"cocoa" news and stories

Cocoa may come in many flavors on the shelf, but making it yourself releases the true flavor.

Xoco's churros are hard to get. Photo: ehfisher/flicker.

Would you wait three days for a "Top Chef" churro?

Rick Bayless, one of Chicago's top chefs and the winner of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters," is extending his gourmet Mexican empire to street food. Last week, he added XOCO (pronounced "Sho-Co") to his string of Windy City hot spots including Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. The latest aims to bring authentic Mexican tortas and caldos (sandwiches and soups) to the masses. How did it go over with the locals? The line snaked out the door.

When Slashfood swung by for after-dinner churros -- the delectable fried-dough treats sprinkled with sugar and spices -- it took three nights of trying to get in.

I grew up on Swiss Miss hot chocolate - cocoa powder and hot water, as simple as that. While living in Paris, I tried rich thick hot chocolates that made my Swiss Miss alternative seem overly watery and lacking in flavor and texture. So, when I returned to NY, I became intrigued by the many different ways to make this simple drink more exquisite. Mexican hot chocolate is probably my favorite.

If you're looking to spice up your hot chocolate, you don't necessarily have to add anything to the combination besides water, milk, and chocolate. Think about using different kinds of chocolates. For example, a Mexican hot chocolate is made from chocolate that has often been blended with sugar, vanilla and spices, like cinnamon. Taza Chocolate in Somerville, Massachusetts produces a particularly delicious Mexican chocolate that you can purchase online. It's amazing what cinnamon does for hot chocolate.

Of course, you can also create different hot chocolates by adding some rum and a variety of creams. Check out these 8 remarkable hot chocolate recipes below and let us know which ones are your favorite:

1. Mexican Hot Chocolate
2. Belgian Hot Chocolate
3. Hot Chocolate from The Barefoot Contessa
4. Hot Chocolate Agasajo-Style
5. Hot Chocolate with Rum
6. Superrich Hot Chocolate with Coconut Cream
7. Hot Chocolate Passion
8. Martha Stewart's White Hot Chocolate

Chocolate comes from pods, such as the one photographed above. When I arrived in Jamaica, my first stop was to see Dennis, a fruit and spice vendor in Ocho Rios. After he showed me raw unsweetened morsels of cocoa, he took out a large cocoa pod. A pod contains 20 to 45 seeds, also called "beans", fixed in white pulp.

Each of these seeds contains a large amount of fat (40–50% as cocoa butter) and the active ingredient theobromine, similar to caffeine. Theobromine is what makes chocolate lethal for dogs. There are two cocoa varieties in Jamaica: Forastero and Criollo. The harvest takes place in the fall, between September and November. The beans are taken from the pods and processed extensively.

Tasting an unprocessed cocoa bean makes you realize how much sugar is added after being processed. The cocoa beans we tasted had a strong bitter flavor similar to that of a coffee bean. This has to do with the presence of theobromine, which like caffeine gives you energy. We purchased some of the beans and ground them with coffee beans to make a tasty energy drink - mocha coffee. I am curious to know other ways one can use unprocessed cocoa beans in cooking. If you have you ever used them, what sorts of dishes were they for?

The Fine Chocolate Industry Association has honored seven chocolate makers and chocolate companies at its first ever Recognition of Excellence Ceremony.

Winners included the late Dr. Robert Steinberg, co-founder of Sharffen Berger Chocolate, for Innovation in Fine Chocolate Products, Fran Bigelow of Fran's Chocolates for Outstanding Fine Chocolatier; North America (Obama is apparently a big fan of her stuff; I'm obsessed with her salted caramels), Alexander Morozoff, publisher of Cocoaroma magazine for Outstanding Fine Chocolate Literature (a worthy new genre, I think), Gary Guittard of Guittard Chocolate and E. Guittard for Lifetime Achievement, Valrhona for Outstanding Fine Chocolate Maker/Manufacturer; Europe (food writer and Iron Chef America judge Jeffrey Steingarten never travels without several bars of Valrhona's bittersweet), Norman Love of Norman Love Confections for Innovation in Fine Chocolate Presentation (check out his rainbow-colored Black chocolate collection), and Robert Linxe founder of La Maison du Chocolat for Outstanding Fine Chocolatier; Europe.

I wonder what they serve at the awards banquet?

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