When is chocolate not actually chocolate?

The new world of cocoa free chocolate

This week, something landed on my doorstep that I had been looking forward to for a long time, something that intrigued me and something that seemed impossible; Chocolate made without cocoa. How is it even possible to make chocolate without cocoa? Would it taste the same, would it have the same texture, why was it being made? I had a lot of questions.

Before we get to the product, let’s remind ourselves what chocolate actually is. Chocolate starts with cacoa pods which grow on Theobroma Cacao trees. These trees are generally found in, what is known as, the Cacao Belt, a narrow belt roughly 20 degrees either side of the equator; an area in which plants can thrive and which also has high rainfall. This band is why you see chocolate grown in places like Cote d’ivoire, Madagascar and Ghana, and not London or New York. From the Theobroma Cacao tree you can harvest cacao pods, big wrinkly pods that come in a whole variety of colours, from yellow to purple. When these pods are cut open you will find a white fleshy pulp mixture coating the cacao beans. To turn this into chocolate, the beans are removed and then they need to be fermented. Once fermented, they are roasted and processed into cocoa mass. Then, finally, sugar is added and it is turned into the chocolate we all know and love.

© Frank Kehren

If you are confused why I use both the term cacao and cocoa you’re not alone, the definition can get easily become muddied and some people use the term interchangeably. Cacao generally refers to the raw product, cacao pods, cacao tree, in otherwords the unprocessed product. Cocoa refers to products made from cacao; once the beans have been fermented and roasted, the end product is cocoa. The confusion, I think, has arisen because raw food producers use un-roasted cacao to make products we might normally refer to as cocoa. Products like ‘raw’ cacao powder have seen massive growth in popularity over the last few years.

Hidden in the process of making chocolate are some ethical and environmental concerns. Chocolate is often grown a long way from its final destination and that transport, you could easily argue, is an environmental concern. The growing of cacao can also cause environmental issues directly at the source; the massive growing demand for chocolate has led to deforestation, to make way for new cacao trees (this is especially true in West Africa where most of the worlds cacao is grown). This isn’t the case everywhere; many chocolate makers, especially smaller independent makers, work hard to forge connections directly with farmers and have the environmental issue front of mind when it comes to farming and labour practices.

Beyond the environmental factor, there is also a big ethical issue when it comes to labour. The unfortunate truth of chocolate production, especially when it comes to large scale corporate production, is that there is an ongoing issue of illegal child slavery and illegal child labour. You may have come across Tony’s Chocolate, who launched in the UK several years ago. Their whole aim is to highlight this issue and to make what they call ‘slavery free chocolate’. In a big blow to their PR efforts, it was reported by The Times, a couple of years ago, that child labour is still a part of their supply chain, so even when it is the entire aim behind a brand it can still be tough to eliminate problems around labour. It should be notes that Tonys have a very interesting response to this reporting and its worth a read. Enter WNWN Food Labs, who have released what they believe is the worlds first cocoa free chocolate. That means, they have made chocolate without any of the actual ingredient that makes chocolate, chocolate. They have done so under the cloud of the environmental and ethical concerns mentioned above.

I am sure, as this market grows, there will be an argument had around nomenclature; wheter calling something chocolate that includes no cocoa products should actual bear the name ‘chocolate’. This is probably already the situation; If you don’t know, many countries have strict guidelines on what can and cant be called chocolate, so just as Oat Milk now legally has to be called Oat Drink, it is likely this ‘chocolate’ will need to be called something else. To be labeled as chocolate in the UK it must meet the following definition;

‘The product obtained from cocoa products and sugars which…contains not less than 35 per cent total dry cocoa solids, including not less than 18 per cent cocoa butter and not less than 14 per cent of dry non-fat cocoa solids.’

Clearly, if you remove the cocoa, the product isn’t chocolate. So what exactly landed on my doorstep a few days ago. According to WNWN they are ‘inspired’ by the process of chocolate making (ferment, roast, blend) but they do this with alternative ingredients, primarily with cereals and legumes. The finished product definitely looks like chocolate and they claim it behaves like chocolate; they state you can bake, temper and generally use their cocoa free ‘chocolate’ as a direct replacement for the real thing. The question remains, does it taste anything like chocolate. Well…yes and no. The aroma definitely has a roasted quality, it smells a little like coffee, a little like chocolate and a little earthy. It snaps like chocolate and it feels like chocolate. The taste is definitely an approximation of the real thing but to be completely honest I didn’t love it, I particularly didn’t love the aftertaste. There were three bars available, a milk ‘chocolate’, a ‘chocolate’ orange and a hazelnut ‘chocolate’. Unsurprisingly the flavoured bars tasted much better than the simple milk ‘chocolate’, but my focus was on the unadulterated milk ‘chocolate’ What I will say, is that it is incredibly impressive feat that they have even been able to make something as close as they have, without any cocoa at all, making it from beans and cereals, creating something that gets you pretty close to a chocolate alternative. Sadly I just didnt enjoy the flavour, but maybe thats not the whole point.

To be fair to WNWN, this is a product very early on in its development and I am sure they’ll make improvements but, if anything, it is a great conversation starter about the ethical and moral questions about how we currently produce chocolate and maybe that’s their main aim? Personally, I would rather buy the real deal, looking to smaller producers where farmers are paid a fair wage, where the environment is at the front of mind and where a sustainable future for chocolate becomes the norm. I am however, excited to see how this cocoa free ‘chocolate’ progresses and what it can contribute to the future of ethical food production.

Disclosure: I paid for these chocolate bars myself and WMWM were not involved in the writing of this article.