According to the latest report from Produlce, the Spanish Association of Sweets, each inhabitant of Spain consumes an average of 5.5 kilos of chocolate per year. However, the product remains largely unknown, both in terms of its production and consumption, as demonstrated by the dozens of questions posed by EL PAÍS readers on the subject. The questions that are most frequently asked are about its conservation, especially in summer, and about how to distinguish a quality chocolate in the mouth. Santiago Peralta, founder of Paccari, considered one of the best chocolates in the world, answers these and other questions.
1.
Is it good to eat if it melts due to high temperatures?
If the chocolate melts, that’s fine, but it’s fine if it’s hot. In fact, I think it’s better to have it like that than cold. When it’s frozen, chocolate doesn’t work, but when it’s hot, chocolate opens up and expresses itself better, at least in the world of fine aroma cocoa.
2.
How to know if a chocolate is of quality?
Good quality chocolate should melt well in the mouth. It usually has flavours that emerge immediately, fine cocoas have these special aromas. They don’t just have a flat, boring chocolate flavour with a bit of vanilla, but they also have other floral, fruity, caramel, nutty, almond flavours… Good chocolate expresses itself with many flavours of what is known as fine cocoa that provide these special nuances. They are a journey of flavours.
3.
How should it be stored? Can it be put in the refrigerator?
It should not be put in the fridge. Chocolate is fine where we are. If you have air conditioning at a good temperature, it is great. With the fridge, there is a risk that the chocolate will take on the flavour of what is in the fridge because it takes on a lot of the flavours of what is nearby. It is better to keep it in a cool, dark place. Wherever there is wine, chocolate is fine too.
4.
What should I look for when buying chocolate?
The origin of the cocoa and the origin of production. I really like chocolates from Latin America, especially from Ecuador, which has fine cocoa. You also have to make sure that the first ingredient is cocoa, otherwise it’s not chocolate, and the percentage. It should always be a chocolate with a high cocoa content, with 60% or 70%, and up. For me, those are the great chocolates.
5.
How is white chocolate made?
White chocolate is a lot of fat, a lot of sugar and milk powder. It is not chocolate.
6.
What is the perfect accompaniment to chocolate?
You’re talking about a world. A good rum with a good chocolate with salt or 70% raw. A good whiskey, there are many flavors that can work or with a good port wine there are chocolates that work well. A chocolate with lemon verbena, with lemongrass or with passion fruit, with a cava it is perfect for the summer; a rosé It goes really well with chocolate and roses. We have paired it with mezcal, with tequila… with pisco, with many spirits it goes well. With good cheese. With Asturian cave cheeses, the coffee one goes very well and the salty one. These are very personal tastes.
7.
What should I keep in mind when buying chocolate powder?
I like 100% cocoa. Zero sugar. Those are my tastes and you basically play with the percentage.
8.
What is cocoa paste?
It is a cocoa bean that is roasted, the shell is removed and ground to a thickness of about 80-100 microns.
9.
Could cocoa be planted in Spain?
Yes, of course, in the south and with global warming it will arrive soon. I know there is cocoa in Andalusia. And in the Botanical Garden of Madrid there are about three cocoa plants that were planted a year ago.
10.
Why is chocolate rising in price?
Because of climate change. 50% of world production has not been achieved this year and it seems that the same circumstances will be repeated next year. There are very serious droughts, huge temperature variations where cocoa decides not to produce, does not flower or flowering stops and this means that we have 50% less cocoa in the world.
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