Archive for ‘chocolate’

Built to Last: 135 Marzipan Makers and Niederegger

By Susie, 2 January, 2012,

German Candy Industry Report: Part 1

Making candy is a centuries old profession, easy to start yet difficult to master and develop a cult following. If you think the environment for candy is competitive today, hearken back to the early 1800s, when the medieval town of Lubeck, Germany was home to 135 marzipan “companies.” Back then companies were likely a small storefrontwith the basics found in an old fashioned candy store–a kettle, marble slabs, some molds.

I recently learned about the region’s delicious history–a place where the museum features figures carved in marzipan rather than wax–on a tour of mid-sized candy and chocolate factories with the German Sweets association. Since 1996, “Lübecker Marzipan,” from Lübeck in northern Germany, has been protected by an EU Council Directive as a “Protected Geographical Indication” (PGI) much like Champagne.

Niederegger Museum Marzipan History Map

Who needs a wax museum when you can have a marzipan museum? (Niederegger Museum Marzipan)

“That’s the marzipan I get at Cost Plus!” a friend exclaimed. Sold in 40 countries and on all continents, Niederegger‘s 500 dedicated* employees churn out about 30 tons of marzipan paste per day. If Lubeck could solve its debt problems with marzipan, everyone would be happy. Despite tough times the company’s sales have done quite well. Much like the “sin” products, they’ve found a little marzipan makes life rosier.

*One just retired after 45 years!

niederegger marzipan

Our Factory Tour

It was an almond lover’s dream. After a steam blanching, winnowing to remove the skins, six women sit, pulling out any odd or unskinned almonds.

Overhead conveyors filled with almond paste dumped the mixtures into the vats. After roasting, the mixture cools in a 500-kilo capacity vat. Steaming dry ice does the job. We tasted chunks of freshly ground paste scooped out of the copper kettles, as well as the marzipan after roasting–which happens after the sugar is mixed with the almond paste. “Eat a lot,” our guide urged us.” We need to finish it all.” Sigh.

Through an extruder in which about 10 inch square logs of sugared almond paste squeeze through, chopped into 18 inch blocks, weighing about 15 kg, which are then wrapped to be aged in plastic cartons. There the flavor develops.

After aging, the special flavors such as a European rose water are added. Then it’s off to the enrobing lines where stamped out hearts take shape.

The seasonal-shaped marzipans are what’s really special. In December, Easter production begins. An army of standing bunnies emerged on a conveyor belt, destined to be torched–with a creme brulee style-and eyes added by bespectacled women holding tiny paint brushes. Dot. Dot.

Nearby, workers laboriously press molds with marzipan, just as in old times, for custom orders or as cake toppers. Consumers and businesses can order molds in any shape or saying, such as for corporate gifts. The company keeps the molds on hand for any future orders.

Some Business Best Practices

Niederegger handles export in-house to allow for quick decision making and personal relationships. They diversified with a series of German “nougat” products (which is similar to Italian gianduja), to reach non-marzipan loving candy lovers. The company does not private label and they would never entertain it due to their strong brand recognition and demand for their 300 products.

As with other factories we visited on this candy industry tour, employees at Niederegger are welcome to air any issues to management. Even broadcast news teams have visited the factory to see workers stretching and engaging in mini-workouts for ergonomic and overall health. Now a smoke-free company, it’s verboten to smoke during the workday. And production workers rotate roles for variety.

My Take

While it is a mystery as to how Niederegger charged ahead despite their 135 competitors two centuries ago, I can tell you today what impresses me:

Product: Less sugar means a more subtle refined flavor. It’s made simply with 70 percent Mediterranean origin almonds–the minimum percentage to be labeled “Lubeker marzipan”–along with sugar, a touch of rose water, and another secret ingredient. On the contrary many lower-priced marzipans have up to 50 percent sugar.
Packaging: A variety of packaging for personal consumption and gift giving (tins, souvenir boxes, adorable seasonal packs). Delicate sparkly vibrant foil wrapping and informational paper wrapped around each of the rectangular pieces. Old fashioned elegance. The thin foil just feels good on your fingers.
Price: All of the above allows the company to charge a sustainable price.

