Chocolatier expose

The blog Dallas Food has a great article about an expensive gourmet chocolate brand, Noka (link). It's a great piece of journalism on three grounds: 1. It explains the process of chocolate making. 2. It's a thorough debunking, which is always fun. 3. It has some interesting things to say about the idea of 'authenticity' in food, which has always mystified me.

You've got to hand it to the people who run Noka, because it's a piece of marketing genius. Sell minimalist chocolates in minimalist packaging with a limited range, and then charge as much as $2000 per pound. Of course that would sell!

It's a long (ten page) article, but I found it worth the time. Here's an extract:

Before discussing each of these allegedly distinctive factors in turn, I'd like to briefly note some conceptual problems with Noka's goal of offering chocolate in its "purest form." For starters, the ideal of "purity" only makes sense if a purer product tastes better than a less pure product. A chocolate that contains no sugar is obviously purer than one that contains about 25% sugar by weight. But unsweetened chocolate--even from the best makers using the finest beans--is stiff stuff that few tasters would prefer. Noka implicitly recognizes this, since they've chosen to offer chocolates with 75% cacao solids rather than 100%.

But, even beyond that, what sense does it make to speak of "purity" when dealing with a processed food? Cacao pods are not "chocolate." Cacao beans are not "chocolate." Ferment, dry, roast, crack, and winnow the beans, and you're left with cacao nibs, which are closer, but still can't properly be called chocolate. All of these processes are manipulations of the natural ingredient, intended to make it more palatable. By the time you get from cacao pods to "chocolate," you have something that tastes much better, but is also less natural and pure.

The ideal of purity is also at odds with the history of chocolate. In the interview with Jennifer Parigi referenced previously, the folks at Noka said, "Ever since the ancient Mayans discovered the exotic flavors of the cacao bean in 250 to 900 AD, mankind has experimented and transformed this marvelous wonder into innumerable chocolate concoctions. But how many of us today have savored the flavor of real chocolate--as pure, rare, and flavorful as the ancient Mayans once relished?"

The question was rhetorical and the expected answer was "none" (or at least not many). But what the ancient Mayans relished was not solid chocolate as we now know it. Rather, it was a thick, gritty, generally unsweetened frothy beverage composed of ground cacao beans, water, and other spices and flavorings, frequently including vanilla, ground mamey pits, ear flower, chiles, and/or nixtamalized maize (i.e., masa). I'll grant that not many of us have savored anything like that. If we did, we'd probably spit it all over the front of our shirts, just like the Spaniards did when they first encountered the concoction.

Linked to from BoingBoing.

Ze Frank on going home for Christmas

This is Ze at his most poignant and poetic: Link.

The backlash against Ahmadinejad in Iran

This story hasn't been well covered, but it's worth knowing after all the scary news stories about Iran this year. In Iran's local elections this month, there was a big backlash against the supporters of looney President Ahmadinejad. (Link - and check out the Iranian women's lax hajib in the photo!) Like in the USA, a corrupt, incompetant idealogue might get a few years mileage out of chest-thumping and nationalistic cockpony -- but reality eventually catches up.

Just a few weeks before the election, some of Ahmadinejad's hardliner advisors branched off from the conservative camp and nominated their own candidates. They did not agree to join a coalition with other conservatives to form a collective front against the unified reformists. The conservatives' election failure has raised substantial criticism against the president's support for the radical faction of his supporters.

The head of the Cultural Commission in the parliament as well as a prominent conservative, Dr. Emad Afroogh was among the first to publicly react to the defeat of Ahmadinejad's allies. "People said a big 'NO' to superstitious sentiments, irrational expectations, delusions, and thoughts with no relation to experience or expertise," said Afroogh. Among the conservative and reformist middle class and intellectuals, these are well known characteristics of Ahmadinejad's style of governance.

...

"He figured his popularity had increased enough since last year's presidential elections for him to risk parting from the majority conservatives, and producing his own list of candidates called 'Followers of Ahmadinejad,' adding his sister at the top of the list," said Arghandehpour, former editor-in-chief of several reformist newspapers in Tehran. "Ironically, Ahmadinejad's list brought only three percent of the entire vote in the country, and his sister entered the city council with a minimum number of votes. These all reflect the diminishing popularity of President Ahmadinejad since last year. Many analysts believe he will have a weakened position for the next presidential election in 2009."

Happy Christmas

G'day, I hope everyone's having a nice Christmas, or at least getting through it. As a special Christmas treat, here's 'Dick In A Box' (not safe for work): Link. Hope you find it as funny as I did.

I just heard the sad news that James Brown has died. Be sure to go on Google Video or YouTube and see him performing 'Lost Someone' and 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World'.

I'll be resuming regular updates of the blog soon. Take care.