Chocolate Frontiers

Chocolate can transport you to your happy place, some other-worldly realm, better than maybe any other food. If just for a few minutes. A product with this kind of magnetic pull - this sway over our emotions, was bound to become ubiquitous from the moment the conquistadors secreted the first cacao beans back to the Spanish court hundreds of years ago. It’s no wonder that chocolate is a $100+ billion industry around the world. We Americans eat just under 10 pounds of chocolate each every year, which, by the way, is only half of what the Swiss eat.

As we gift our way into the winter holiday season with boxes, and bags, and bars of the stuff, I got to wondering, where are the frontiers of chocolate?
For one, craft chocolate is creating a new wave of chocolate products and aficionados, much in the way specialty coffee and craft beer have over the past couple of decades. For this episode of Talk To me About Food, I had a good chat with Nate Saal, CEO of CocoTerra, a company whose mission is to revolutionize the art and craft of chocolate-making by making it more accessible. He explains what's happening in the world of artisan chocolate, and how his appliance will allow you and I to make our own, personalized craft chocolate.
Another frontier is the fruit that surrounds the cacao bean. Emanuel Gavert, an innovator at Mondelez, one the world's largest confectionary companies, talks about a "super food" snack they are testing which is made from the cacao fruit. Not only is it good for you, it also makes use of food that's been going to waste.
What we think of when we think of chocolate is also being defined by the small chocolatier with a storefront. Blue Stripes is a new restaurant in New York with a menu that celebrates everything cacao, from unusual shakes and juices, to sweet/savory bowls, to breakfast oatmeal.
Chocolate in more ways. All ways.