8
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 8 APRIL, 2018
Chocolate is passion.
We give it as gifts to show love, we
indulge in it to seek solace. Chocolate is one of the few foods
with which we, human beings, have an emotional bond, says
Dr. Darin Sukha, Head of the the CRC’s Food Technology
section. When you make chocolate, he says, “you are
communicating the expression of passion.” The CRC is on
a mission to teach our local chocolatiers, cocoa farmers and
anyone interested, to express that passion through Trinidad’s
fine flavour cocoa beans, with its Introductory Chocolate
Making Course.
Begun in 2013, and with more than 200 graduates, this
course is the only fully intensive bean-to-bar training that
exists in Trinidad and is, in fact, “one of the few courses in
the world that gives you that in depth experience where
you start off with cocoa beans and end up with at least six
bars of chocolate that you would have made for yourself,”
says Dr. Sukha. The intention, he says, is to give participants
a holistic understanding of “the expression of genetic
flavour potential.” At the bean to bar level, he explains, it
is important for a chocolate maker to understand where
the cocoa bean comes from – its variety, how the plant
was grown and the beans fermented and dried, because
all these elements impact the flavour of that bean. “You’re
trying to capture the essence of the cocoa genetics you are
working with and express that flavour through chocolate,”
he explains.
This five-day course begins with the backstory of the
cocoa bean. Then, participants learn chocolate-making
techniques, as well as the social and economic aspects of
the industry, including teambuilding andmanagement, and
marketing skills like developing their brand, creating their
packaging and determining their prices. It’s an exhaustive
course that ends in a field trip to the International Cocoa
Genebank, Trinidad, so that students can experience a
real cocoa estate. “Every person who has done the course,
always leaves totally blown away,” says Dr. Sukha. “They
got so much more than they bargained for and that’s what
I was trying to do when I put together the course. I wanted
to give a full experience.”
SWEET HANDS AT COCOA RESEARCH CENTRE
Want to
Make
Chocolate?
In an endeavour to introduce another level of
expertise to their chocolate-making training, and to
satisfy students’ desires to do more with chocolate,
Dr. Sukha is developing an Advanced Chocolate
Making Course. It’s already in the works, with the
Food Tech team having already undergone a train-
the-trainers version of the course, with French chef
and chocolatier, Régis Bouet. In creating this course,
Dr. Sukha tried to determine “what are the most
important things in our [local] context that would be
useful as a next step.” There are many things, it turns
out, including, but certainly not limited to, learning
to make different types of ganache (which leads to
truffles and other tasty confectionaries), enrobing,
dipping and panning techniques to coat fruit, nuts and
other fillings in chocolate, as well as perfect tempering
techniques and chocolatemoulding to create elaborate
showpieces.
With its Introductory ChocolateMaking Course,
and its soon-to-come Advanced Chocolate Making
Course, the CRC aims to “create an awareness of the
interconnectivity of all the activities along the cocoa
value chain,” says Dr. Sukha. He explains that, when
a cocoa farmer or chocolatier adds to their skill set
and product offerings, they move along the chain and
add value to their business. He breaks it down – “You
start off with a tree which gives you a pod. If I were to
sell the cocoa pod, I’ll get a certain price. If I sell the
beans, I’ll get a higher price.” Keep moving along the
chain, through the cocoa and chocolate production
process, and your product’s value increases.
For anyone with aspirations in our local cocoa
and chocolate industry, the ability to make and sell
chocolate is a vital skill, and with the high quality of
cocoa that grows in Trinidad, the CRCwants to ensure
that all have the opportunity to learn those skills.
Visit the Cocoa Research Centre online to learn
more about the Introductory Chocolate Making
Course and all the work they do.
(Serah Acham)
“Every person who has done the course, always leaves totally
blown away,”
says Dr. Sukha.
“They got so much more than
they bargained for and that’s what I was trying to do when I put
together the course. I wanted to give a full experience.”
