Hard News: Chocolate elitism
148 Responses
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I think it is time there were some controls put on what can and can't be called Chocolate
I recall that under the current rules, if Cadbury's put 1+ per cent less cocoa mass in their dairy milk, it would not be chocolate.
It is important to the look and mouth-feel of the chocolate, not to the flavour.
"Texture influences how flavour is perceived." says the lady quoted in the article about how the Press newsroom preferred the new Cadbury's.
Tempering tantrum anyone?
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Friday link for all those folks loving their big gay weekend house anthems:
Calvin Harris - "Ready for the Weekend (High Contrast Remix)" available on Hype Machine
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If every bar has a glass and half of full cream milk, and the size of the bars has dropped from about 250 grams to 200 grams, does that mean there is proportionally more milk in the chocolate?
That's why they couldn't fit so much chocolate in, and had to compensate with palm oil.
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If every bar has a glass and half of full cream milk, and the size of the bars has dropped from about 250 grams to 200 grams, does that mean there is proportionally more milk in the chocolate?
Unless the buggers shrunk the glass size too...*g*
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putting it well on the road to wtf-is-this Hershey Hell anyway.
That road is more usually referred to as the Hershey Highway (just Google it).
So much for the glass and a half of full cream milk.
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Devonport Chocolates on POnsonby Rd - just delicious, lethally good and addictive.
But otherwise, Whittakers over Cadburys any day.
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A shotglass and a half, perhaps.
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Pictures do tell a story (ta, @thomasbeagle).
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Regarding the Palm Oil thing, the guy from Cadbury's was claiming their Palm Oil is "sustainably sourced". Is that possible ? Bit like the Kwila decking issue ? How would the consumer "really" know.
That's an important question for me; about child slavery even more than rainforests.
Wandered into Philippe's once and the service staff knew nothing about the origins of the chocolate. Schoc says simply "all our growers are treated fairly and respectfully", which is more than I've seen on many an expensive brand's website but hardly beyond question.
Turns out that Callebaut has a useful page on Corporate Social Responsibility (thanks for that link, Rik) but it seems any certification they could apply for is still in the pipeline. That leaves me eating the limited range of Fair Trade certified products, but thinking many of these small and tasty-looking brands are probably safe. How can I know?
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Russell, didn't you learn your lesson not to talk about palm oil years ago with that crazy paid commentator?
Also, if you want a mouth orgasm, get yourself some Clearview Sea Red dessert wine (it's a tiny bit salty from the grapes being grown so close to the sea) and eat it with Shoc Chili chocolate. Oh my stars, you'll eat it with your eyes closed and won't want to open them again, it's that good.
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Friday link for all those folks loving their big gay weekend house anthems:
Calvin Harris - "Ready for the Weekend (High Contrast Remix)" available on Hype MachineAs one heterosexual man to another, thanks honey.
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Regarding the Palm Oil thing, the guy from Cadbury's was claiming their Palm Oil is "sustainably sourced". Is that possible ? Bit like the Kwila decking issue ? How would the consumer "really" know.
I did a bit of googling on this the other day.
Cadbury get their oil via people who are certified through an industry group, the RSPO. Said group appears to be a voluntary, loosely regulated and badly inspected organisation with no teeth. cite.
Money quote:
"... the RSPO is failing to enforce even its own minimum, and from Greenpeace’s point of view, insufficient criteria.
The certifiers have ignored several issues including land conflicts, operations in breach of Indonesian law, development without High Conservation Value assessments and continued clearance of forests and peatlands, even though some of this land clearing took place on peat more than 2 m deep and is therefore illegal under Indonesia law.The granting of the first sustainability certificate by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to United Plantations seems little else but a cover up of business-
as-usual including land grabbing, deforestation, peatland conversion, and the violation of Indonesian law." -
I've just returned from protesting about Cadbury's use of palm oil at the annual Jaffa Race.
Hey good job Katie.
Oh my stars, you'll eat it with your eyes closed and won't want to open them again, it's that good.
So not to be eaten before appearing on TV then?
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Rik,
That leaves me eating the limited range of Fair Trade certified products, but thinking many of these small and tasty-looking brands are probably safe. How can I know?
