Is there anything better after a long day at work than leaving your worries behind and savoring the heavenly product known as chocolate? Or laying on a couch on a winter evening, with a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket? Don’t think so.
If you are an owner of a cafe, you know that there’s nothing that sells better during the winter season than hot chocolate, preferably with whipped cream and powdered cocoa on top of it. But finding good chocolate that can serve as a base of it, can be very hard.
If you google “wholesale white chocolate” you will probably find thousands of offers, all with different prices. So how can you know which one is actually good? Well, in most cases the indicator of good quality chocolate is the price. Good chocolate usually costs more than the low-quality one. But why is that? Well, keep reading to find out…
Emolument of Farmers
The thing with good chocolate is that to reach the exquisite flavour, you need to grow the right kind of cocoa, usually native. That requires money, as the farmers who take care of it will choose the offer that will be the most beneficial for them. Fine flavoured chocolate makers, in most cases, also take on the responsibility of buying the right equipment. Apart from this, they also provide farmers with other incentives to keep a good relationship.
Processing of Cocoa
Even though the compensation for the farmers is part of the reason, the way in which cocoa is processed is what truly makes good chocolate expensive. Three things should be done in the country of origin – fermentation, drying, and sorting.
Low-Quality Chocolate
When it comes to low-quality chocolate, the farmers are the ones responsible for the processing. The beans ferment together to ferment underneath, for example, leaves of banana. Then, once a rough fermentation is completed, they are laid out in the sun to dry.
The problem with low-quality chocolate processing is that farmers usually don’t sort it and just sell every bean as it is – if they did, it would mean a loss in weight. After all, the unpleasant flavours will be masked by vast amounts of milk powder, sugar and other flavourings.
Good-Quality Chocolate
When it comes to good-quality chocolate, the processing looks completely different. The first difference is that the fine flavour chocolate makers usually take on the responsibility of building a specialized facility. The farmers don’t take part in the processing – they sell the cocoa beans right after harvest. The whole process is treated very seriously so that they can get the most flavour out of every bean. Strict controls are performed so that the quality of the finished beans can be kept. Damaged, rotten or of poor quality beans are discarded.
For the facility to work, it needs labour, so costs are increasing as the fine chocolate makers need to pay salaries to their workers. Usually, the workers come from a local community and get paid better than they typically would in the area.
The Rest of The Process
Companies that produce low-quality chocolate usually buy cacao by the truckload, in contrary to good-quality chocolate makers that usually buy around 500kg of beans, sometimes a few tones. Because of an economy of scale, shipping small quantities is more expensive than sending large amounts. If you take into consideration customs tax and delivery within the country, it might turn out that your beans will be shipped to a port miles away from your workshop.
When the beans arrive, their quality is rechecked. Good-quality chocolate makers use labour, and everything is done with attention and patience. On the other hand, low-quality chocolate makers use machines, and everything is done without finesse.
What will the future look like?
The future of the chocolate industry is not looking very bright. The prices will be increasing. Some even say that by 2050, there will be no chocolate, and its lovers will have to find something else to satisfy their sweet tooth. You might wonder – why is that? What’s happening?
Well, the answer is simple – climate change. Chocolate might go extinct because of the higher temperatures and less rain in places where the cacao plant is raised. For a cocoa tree to grow, certain conditions need to be met, which limits the areas in which you can do it. Furthermore, it is already happening – for example, in 2013, people consumed 70,000 tons more cocoa than they produced.
Conclusion
Chocolate prices vary a lot – one bar can cost $1, and another can cost you $15. But just as the prices fluctuate, so do the processes through which the chocolate is made. It takes more money to produce good-quality chocolate than it takes to produce a low-quality one. Keep that in mind next time you’ll be standing in front of the shelf deciding which bar to buy.