine and theobromine
- How fermentation alters potency of these constituents
- Mycorrhizal, endophytic, and pathogenic fungi involved in the cacao trees
- Other fungal relationships such as endophytes and mycorrhizal species
- Microbiome of fermentation in cocoa including yeasts, filamentous geotrichum, bacillus bacteria and more
- Wild ferments, aseptic ferments and experiments with starter cultures
- Chemical and mechanical ways that fungi transform the stock
- What determines a ‘good’ microbial presence versus a ‘bad’ one in the chocolate making process
- How cocoa byproducts are made
- Bloom in chocolate
- How to shop for the best quality chocolate
Show Notes
- Caitlin’s website: https://www.trimethylpyrazine.com/
- Caitlin’s Instagram: @chocolate.graduate
- Chocolate Vendor’s
- Bar & Cocoa: https://barandcocoa.com/
- SOMA: https://www.somachocolate.com/
- Quntu: https://en.qantuchocolate.com/
- Nuance Chocolate: http://www.nuancechocolate.com/
- White Label: https://www.whitelabelchocolate.com/
- Ethical aspects of the cocoa and chocolate value chain
- Natto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D
- Mycotoxins in chocolate making and cocoa products
- Further reading: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-DNBQ5kJRWPWm1nZXzjGH-VMgLJBtjsC?usp=sharing
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