At Mirzam, we love to experiment. But experimenting is even more fun when partnering up with good friends from the cocoa world!
We have had a long lasting relationship with the family-run Anamalai Farm in Tamil Nadu, India, who produces premium quality cocoa beans. In fact, they were our very first suppliers and have, by the time, became good friends. They have used a lot of patience, passion and resilience to transform what was once a commercial scale coconut plantation into a sustainable cocoa plantation and they are doing such a great job that, next year, they will receive the organic certification for their plantation.
But if they gave up on additives, they didn’t gave up on coconut trees: Coconut trees, planted along cocoa trees, will offer them protection from the sun. This proximity gave them an idea: why not trying to ferment cocoa beans with coconut flesh, juice and sugar? Amused by the experiment and curious of what flavours could be developed in the process, we jumped on board, and the journey began.
Extra care has been provided to this special coconut fermentation batch. First using only coconut flesh and water, and then adding coconut sugar, they noted that the fermentation was slowed down so they had to add a few more days to this experimentation.
After being dried in the sun for 3 days a few hours per day, as the normal process requires, the fermented beans were shipped to Dubai.
We tried 3 different recipes with these special beans, a 72% Dark Chocolate, a 65% Dark Chocolate and a 52% Dark Coconut Milk Chocolate. We tested them and tasted them, and discovered really interesting flavours. The 52% Dark Coconut Milk Chocolate, made with coconut milk powder, turned out to be the most delicious. But since this is a comparative experiment and the whole point of it is to taste the difference between a normal fermentation and a coconut fermentation, we decided to select the 65% Dark Chocolate, which is the percentage we use for the beans from India.
We invite you to our factory in Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz, Dubai, or to our space in Qasr Al Hosn, Abu Dhabi, to taste this new batch of chocolate and note yourself the different flavours developed compared to a regular cocoa bean fermentation.