BOONE — What do wine, yogurt, beer, sourdough, crème fraîche, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, sour cream, whisky and kombucha all have in common besides being delicious? They all undergo fermentation using defined starter cultures. Soon, chocolate (Theobroma cacao) may join that list, thanks to studies being performed at Appalachian State University's Fermentation Sciences Program.
Fermentation Sciences has entered into a research agreement with Aleph Omega LLC, an investment and venture group out of Texas, who have stakes in cacao and chocolate production in Central America.
High quality chocolate can only be made from cacao beans that have undergone a complex fermentation process immediately after harvest to develop the desired flavor and smell of chocolate. But worldwide, that fermentation occurs almost entirely under uncontrolled conditions with yeast and bacteria that are found in farmers' hands, tools, and in the wild.
Dr. Seth Cohen, Director of the Fermentation Sciences Program, explained that "chocolate is one of only a few fermented foods consumed in the world where defined starter cultures are essentially absent." As a consequence, the quality of cacao beans used to make chocolate is highly variable, and uncontrolled fermentation can leads to poor results and sporadic markets.
What are defined starter cultures? Defined starter cultures are a mixture of yeast and bacteria that can be applied to a fermentation composed of known organisms at known quantities. This results is a higher level of consistency in terms of performance compared to a "wild fermentation," which will inevitably be subject to more variability due to changes in raw ingredients, climates, and the surrounding environment.
Using samples drawn from highly-rated cacao fermented by Aleph Omega LLC's affiliates in the Central American rainforest, researchers with the Fermentation Sciences Program are cataloging dozens of microbial specimens. Using these specimens, researchers aim to develop starter cultures that can help farmers ferment their cacao more consistently, command higher and more reliable prices, and produce a higher quality chocolate.
Cohen believes that this work will eventually help to improve the sustainability of the chocolate industry as a whole. "We aim to control the quality and consistency (of chocolate) such that cacao farmers can expect a stable price and have the incentive to maintain their trees all year, not only when the heavy crops are coming off. This will hopefully help stabilize prices to farmers and encourage mixed-forest ecosystems."
This research builds on the data and insights concerning the use of defined starter cultures (to include yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and acetic acid bacteria) proposed in the seminal article by Rosane F. Schwan & Alan E. Wheals (2004) The Microbiology of Cocoa Fermentation and its Role in Chocolate Quality, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 44:4, 205-221 at 217.
For more information, you may reach Dr. Cohen [cohensd@appstate.edu] or Jorge Schmidt [js@cacao.haus].