Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

chocolate tech

WNWN’s Alt-Chocolate Could Be A Win-Win-Win for the Planet, Workers, and Consumers

Willy Wonka has nothing on food futurists Ahrum Pak and Dr. Johnny Drain. While there may be no golden tickets inside their alt-chocolate, they promise all of the taste of the real thing without any environmental harm and labor abuse. It’s not a trick—it’s pure science with more than a touch of creative artistry.

London-based WNWN (that’s Win-Win), the company behind this cacao-free treat, uses a version of fermentation that’s been around for thousands of years instead of precision fermentation, a more complex and costly process that is challenging to scale. “Our approach is rooted in traditional fermentation techniques.  We use a suite of microbes and a process that is not too dissimilar to how a baker might work or how a winemaker would work,” CTO Drain told The Spoon In a recent interview.

In WNWN’s approach, a substrate (in this case, British Barley) is combined with an assortment of microbes to produce a brown paste that skips the shelling and roasting process of traditional chocolate making. The paste then goes through the standard chocolate-making process, which includes running the paste through a melanger machine and placing the finished product into individual molds.

While British Barley is being used initially as a substrate, Drain says that other cereal grains (including ones that are non-gluten) and other plant-based ingredients can be used for the alt-cholate fermentation.

“The more you learn about some of the things you love, the more you learn horrifying stories,” Pak, a former executive in the finance industry, says of her company’s dual mission. “Because of the global food chain, the way we grow food now is unstable and unethical in many ways.”

“Chocolate has a truly dark side with more than a million child laborers estimated to work in Ivory Coast and Ghana, where three-quarters of the world’s cacao is grown, and more CO2 emissions pound for pound than cheese, lamb or chicken,” CTO Drain said.

Pak and Drain landed on chocolate partially by accident but also because of the limited number of companies tackling this popular treat. Drain, a master fermenter, who went to school in Bournville, the company town built by Cadbury, recalls the aroma of chocolate when he would head out from his classes and feels it’s part of his legacy. That makes him a lot more like Willy Wonka than the fictitious Ronald Dahl character. Before his work with WNWN, Dr. Drain traveled the world, working with noted restaurants and developing new flavors based on his fermentation skill.

“We are in a golden age of food science,” the company CTO said. “We’re just starting to break down what is in a bar of chocolate to characterize it and create a chemical fingerprint. We explored how we end up getting a chocolate flavor profile that is in a cocoa bean.”

For possible legal and marketing reasons, Drain and Pak said they cannot call their product chocolate and have toyed with a few names, including “chok.” Beyond selling it in retail, initially in the form of a thin or wafer, Pak believes there is a solid B2B play where WNWN’s “chocolate” can be used by companies that use chocolate on cookies, cakes, or anything that currently uses cacao-based chocolate.

WNWN won’t stop with revolutionizing the world of chocolate. The company plans to explore how other foods can be safe from changing climates, biodiversity loss, and poor working conditions. These include coffee, tea, and vanilla, which have supply chains mired in unethical and unsustainable practices.

WNWN’s alt-chocolate will be available starting May 18 exclusively on the company’s website. Each box sells for £10 GB (about $12.50 U.S.), on a par with premium dark chocolates. 

SKS 2021: Meet ChocoMake, a Smart Chocolate Machine for the Home Kitchen

If there’s one thing the world can use more of, it’s chocolate tech, and we have it for you with our latest Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase finalist interview: ChocoMake.

In this interview, Carlos Rodela talks with ChocoMake founder and CEO Liora Omer. ChocoMake is a countertop home chocolate making appliance that enables the amateur chocolatier to control taste & texture, shape and the composition of their chocolate creations.

You can watch the video below and learn more about ChocoMake at their website. If you would like to connect with Liora Omer at the Smart Kitchen Summit, get your ticket today!

The Spoon Interviews - ChocoMake

Meet mycusini, a Chocolate 3D Printer for Under €200

Sure, 3D printing chocolate in your kitchen may not be practical, but it’s certainly cool, right?

