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The Flaming Sword of Truth
Myth Number 1. Mango madness
According to Kim Severson of the NY Times, "growing cacao trees in the soil of a former mango grove might result in chocolate with a faint flash of the fruit" [1]. Or then again, it might not!
What's new
Chocolate Rudd Cake!
Check out the chocolate cake the nine out of ten prime ministers prefer ...
Book review: The Chocolate Connoisseur"
Is it acceptable for chocolate lovers to be "educated" on lies and misinformation?
Chocolate Review Re-launched
This website has been around for a few years now, but I recently decided to give it a complete overhaul.
Since Chocolate Review first came online in 2005, a lot has happened in the chocolate industry. For instance, two pioneering artisanal chocolate factories (Scharffen Berger and Dagoba) were sold (some have said sold out) to Hershey. Since then, new and exciting artisanal manufacturers have sprung up in their places, such as Askinosie and Patric, to name just two.
But, while the public interest in cocoa, cacao, and fine chocolate seems to be growing exponentially, I've noticed that the overall quality of available information doesn't really seem to be getting any better, and in fact some myths (and boy, there are a lot of myths floating around the chocolate industry) seem to be getting more and more entrenched.
If any one thing has ignited my desire to speak out at the top of my voice against the rubbish that has floated to the surface of the chocolate world, that one thing would be Chloe Doutre-Roussel's book, "The Chocolate Connoisseur". Doutre-Roussel's book is so bad that it has taken me about 8 months, and 8,000 words to address its monumental awfulness. The worst thing about "The Chocolate Connoisseur" is that it contains dangerous ideas, dressed up in an innocuous-looking pink wrapper. If you think that I'm exaggerating, I'm not: Chloe Doutre-Roussel's advice has the potential to destroy the chocolate industry. Doutre-Roussel's book plays on the profound scientific ignorance of consumers who can't really be expected to know that they're being lied to and deceived.