Fear not Martin - in the not too distant future you will be able to purchase a locally (Grey Lynn) produced bar of chocolate made from fresh high quality trinitario cacao beans sourced through a fair trade agreement directly with the pacific-based plantation. The only serious food miles associated with it will be in shipping the beans down from the islands to NZ. And it will be very good for you. And it will taste like no chocolate you have tried before (in a good way!).
Yes, your conscience will be clear...but your wallet will have a dent in it!
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Rik, that looks like something we could get behind. Don't be a stranger now.
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I was wondering whether Cadbury's decision was more to do with the shift in manufacturing from NZ. I suspect the plants in Aussie were not set up in the same was as those here.
Pure conjecture on my part.
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Rik: I'm one of those who likes Whittaker's Dark Ghana, and one of the things I particularly like about it is the coffee note! So I suspect that if you were to produce something with actual coffee in I might find it irresistible.
I've come to terms with the fact that I am probably a "low taster". I enjoy the potentially philistine dark choc/scotch combo too.
I feel we ought to cross-pollinate Mr Slack's latest thread. After all, Whittakers are locally owned, aren't they?
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Whittaker's Mocha has ground up coffee beans in it. I bought some by accident once - extra coffee beans aren't so useful when you're making ganache. It's quite nice eating though.
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As one heterosexual man to another, thanks honey.
:)
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This thread should have a warning: Do not read on a Friday afternoon if you have low blood sugar!
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I would certainly buy real Grey Lynn chocolate (and as mentioned am available for product testing purposes). Seems that a caffeinated variety would be locally appropriate, but I must say the Rapunzel one was a bit too gritty for my liking.
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You wouldn't be going to sell it through the new Grey Lynn Farmers Markets that are happening in Sept, would you, Rik? Cos that would be awesome.
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I'm completely traumatised that my beloved Cadbury's is one of the bad guys.
I was born and brought up in the UK in Bournville, Birmingham - the original home of Cadbury's. The factory is still there, and still makes chocolate.
I went to George Cadbury Infant and Junior Schools; every Christmas the whole school would be invited to the factory cinema to watch a hand-picked movie; all us girls in the village would spend months practising maypole dances and we'd perform at the Maypole festival which was held once a year on the Cadbury's recreation ground; if the wind was blowing in the right direction you could smell the chocolate from my house; and the the whole of Bournville was (and still is) a conservation area (of which we were very proud) because George Cadbury did such a bang-up job of creating a model village for his workers at the turn of the century.
George Cadbury himself (as we all learned at school) was a Good Guy. A Quaker who built a factory on the outskirts of the big city and determined that the houses he would build for his workers would be a hundred times better than the dwellings most working-class people lived in at the time. Indoor loo, plumbing, hot water, semi-detached (not terraced), and each house had a garden with 5 fruit trees planted in it. Parks throughout the village, a village green, recreation grounds adjoining the factory so that the men and women who worked for him could keep fit, no pubs allowed within the village boundaries (to this day!)... quite amazing really.
George Cadbury must be turning in his grave at the thought of how far from his original enlightened ideals his products have strayed...
*sniff*
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Russ speaking of chocolate and single malt, if you encounter a bottle of Bowmore Darkest buy it, the stuff tastes of chocolate. It's chocolate from the direction that malt on the tongue can become sort of burnt and caramelly, os on the dark high % scale, but choc nevertheless. My wife loves is and only knows it as 'the chocolate malt'.
It is also sad that Cadbury's is doing this, their product here in the UK is waxy not particularly pleasant because it has more hydrogenated vegetable protein than milk solids in it. The NZ version was always much better and comparing the ingredients list was always sobering.
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I'm a huge fan of Makana Chocolate(s) in Blenheim (they also have a shop in Northland I believe). Expensive, but oh so delicious.
Last night I watched that Macca concert that was linked to earlier. So good, but it also made me sad at the same time for the loss of Harrison and Lennon.
And in a tangentally related bit, my favourite YouTube star - comedian / Impersonanator Steve Riks has had his Youtube account suspended for reasons unknown.
He started a secondary account, but it only has a few of his impersonations up. Here Paul McCartney makes a cup of tea;
He seems to have kept his covers off the new account, but they can be seen elsewhere:
And here's a link to more. Top stuff, only his Freddie Mercury misses the mark, imo.
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