Source: Climate & Chocolate | NOAA Climate.gov By 2050, rising temperatures will push the suitable cacao cultivation areas uphill. The IPCC reported that Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana’s optimal altitude for cacao cultivation is expected to rise from 350–800 feet (100–250 meters) to 1,500–1,600 feet (450–500 meters) above sea level. Well this might change the mind of the chocolate cake fan? Naw. Bob Wilson
More arbitrage in chocolate futures on the CME? Oh, to ride the UP West Metra line into Chicago and breathe in the Blommer Chocolate Company's sweet smell! Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
the drug industry has vested interests too. Well . . . . . . some say carob is a nice substitute . . . . but not me. Dirty messy tree - beans dropping all over the place - the tree & its beans stink. if continuing altitudes become impractical - hopefully some non- carcinogenic fake confection-ie replacement will get invented, like the ½dozen or so sugar substitutes ... maybe even be good for you, antioxidants & the like. .
There's a Blommer Chocolate facility located 1 1/2 miles from my house. When the wind is blowing in the right direction...
Personally, I find European chocolate preferable to the American varieties I've tried. In June I visited a chocolate factory in Bruges, Belgium. Not so good for the waistline and the bathroom scales, but wonderful for the palate.
Great movie, if they didn’t add sugar to the cocao it would be great, sugar, the most addicted substance on the planet.
I've moved to 90% cocao to get away from excessive sugar. A teaspoon sized piece every other day or so works. Bob Wilson
not me my friend, ZZ Top once sang about my addiction, & i might as well face it .... "addicted to love" [edit: whoops! I meant the late Robert Palmer] entirely different kinds of sugar .
I prefer less-sweet chocolate as well but let's not lose sight of... Lindt 90% (which is a fine example) 40 gm product contains 22 gm fat (cocoa butter) 3 gm sugar
Anyway, eat whatever fat you like, but maybe go lightly on palm oil. That industry is doing little to raise its environmental footprint above 'yeah pretty icky'. Yes I am asking you to read product labels and make decisions.
Valrhona and Callebaut are enjoyable too. I have a 100% bar with cocoa nibs (Montezuma's Absolute Black) from Britain that's very good. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Theobroma cacao is an interesting plant. Pollinated (best) by tiny midges that also feed on blood. Beans were used as 'money'. Has numerous diseases and pests that will interact with climate-mediated range shifts. Beans are fermented before drying. The entire conching process seems so peculiar that one wonders how it came to be.
Vanilla bean, a natural ally to Theobroma, is an epiphytic orchid that grows perfectly well on those tree stems. So 'why not both?' is perfectly feasible. However if you are trying to make quality cacao you will grow the trees amidst many other species. So, plenty of places to latch on a vanilla. Like most ephiphytic orchids they are not fussy about substrate. Just light levels. Y'all knew that orchids don't even have roots, right? Handed the job entirely over to fungi. This is a very recently evolved (and diverse) group. Like they said OK we're not even gonna do roots any more. And then, wham!
Fruit entire is a 20-cm structure containing many 2-cm seeds. surrounded by carbohydrate 'reward'. It is a common design, and perhaps worthy of pondering. Tree fruits thus structured, falling to the ground, have bleak outlook for propagating. An appropriated sized and 'behaved' animal is required for success. They eat the reward, and cache (or poop) seeds themselves downrange. Seeds (nibs) themselves were never 'intended' (we play fast & loose with that word) to be digested. That does not make a new tree. So, nibs have deterrent chemicals. Humans figured out how to change yuck to yum, and Theobroma became another pet. With >4.5 million tons of annual global cacao production, our target species here need not 'concern itself' with rewarding small dispersers. Humans have that covered. == Just as you'd expect, genome of this money plant has been closely examined and will provide tool$ to keep it going strong. I reckon that pest/pathogen interactions will require more attention than a century of +T. And that your grandchildren will still have chocolate ranging from somewhat tolerable to 'ooh that's nice'.
I wanted to spin some connection between Theobroma blood-feeding pollinators and Aztecs' blood + chocolate ritual sacrifices. No progress to report