What’s your take?

Learn more and get your hands on some Niederegger.

Hot off the Chocolate Press: 2012 Valrhona Vintage Bar Hits San Francisco

By Susie, 3 December, 2011,

Adam Smith from Fog City News in San Francisco–known for its vast and highly curated chocolate selection–just sent me this rave:

“We got the 2012 Vintage bars in (PDF info) and they’re f a b u l o u s. In fact, their flavors are so subtle that it really takes a trained palate to appreciate all the nuances! The 2011 vintage is so new that Valrhona doesn’t even have them listed on their own website yet! Now, I can’t really confirm this, but a Valrhona sales exec told me that we are currently one of the only shops ON THE WEST COAST that sells these bars.”

Straight from the chocolate purveyor’s mouth.

More background:
Valrhona was the first company in the world to introduce the concept of a vintage dated chocolate bar in 1998. The first vintage we carried at Fog City News was the 2002, and their annual arrival at the store in the late fall has been an event sort of like the announcement of a cult winery releasing a new vintage. Many factors affect a chocolate bar’s flavor. Over the last few years customers have come to learn about these factors, beginning with: (1) cacao content, then (2) that there are different types of cacao beans, then (3) the countries the particular type of cacao bean was grown in, then (4) the regions within those countries, then finally (5) that there might be specific plantations within those regions renowned for growing and harvesting cacao beans in such a way as to yield a specific flavor! Here, Valrhona is the first company in the world to draw the similarities between wine and chocolate closer by specifying the year of harvest from 3 different plantations, within 3 specific regions, within 3 different countries, using specific cacao beans to render 3 very different tasting 64% dark chocolate bars!

And here’s more about the plantations Valrhona owns and manages.

How to Make Bean to Bar Chocolate the DIY Way

By Susie, 12 October, 2011,

Visiting Dandelion Chocolate‘s Palo Alto laboratory–cleverly tucked into a suburban garage, for now anyway–felt like a live immersion into Instructables or of course the Maker Faire. Nary had Todd started giving me a tour that I whipped out the old video recorder to capture the charming and clever mechanisms he had built to make a bean to bar chocolate which is quickly gaining a following in the Bay Area and beyond.

See how a few tools, wood, and hardware store parts can come together to make much of the small scale machinery needed to start tinkering with making chocolate. Disclaimer: The DIY part works mostly for prepping the cacao beans, not so much for making the actual chocolate. Although surely there is someone hacking together their own conches and other refining equipment.

Mast Brothers Chocolate Sets Sail on a Chocolate Making Adventure

By Susie, 19 July, 2011,

A short walk from the L train Bedford Street stop in Brooklyn’s strikingly hip Williamsburg area, you arrive at Mast Brothers‘ small chocolate making “factory.” Meeting their growers and giving tours of their bean-to-bar operation jazzes these two brothers: Rick, a chef and Michael, a film maker.

A chocolate making employee (as they all are), Rick, and Michael

I had no idea what to expect, and this visit proved how delightful it is when an experience exceeds anything you could have imagined:

1) Rather than drum roasters, they use small convection ovens and roast the organic beans on trays the size of a home cookie sheet. “We can do true roasting profiles and have so much more control over a drum roaster. Everyone here has a master palate. We know it’s ready by taste.”bea

2) An aerospace engineer friend designed and patented a winnowing machine that uses air to remove hulls and grind the beans into nibs. (This clever device has no hallmarks of Rube Goldberg.)

Rick Mast and the Brooklyn-made Cacao Bean Winnower

3) A domestic company builds their chocolate-making machines, powered by granite wheels. Their basic chocolate consists simply of cacao beans and organic sugar. Other inclusions like almonds come from producers they know personally. The granite wheels macerate and smooth the roasted beans and sugar for several days. With a twist of a knob, they increase pressure to make the chocolate smoother and smoother. When the chocolate is ready–all determined by taste–It sits for 30 days in metal bins to “age,” which is a new-school chocolate-making method popularized by fellow chocolate maker Steve DeVries.

