The year was 1828 when the world of chocolate was forever changed. The father and son Dutch chocolate makers Casparus and Coenraad van Houten had invented a new way of extracting excess cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans (Coenraad would later refine the resulting cocoa powder by treating it with alkaline salts). This mixture combined more easily with water, creating a milder, darker flavor. This “Dutching” process continues to be used today by just a few of the world’s greatest chocolate manufacturers. One of those few is Hollander.

Hollander Chocolate prides itself on manufacturing truly Dutch chocolates that complement the modern cafe’s many needs. Houston’s took notice of this and has now established a partnership with this new vendor to offer its superb products to our customers. Whether making the perfect powder for hot cocoa or crafting a sauce for a sensational mocha blend, Hollander takes care to pay homage to the generations of Dutch chocolate makers before them by ensuring every product follows strict quality standards. Here are just a few of the offerings available today:

Café Sauces

• Barista Sweet Ground Dutched Chocolate Sauce – Silky and sweet, easily blend this sauce with hot and cold drinks, all the way down to the last pump.
• Barista Sweet White Chocolate Sauce – Blended with real Wisconsin dairy, you can count on a genuine white chocolate that is smooth and delectable.
• Barista Koffiebar Caramel Sauce – Cane sugar, vanilla, Wisconsin dairy, and sea salt join forces to elevate a classic flavor and make it perfect for any recipe.

Café Powders

• Barista Premium Dutched Hot Cocoa Powder – Water soluble and perfect for hot or frozen cocoa beverages, this powder packs chocolatey nostalgia in every sip.
• Barista Sweet Ground Dutched Chocolate Powder – Featuring natural vanilla and cane sugar, this Dutched cocoa is of the highest quality, with no artificial flavors.
• Barista Sweet Ground White Chocolate Powder – Hollander’s proprietary method ensures that real cocoa butter is used in this powder for a true decadent flavor.

Of course, just because Hollander’s tastes are rooted in history doesn’t mean that its practices are stuck in the past. Hollander is committed to ensuring its products are 100% Trans Fat free, absent of High Fructose Corn Syrup, and completely free of Genetically Modified Organisms. Along with its commitment to providing a responsible product to consumers, Hollander is also conscious of its effects on cacoa sources. By allowing for clear visibility on its resource lines, maintaining strong relationships with areas that offer fair employment, and giving a portion of its proceeds back to at risk communities in cacao-producing regions, Hollander has created an environment where enjoying chocolate doesn’t need to be a ‘guilty’ pleasure.

Houston’s newly-established partnership with Hollander is yet another example of our dedication to providing you with access to a unique, quality, and forward-thinking product. Just like great flavor, trends surrounding health-conscious and socially responsible products show every sign of flourishing well into the future. And, of course, chocolate will never to go out of style.

The post Vendor Spotlight: Hollander Chocolate appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Monbana Training!

Monbana is well-known for their chocolate and Houston’s will be selling a few of their featured items. First, we carry four of their gourmet chocolate powders. When it comes to the gourmet chocolate powders, they are much different than drinking a mug of American hot chocolate. These sipping chocolates have a unique flavor in which the chocolate taste comes first, followed by the texture and flavor of the chocolate, and at the end of the sip, you can taste the sugar. This is much different than American hot chocolate because the taste of sugar tends to come first and the chocolate second. The Monbana White Trésor Gourmet chocolate powder, (trésor is a French word meaning “treasure”) is made from 45% cocoa butter whereas the Trésor Gourmet chocolate powder, Suprême European Style chocolate powder and the Organic chocolate powder are made with 32% cocoa. The Suprême European Style chocolate powder is a thicker product meant to be heated in an espresso machine and you should drink it as soon as you finish making it for the best flavor and texture.

We also carry nine of their frappé flavors. These flavors include; vanilla, mocha, yogurt, chocolate, strawberry, lemon, lychee, mango passion fruit, and caramel. Never heard of lychee before? It is a floral flavor perfect for a summer treat. The best part about the frappés is that no matter how long they sit, they do not separate. That’s right! You can drink it for an hour and it will still be together until the last drop. Similar to the gourmet sipping chocolates, the frappé flavor is always forward and the first thing you taste. After that, the body comes and then the sweetness of the frappé is in the back. It is recommended that both the frappés and the gourmet chocolate powders are used with whole milk, but they also work great with a dairy alternative as well.

