Raw Chocolate?

Just a few days ago I wrote about “real” chocolate, and an Indian Bean to Bar producer called Earth Loaf that makes raw chocolates in Mysore, South India. And today, my professor, Chef Sushil, brought two bars of Earth Loaf to share with us at college!

One was a simple bar of 72% cocoa beans and the remaining 28% coconut sugar, studded with violet coloured unroasted cocoa nibs. The other was one of their most famous flavours – a 68% cocoa bean bar with mango, red capsicum and chilli!

Photo courtesy of Professor Sushil DN, via Instagram

Apart from their innovative flavour combinations, Earth Loaf is well-known for being Asia’s only raw chocolate producer.

So what is raw chocolate?

All cocoa beans are roasted before they are ground into cocoa liquor, the shiny liquid that is cooled into chocolate bars. It is believed that only after the beans cross a temperature of 110^O C the true chocolate flavours are unlocked, so most beans are roasted at 130-135^O C for the ideal flavour profile.

However, the Raw Food movement believes that foods lose several nutrients if cooked. And it is with this philosophy in mind that Earth Loaf makes chocolates. I believe, their aim is to preserve all the powerful antioxidants present in the cocoa bean by skipping the roasting process. To skip this process and still make chocolate with great flavour must take some real skill.

With their recipes, their use of earthy coconut sugar instead of refined cane sugar, and their innovative flavour combinations like the ones I tried today, I find their bars of chocolate delicious! And while I personally am not a follower of the Raw Food movement, it was definitely interesting to have learned that such a concept can even be applied to chocolate so successfully.