FEB 23- BUILDING BETTER CHOCOLATES EVENT RECAP
Why Chocolate? (Because it’s chocolate!)
For decades, the top two selling flavors of all protein supplements have been chocolate and vanilla. And let’s face it… chocolate is just more fun. From decadent fudge flavors, to bright and sharp dark chocolates, there are as many ways to fall in love with chocolate as there are different uses for the tasty flavor
It’s all about the growth of Plant Proteins
Years ago, a protein shake meant one thing. A whey protein, artificially sweetened, creamy milk chocolate shake. And getting the flavor system right on a product with plenty of Sucralose and milk solids wasn’t all that tough. After all, it was essentially a powdered chocolate milkshake. But times have changed. The desire to swap out artificial sweeteners for non-sugar natural alternatives, and ditch the whey protein for either plant based or collagen sources makes the development of great tasting protein supplements a little more difficult.
With year-over-year growth exceeding 30% for plant-based protein, meal replacements, and powdered supplements, the need to find ways to deliver great tasting chocolate products has never been higher.
We started with craft chocolate
The day began with a chocolate tasting presented by the same folks who host Chocolate Fest every year in Salt Lake City… Caputo’s European Fine Foods. Adri Pachelli, head of education and all things chocolate at Caputo’s lead the tasting with a review of cacao history, cultivation, processing, fermentation techniques, roasting secrets, milling specs, and of course a deep dive into how crushed cacao becomes craft chocolate.
The Science of Chocolate
With our new found vocabulary and educated chocolate taste buds, we let Doug Gledhill, one of Sensapure’s certified flavor chemists walk us through how we can mimic the various component parts of chocolate flavors found in nature using either natural or artificial ingredients. “As a flavor chemist we need to know all about nature so we can recreate it in the lab,” said Gledhill. “Cocoa Powder alone can have over a thousand different naturally occurring chemicals.”
The Sensapure Tasting App allows us to gather specific, measurable feedback from any sized group, anywhere in the world, to better understand how flavor is experienced by each participant. Because of this solid data, our flavor chemists can better translate your individual and group tasting experiences into more accurate flavor edits – and faster flavor approvals.