Interested in how the gourmet chocolate powders and frappés work? Check it out!

Gourmet Chocolate Powders:

Option 1- Steamer: Add 7 fluid ounces of milk and steam it for 5 seconds. Then add one heaping scoop of powder and steam for a maximum of 20 seconds. Voila! You now have a yummy chocolate drink.

Option 2- Chocolate machine preparation: Add 35-170 fluid ounces of milk and heat for 15-45 minutes at 149°. Then add five heaping scoops for every 35 fluid ounces Let the chocolate thicken and then serve the tasty treat!

Frappés:

Place 8 fluid ounces of ice cubes in a cup with 8 fluid ounces of cold milk. Pour the mixture into a blender with two scoops of the frappé mix. Blend the mix to your desired consistency of approximately 20-45 seconds and there you go! A delicious milkshake- like treat.

Want to try some Monbana products? Contact Inside Sales and let us know what you think!

The post Never Underestimate the Power of Chocolate! appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Today, there are three main types of trees used for chocolate—the Forastero, the Trinitario, and the Criollo.   The Forastero tree is native to the Amazon basin region of Africa and is responsible for the largest amount of cocoas produced around the world.  It is a hardy variety with a high yield of beans, but typically produce a quite bland chocolate.  The Criollo, from Central America, is the rarest of the cacao trees, but the output is a delicate, complex bean that is favored among chocolatiers.  The Trinitario tree is a hybrid of the Forastero and the Criollo, with some of the complex taste of the Criollo but with the disease-resistant qualities of the Forastero.

Specialty chocolate makers derive their creations from a single type of bean.  The Criollo beans are the desired ingredient in specialty recipes, but the cost and availability is often a deterrent.  Specialty chocolates can be made from other trees as well—the key is in the use of just a single bean.  The beginning process of chocolate-making is the same from manufacturer to manufacturer:  even with all of the progress in machinery since ancient times, the harvesting, fermenting, drying, cleaning, and roasting of cacao beans is still done by hand. Machines then take over to do the grinding.  From there, each chocolate maker has their own process that makes their chocolate different from others on the market.

And it’s not like you might think it is.  That is to say, if you ask people what makes a really great chocolate you will not get a standard answer.  In much the same way as coffee roasting, there is a craft involved, and everyone has perfected their own roasting manner.  The key, according to modern chocolate makers, is “not getting in the beans’ way.”  Before this approach, chocolate makers roasted beans dark and the finished product reflected that process.  Now, though, chocolate beans are roasted according to their variety and where they are grown.  Today, you’ll “taste the bean itself, which can present flavors as varied as red berries, lemon, and tobacco” for example.

In the coffee industry, this boils down to a pairing process that requires much thought about how to marry the flavors.  It is more than a simple recipe of coffee and chocolate.  Alex Whitmore, owner of Taza, encourages “deeper roasts or low acidity coffees” for mochas made with modern chocolates.  But Jamie Fey, café manager for Dogwood Coffee, claims that “many single-origin coffees open up in the presence of chocolate.”

Pairing specialty roasts of coffee with specialty roasts of chocolate opens up numerous doors for flavor experimenting in the coffee shop.  The flavor potentials are seemingly endless, and this makes for a lot of fun coming up with the best concoctions.

I don’t know about you, but I think I will go out and get a mocha!

The post Much Ado About Chocolate appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Monin Almond Mudslide.  Photo courtesy of Monin

Ingredients

• 1 ½ oz. Monin® Toasted Almond Mocha Syrup
• ½ oz. Monin® Espresso Syrup
• ½ oz. Monin® Dark Chocolate Sauce
• 4 oz. vanilla smoothie mix
• Ice

 Preparation

1. Combine ingredients, except ice, in blender
2. Fill serving glass with ice and pour into blender
3. Blend until smooth, then pour into your serving glass
4. Garnish as desired

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