At least that’s what I’ll try to convince my wife if and when the mycusini, a new chocolate 3D printer for the home, ever makes its way stateside. The mycusini, which is currently on sale as part of a new Kickstarter campaign from German startup called Print2Taste for €198 (about $225), is expected to start shipping to backers by the end of year.

Like many, I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to crowdfunded hardware projects nowadays, but the folks behind the mcusini have already proven they can deliver. Print2Taste got its start with the Bocusini, a food 3D printer that launched on Kickstarter back in 2015 and shipped to backers pretty much on time. Since that time, what was essentially a group of food researchers from the University of Weihenstephan-Triesdorf has established themselves as a legit 3D food printing startup, taking their original Bocusini and making a professional edition called the Procusini.

All that experience finally led them to think about creating a true home 3D printer.

“With our many years of experience in the professional field of 3D food printing, we want to make the benefits of this amazing technology available to everybody,” said Print2Taste’s Eva Schlosser. “With mycusini, consumers will get access to the creative world of 3D Choco printing at a very attractive price.”

So how does the mycusini work? Basically like all 3D food printers: by extruding small amounts of material (chocolate in this case) layer by layer.  The major downside to the mycusini is it, at least initially, requires the use of custom-made “Choco refills” as the printing material, which are essentially crayon-shaped chocolate cylinders that fit into a stainless steel dispensing cartridge. A single-source supplier is never ideal, and being reliant on a small startup out of Germany for chocolate refills likely means potentially long wait times before you can start printing your next confection.

In case you’re wondering why you can’t just use your own chocolate, it’s because the “Choco” is designed specifically by the company for printing and, according to the company, isn’t technically chocolate. From the Kickstarter:

“mycusini® 3D Choco is a chocolate grease glaze. This means that instead of cocoa butter, other vegetable fats, such as coconut fat, are used so that curing takes place more quickly and thus higher objects can be produced. 

This recipe seemed to make more sense for practical use compared to a chocolate that first had to be tempered in a tempering device and then does not cure quickly enough when working with the mycusini.”

The company indicated they are working on a true chocolate refill (presumably using cocoa butter), but they have not given a specific timeline.

You can see mycusini in action below:

mycusini - easy creative PIRI - Schokoladendrucker - 3D food printer - 3D Drucker Schokolade

The company promises to start shipping the mycusini to backers before Christmas, but if you’re like me and live in the States, you’ll have to wait. That’s because the mycusini is initially only available in Europe, New Zealand and Australia. No word yet on if and when the it will ship stateside, but I’ve reached out to Print2Taste and will update this when I learn more.

Meet CocoTerra, an All-In-One Craft Chocolate Machine for the Home

Over the past few years, there’s been a steady procession of all-in-one food making machines marching their way into our homes. From beer-brewing appliances to flatbread machines to cheese making robots, there’s been no shortage of interesting new appliances to help us make different types of food or drink.

However, despite all the innovative new food makers coming to market, one category that’s been fairly bereft of innovation is chocolate…at least until now. That’s because a new startup by the name of CocoTerra is planning to introduce a new countertop craft chocolate maker that compresses chocolate-making from a process that normally requires a handful of different machines and a good half a day into a couple hour exercise on a single appliance.

CocoTerra’s eponymously named chocolate maker, which debuted this weekend at the Bay Area Maker Faire, takes the user through most of the chocolate making process: grinding, refining, conching, tempering and molding.

Those familiar with chocolate making will notice that the one step that is missing from above is the roasting of the cacao beans, and that’s because the machine couldn’t quite fit the entire process into one appliance. CocoTerra users start their chocolate making sessions by putting in roasted cacao nibs which they can purchase online at Amazon or through the CocoTerra app. For all but the most hardcore wannabe chocolate makers, I think skipping the roasting and winnowing of the cacao beans is fine, but true gluttons for punishment who want to go truly bean-to-bar can add a Behmor roaster and Champion Juicer down the line.

You can watch the CocoTerra in action below:

The device is the brainchild of Nate Saal, a former networking technology executive who first started working on creating a home chocolate making appliance over five years ago. In that time, the company has filed for patents (they have been issued one in Japan) and started working with noted product design firm Ammunition (previous clients include Ember and Cafe-X) to finalize the product.

