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PLANS to spread heat-resistant summer treats across the Gulf have received a lukewarm reaction from the kingdom’s chocolatiers who are still to be convinced the proposal will melt the hearts of chocolate connoisseurs.
Swiss-based wholesale chocolate company, Barry Callebaut, has developed a way to keep chocolate bars from turning into a sticky mess and maintain a solid shape at temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius.
Barry Callebaut’s chief executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique believes that creating chocolate that keeps its shape in the heat will ‘fundamentally change the game’ with the thermo-tolerant products targetted at countries with warmer climates.
Frédéric Depypere, the company’s programme manager, said: “Indeed, the most important aspect when creating thermo-tolerant chocolate is taste! Technically you can have the best solution. But if the taste of a thermo-tolerant chocolate does not convince the consumer, it will not work.
“Taste is absolutely essential here. That’s what we focused on, this was our main criterion.
“We now have tools on hand to enable us in each case to create a similar tasting, thermo-tolerant chocolate. Our customers, their customers, the end consumer should not taste or feel any difference.”
Maya La Chocolaterie (MLC) founder, Sonya Janahi, has yet to be convinced and feels that by removing the melt-factor, you remove some of the fun of indulging in chocolate. She said: “You really can’t leave chocolates out for too long and expect them NOT to melt. Just like ice cream, it must be consumed within a certain period and temperature, and, as with sushi, it should be fresh ... that’s just the nature of it. More heat-resistant … try plastic?”
Sonya, as reported previously in GulfWeekly, has spent many years hunting down the best bars and sweets from around the world until she perfected her own in a chocolate factory in Riffa called Maya Delices.
Sonya and her team stand strongly behind the belief that chocolates should have a ‘melt-factor’ but are happy to explore the possibility of product improvements carefully.
She said: “From our understanding it is still a prototype and hasn’t been brought to this part of the world yet. Plus it’s heat resistance is only four degrees more than the existing one … for us it is important to study how they have reached this level of heat resistance and what has been added to enable it so.
“We will test it, but at this stage we are managing our chocolates perfectly well in specialised chocolate fridges where the humidity and temperature is controlled. Moreover, our focus is to use chocolates with as minimal additives or preservatives as possible. Therefore, testing this new development will be a must before we decide to introduce or manufacture it. Besides, chocolates not melting would actually have me worried about what’s been put into it.”
Bare Organic Chocolate, a new player in the local market launched this year, also believes the concept isn’t needed in the kingdom. The Bahrain-based team came up with the concept and recipes for a range of organic, fair-trade, non-GMO and MyClimate-certified chocolate bars which are produced in Switzerland.
The enterprise currently has 11 different flavoured bars which are being sold in Alosra and Aljazira supermarkets.
May Mahmoud, one of the masterminds behind Bare, said: “Our chocolates arrive in a temperature-controlled container from Switzerland. And, from there on, everything remains temperature-controlled, from the warehouse to the delivery van, to the supermarkets.”
This isn’t the first time chocolate manufacturers have tried to come up with a solution to solve the dilemma of melting chocolate.
Back in 2012, Mondelez, the owners of Cadbury, claimed to have created a chocolate that could withstand temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and the secret was in the production process. The chocolate boffins were able to adapt the ingredients so the sugar was reduced into smaller particles and needed to be covered in less fat, making the bar less susceptible to melting.
Meanwhile, Nestle filed a patent in the same year for a non-sticky chocolate recipe.
