Guest guest Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 it seems that the flavonoids have historically been deliberately destroyed, because they don't taste good: http://www.atouchofgrey.com/flavonoids.html "Flavonoids occur naturally in cocoa, we believe, to help protect the plant from pests and disease. Their presence gives the cocoa an astringent, or sharp and pungent taste... When cocoa is processed into your favorite chocolate products, it goes through several steps to eliminate the astringent taste, and therefore, the levels of flavonoids are often decreased." Hopefully, the trend towards preserving the flavonoids (like Mars' Cocoapro) during processing will flourish. Ways to kill the flavonoids: high temp (no shocker there) during roasting, duration of roasting, sun drying, fermentation. Also "Dutching", which in this case refers to treating with alkali. (Alkali treatment is also bad in making whey, if you want the peptides to stay undenatured.) Just back from the supermarket, I looked and do see the word 'alkali' on some cocoa products. Does anybody know if that is required to be reported on the ingredients label, or if the manufacturers choose to report it because it indicates better smoother taste? -- Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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