4) Each bar is hand wrapped, with friends coming in during the busy season to lend a hand. In the air-conditioned bar wrapping room, which I imagine makes this the coveted job during summer, photos of the superstar fast wrappers plaster the wall. First gold foil wraps around the freshly molded chocolate bars, then a fancy gift-paper like wrapper, designed by Mast Brothers and printed by Prestone Press in Long Island City. They keep a keg filled with local beer on hand for the chocolate makers (which are all of the employees) to enjoy. “It’s the buddy system,” they explain when I asked if the brewery supplies beer is in trade for chocolate.

Wrapping like the oldies.

5) Next, The Secret Room. Just kidding. They specifically point out they are a completely open door operation with nothing to hide. Although the Oompa Loompas were disguised as hip tattooed Brooklynites.

How to Import Cocoa Beans and Travel to Another Century in 14 Days

Everything Mast Brothers uses is organic and direct trade, purchased directly from producers. The only “certifications” they embrace and need are direct connections to growers. “We consider our growers family. We will also be the first buyers from a new Belize co-operative that our friends started,” says Rick.

They point to a stack of burlap sacks filled with cocoa beans, preparing to transport me to the 19th century. “We chartered a 70-foot schooner to pick 20 metric tons of beans up from the Dominican Republic,” Rick says. He explains the impetus for sailing is that there is nothing local about cocoa. “We figure why not limit our participation in the industrialization of food. The same people who grew the cacao from the La Red co-operative delivered the shipment to the boat.” They thanked their growers with an excellent price and ample beer.

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE from Mast Brothers Chocolate on Vimeo.

It took 14 days to get the bean-filled schooner back to Brooklyn, with only wind powering the boat. “We learned a lot just bringing it into the Brooklyn port. The city hadn’t played host to a schooner in decades. They were like ‘Why would you do that?’” Once it sunk in, the city agreed it was quite an awesome endeavor. At the port, they inspected the beans and found no problems–making Mast Brothers the first since 1939 to sail cargo into New York City! A few blocks later, the beans landed at Mast Brothers HQ. They aren’t sure if it cost more to transport the beans this way. Hey, lots of people might pay to take such an adventure. (Here’s more about the trip)

In the next couple of months, visitors and locals can enjoy an expanded chocolate making facility with a community center open to passersby to see first-hand how good chocolate is made. Farmer visits, chocolate history talks, and music complete the picture of a community space for the brothers. “Nothing substitutes for people coming in, meeting us, and seeing our place. We want to have a place where people walking by eating ice cream can pop in and discover how chocolate is made.” Good business is FUN.

It’s worth a trip off the beaten path to taste their chocolate where it’s made. “We make every wholesale order on demand. Nothing is sitting in a warehouse.” Visit 105 North 3rd Street (the Bedford L stop) and travel to another time and place to discover Mast Brothers chocolate bars, chips, tablets, cacao nibs, and soon, confections.

Chocolates, nibs, oh my

What’s next? After I told a beloved candy maker all about the Mast Brothers, she immediately felt a connection. I won’t give it away to them or anyone, but I see great things to come in East Coast confection collaborations through yet another synchronous food connection. Good food is good life!

Food Crafters – Enter the 2012 Good Food Awards !

By Susie, 6 July, 2011,

The Second Annual Good Food Awards is now accepting entries! Food producers may now enter their products on the Good Food Awards website under the categories of beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles and preserves, and (a brand new category) spirits.

Also new this year, the Good Food Awards will be recognizing a select group of winners with a Gold Seal. This award will honor producers who have reached the stage of full, certified organic status while also leading on taste and social responsibility. For more information click here to view the full press release.

The deadline for entries is September 1, 2011.