I asked Saal who he thought the audience was for his chocolate making appliance, and said there were two main targets: First are those who already make chocolate at home the old-fashioned way but who could use the CocoTerra to experiment with new recipes and and to make chocolate must faster than the traditional method. Second are those who know nothing about making chocolate but would be use a machine like the CocoTerra who automates the process and makes it more approachable.

I think it’s this second audience that represents the biggest opportunity. After all, while chocolate is universally loved, it’s something hardly anyone makes at home because the process is just too complicated and time-consuming. If the CocoTerra can make the process of creating craft chocolate as easy as, say, making bread or ice cream, there might be a fairly big opportunity down the road.

Saal told me the company plans to sell the appliance as well as their own line of ingredients such as the cacao nibs, as well as a lineup of accessories such as chocolate molds.

“We not only want this to be a chocolate making system, but also a chocolatier system as well,” said Saal.

For you craft chocolate newbies, chocolatiering is what happens when you turn chocolate into a finished confection through the process of adding nuts, adding cream or sculpting it into an interesting shape.

If this all this sounds great to you and you’re ready to become a chocolate maker (or chocolatier), there’s just one problem: you’ll have to wait a little while. That’s because the CocoTerra team hasn’t announced the ship date.  While Saal wouldn’t give me any hints as to when exactly the product will be ready for consumers, my guess is sometime in 2020.

Pricing is also still a mystery, but the CocoTerra will probably need to be under $500, and hopefully it prices in at $299 or less.  Higher than that and I think they may have trouble convincing those who are chocolate-making curious to make such a big investment.

Bringing Bean to Bar to the Home Food Factory

“Bean to bar” is among the lesser-known, but still popular, phrases in the foodie lexicon. For most, it’s the equivalent of an exquisite, controlled farm-to-table production process in the chocolate world. In that specific application of the term, it follows the cocoa bean from the farm. The bean starts with drying. After it is shelled, the inside nib is taken to a lab-like kitchen where those inner goodies are mixed with raw cocoa butter and sugar to make sumptuous craft chocolates.

For others, “bean to bar” is a come-hither headline that leads the inquisitive culinary explorer to a class where the hands-on experience of making (and later eating) chocolate is a multi-hour learning session. In such workshops from New York to the southern regions of Peru, the do’s and don’ts of chocolate making are explored, including how to carefully remove the outer part of the cocoa bean and devise the formula/ratio of bean to sugar and cocoa butter to suit individual tastes. Hence, when you see a chocolate bar in your local gourmet shop that says 70%, it means it’s 70% cocoa bean with the remaining 30% made up of sugar and cocoa butter.

In the bean to bar workshop, the class hits the pause button before actual production. The process of making artisan chocolate—be it a small batch for a class of 20 students, or for a large order—is a lengthy one that tempers the ingredients in a melangeur or similar commercial machine. Those in the workshop are given silicone molds, perfectly melted chocolate, and mix-ins to allow each student to create his or her final artistry.

With an emphasis on growing veggies at indoors, brewing your own beer, distilling booze and other home food factories, making your own chocolates appears to be lagging. With shrinking global supply chains, there certainly is a wide range of choices when it comes to cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugars of every vintage (raw, refined, organic, etc.…) The issue is the lack of popularly-priced home chocolate tempering appliances. Smaller versions of a traditional melangeur run more than $350 with industrial-sized models running well over $1,000.

Following the model of such entrepreneurs as PicoBrew make sense for the home craft chocolate market. Any easy-to-use machine where the ingredients come in “kits” would be an idea for the novice chocolatier. Brands such as Nestle, Hershey, Ghirardelli and others could create kits (bean, cocoa butter, sugar) that carry their signature flavor and communities of chocoholics could share their magic recipes.

The global chocolate market is work more than $98 billion, so there’ s little fear the home market will cause the Belgian economy to suffer. As a foodtech trend, the home chocolate market appears to be a large, untapped opportunity.