Lecithin

---

Geo: 10.3143, -84.825

Grab any prepackaged food, and you'll probably find soy lecithin on the label - the word soy seems to lessen the impact of this obscure word, rendering it seemingly innocuous. After all, soy is good for us, right? But like any man made chemical that has always been billed as being harmless, there is always a darker side to the story that has been kept from the public. There is a lot of evidence that hints at lecithin's deleterious effects on human health, but how about when it's used in small quantities? In that case, it can't be bad for us, since they put it into so many foods as a preservative, right? Right???!!!??

Whether or not it's really that bad for us, it's still some truly nasty crap, made from the byproduct of the soy oil refining process. Lecithin is absolutely disgusting, looking like rotten oil from the deep fryer, and smells rank, the scent of which is enough to initiate a gag reflex. But it was a smart discovery by industrialists, because that's how you made more money and boosted shareholder value - why throw out the garbage, when you can turn into another product, sell it, and stick it in our food? It's a positively brilliant business model!

Lecithin is commonly found in mass-produced chocolate, since it easily and cheaply helps manufacturers extend the life of their product, an interesting fact that we picked up today at Café Cabure's chocolate tour, given by Bob, the owner. Bob's an interesting cat, a biologist that was the former director of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, and also the former owner of the Bat Jungle exhibition just downstairs from the café. Some how, some way, Bob ended up starting up the café, and eventually he dipped his fingers into the chocolate making business.

Having no chocolate making background to draw from, Bob more or less learned by trial and error, and at one point, considered using lecithin in his chocolate as a preservative, until he saw how rank and disgusting it was. So his business model became one of producing small batches of high-quality, all natural chocolate, and the tour they offer at the café is a fascinating piece of insight into one man's journey from biologist to chocolatier. It isn't something you really think about, but there truly is both art and science behind the most decadent of sweets.

The quality of the final product comes down to one thing - the quality of the cocoa beans, and how they were processed and fermented. Bob's biggest challenge has been obtaining a consistently-good supply of the stuff, though it helps that he's able to visit local farms and basically hand pick his beans. According to Bob, there's no real natural way to produce good-tasting chocolate with bad beans - the only option is to essentially treat it with chemicals. Bakers out there might recognize the term, when they buy Dutch cocoa powder.

At first thought, you might think that the Dutch process involves throwing some cocoa on the bed, farting on it, and then throwing the covers over the top, but it's really about treating it with an alkalizing agent. According to Bob, at its simplest form, that could just be adding in some baking soda, which is the great equalizer when it comes to mass chocolate production - poor-quality beans result in off flavours, which the Dutch process dulls and neutralizes. But unfortunately, any of the rich, deep flavours associated with high-quality chocolate suffer the same fate, resulting in a consistent, if somewhat bland, form of chocolate.

Prior to today's tour, we thought there was a complicated process behind chocolate production, but in reality, it's quite a simple process, though one which still involves much effort. All it takes is roasting the beans, coarsely grinding the beans into nibs, separating the nibs from the shells, and then finely grinding the nibs until they start to melt and voila, you have ready-to-eat melted chocolate! Of course there is still more you could do with the chocolate at this point, such as tempering it to obtain a more pleasant appearance and texture.

Perhaps the most shocking part of today's tour was when Bob sent me down memory lane, to second year engineering's Introduction to Material Science course, when he pulled out a chocolate tempering diagram. Most people don't associate cooking with science, but really, there is a lot more to cuisine than just artistry and skill - cooking is all about controlled chemical reactions, and food science is actually quite a fascinating subject should one delve into it. But a phase diagram? We came here to eat some chocolate, not suffer through the nightmare of engineering school!

Upon first sight of that chocolate tempering diagram, it was so reminiscent of a steel phase diagram, that random material science terms came rushing through my mind - eutectic, eutectoid, crystalline precipitates, grain structures, hexagonal close packed, body centred cubic ... gah!!!! How the hell do we escape this waking nightmare??!?!! By eating some gourmet handmade chocolate, of course!

---

Photos

Soy Lecithin ...
... commonly used in chocolate production as a preservative, Bob did consider using it in his chocolates, at one point. He decided against it when he realized how nasty of a chemical it was - thick and disgusting like tar, and smelling not a whole lot better. How can this be good for you?

Dipping Marshmallows ...
... finally, after all this work, we get to sample the goods!

Tempered vs Untempered ...
... you can see the difference between the two - the untempered chocolate takes several minutes to solidify, and lacks the beautiful sheen. The tempered versions solidify far quicker, and have that gorgeous look we all associate with gourmet chocolate.

Spicy Hot Chocolate ...
... similar to the original Aztec version, with little more than cocoa and chili pepper.

Cafe Cabure's Chocolate Truffles ...
... we bought three versions - coconut, passion fruit, and their riff on a Turtle. While the chocolate was good, we found the fruit fillings needed a bit of work - not as smooth and creamy as you might find at gourmet chocolatiers around the world.

Mother Nature's Artwork ...
... this fallen tree was cut since it blocked the path, and a happy face eventually magically appeared.

Upskirt Shot Of the Inside of a Strangler Fig ...
... it took a few hundred years for this strangler fig to completely envelop and kill the host tree, and for the host tree to rot and disintegrate into nothingness. The end result is a giant hollow tree.

Chewy Steak ...
... at the Cloud Forest Reserve's soda. Very tasty, and the salty mélange of carrot, squash, and zucchini was a nice side dish.

Italian at Bon Apetit Cafe ...
... dinner started with warm rolls served with chili and garlic oil. The chili oil proved to be quite tasty when drizzled on pizza.

Pizza Pina ...
... a poultry version of the Hawaiian, substituting chicken for ham. Surprisingly good, with the fresh sweet pineapple stealing the show. Super crisp crust, and this went quite well with a light smooth malbec.

Tough and Tasty ...
... pork ribs in BBQ sauce. We expected St. Louis-style ribs, but these were more cubes of pork with bits of cartilage embedded. Don't let that less-than-flattering description fool you, as they were pretty good, and the spicy oil also kicked things up a notch. The rice was a tad hard, which was our only complaint.

Cas ...
... what a fruit find for us! We'd never seen this anywhere on any menu in Costa Rica, but were delighted with the results - described to us as a sour guava, it tasted a bit like guava but more citrusy, almost like pomelo with a hint of lychee.