This was a surprising area to see novel approaches being tried, though it doesn’t seem to remotely solve the problems around cocoa beans.
[…] scientists in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit rather than just the beans - and without using sugar.
I think they still are using sugar, but they’re getting it from the same plant instead. Nevertheless, it’s fascinating work.
The cost may remain something of a challenge, because of the global power of the sugar industry, and the generous subsidies it receives. “The cheapest ingredient in food will always be sugar as long as we subsidise it,” explains Kim Mishra. “For a tonne of sugar, you pay $US500 [£394] or less.” Cocoa pulp and juice cost more, so the new chocolate would, for now, be more expensive.
Ah! So perhaps it was not seen as economically viable.
TIL… I can get a literal ton of sugar for the cost of a month’s groceries.
Not economically viable until the regular sugar is not longer subsidized.
If the cocoa was subsidized then it probably would be, lol
This sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
Sugar from cane or beets is already cheap, are cocoa husks really such a big problem we can’t just compost them?
What I take it as it will reduce labor costs since you’re chucking the whole thing into production instead of just the beans.
But then again, slavery is very inexpensive sooooooooo…
If cocoa pulp costs more than finished sugar, how is adding more work going to reduce labor costs?
I would imagine it would all be ground together (picked, cut, seeds scooped out, fermented vs. picked, smashed in machine, fermented).
