Bite-sized dark chocolate squares filled with cocoa pulp juice

Bite-sized dark chocolate squares filled with cocoa pulp juice are both an innovative chocolate product and a dessert speciality with an explosion of flavours.

The moist pulp surrounding the seeds within the cocoa fruit has long been known to be a delicacy, but because of its high water content it goes bad very quickly in its native tropical climate. However, a Swiss-Ghanaian venture has come up with a solution to this problem. They have engineered and built solar powered mobile processing units. These allow them to press the juice from the pulp at the cocoa farms, right after the harvest. The juice is then transported to a pasteurization plant within three hours. This way all the exquisite flavours and valuable content (such as vitamins) of the pulp can be retained. Another invaluable asset of the process is that it provides additional income for the people working on the plantation, and that it produces food from what was previously regarded as waste. The juice of the cocoa pulp has a highly unique aroma profile. It is obviously sweet, containing three kinds of sugars, but it is also sour. It does not taste like chocolate at all. Its flavours are more acidic and fruity. It combines traits reminiscent of lychee, passion fruit, currant and dried fruit, while its sweetness recalls the flavour of honey. This heavenly component is then paired with crunchy French dark chocolate to create the newest product innovation from chocoMe.