Frequently Asked Questions .....
About Amano
What does Amano mean?
What makes Amano's chocolate better than others on the market?
Why did you choose the Salt Lake City area for a chocolate factory?
Do you have Oompa Loompas working for you?
Is Amano "Fair Trade" certified?
Is Amano kosher certified?
Is Amano a "Belgian style" chocolate?
How long do you conche your chocolate?
About Chocolate
When you say that a chocolate bar is 65%, 70% or 85% cacao, what does that mean?
Does a higher cocao content result in a better chocolate?
What is the difference between "semisweet" and "bittersweet"?
What is the best way to store chocolate?
There is a retailer that says it makes chocolate. Is that true?
My chocolate has a funny white or grey coating on it. Is it spoiled or old?
What is conching?
Amano has three different meanings. In Italian, it means "by hand," which represents our dedication to creating the finest chocolate available, taking the necessary time with each batch to ensure that it is just right. Amano also means "they love" in Italian and touches on how we feel at Amano about fine chocolate and why we feel it is important to create it "by hand." In Japanese, Amano means "heavenly field." Since chocolate and cacao are known as the "food of the Gods," it is truly a bountiful field that must be treated with reverence and respect.
In creating chocolate, hard decisions need to be made. One of the most important decisions is whether to focus on quantity or quality. In a world of mass-produced merchandise, Amano strives to return to chocolate's roots by making the chocolate slowly and in very small batches while concentrating on developing the finest flavors possible. There is much fine chocolate made throughout the world. Each company or artisan has its own unique vision. We hope that you will share Amano's vision of quality without compromise.
We believe that the high altitude and dry weather of our location aids in the flavor development process, just one of the many things that allow Amano to create a superior chocolate. It is worth noting that Amano is located at 4,441 feet (1,454 meters) above sea level — higher than many of the Swiss chocolate makers, this makes Amano one of the highest-altitude chocolate manufacturers in the world!
That's a trade secret. We're not telling.
Unfortunately, the history of chocolate is full of unscrupulous companies and people who have engaged in unethical business practices. One of these is that the large companies created a lock on the industry so that they could dictate the price to the cocoa farmer. This meant that the farmers were always living on borderline poverty and often had to resort to child labor or poor farming practices in order to stay afloat and feed their families.
Since Amano is concerned only with the highest quality cocoa beans, Amano always pays farmers and co-ops significantly more for their product than is set by the "fair trade" organizations. Unfortunately, it costs significant amounts of money for the farmers to become fair-trade certified in addition to it being a long drawn out process. Many farmers simply cannot afford it. At Amano, we believe in paying a premium price for premium cocoa beans. The prices we pay are measured in multiples (i.e., 3-4 times) the London Cocoa Terminal Market price. This not only ensures that we obtain the highest quality beans available but this also ensures that the farmers we work with not only can provide for their families but are encouraged to produce a high quality product and improve their farms. We don't pay the prices we pay to get a label on our box — we do it because it is the right thing to do.
Yes, Amano is kosher certified. All of our bars are certified kosher-dairy. We are certified by Scroll K a regional kosher certification organization. We have found Scroll K to be good to work with and highly recommend them if you are in the west. Interestingly, the members of Scroll K also do the certification for the OU (Orthodox Union).
There are fewer differences in chocolate made in different countries than many people think. There really isn't a "Belgian style" per se though surely fine chocolate is made there. If you look at the history of chocolate, different countries lead the industry in different ways and at different times. If anything, we think we get our inspiration from the French and Italian chocolate makers who, as a whole, are — in our opinion — producing some of the best chocolate today. Chocolate is very much a matter of personal preference and what one has grown up with. Each company has its own artistic vision, no matter what country it is in.
We conche our chocolate until it is done. Various manufacturers claim that they conche their chocolate for a certain number of hours. One number that is frequently thrown around is 72 hours. In our opinion, this is like asking how long do you cook a fine sauce, roast, or turkey? Just as it takes differing amounts of times to cook items for a nice meal, it takes differing amounts of time to conche fine chocolate. There are many different styles of conches. Some conche longer than others. The appropriate amount of time to conche depends on the type of conche that is being used; the temperature of chocolate while it is being conched, the altitude, the humidity, and perhaps most important the qualities of the cocoa bean that went into making the chocolate. Just as it is possible to over-cook a meal, it is also possible to over-conche chocolate. Chocolate that has been over-conched will often taste flat and uninteresting, because many of its flavor components have evaporated off. Rather than saying that our chocolate has been conched a certain number of hours, we prefer to say that our chocolate has been conched until it is"just right."
This is a measurement of how much of the chocolate is actually made from cocoa bean. It can be both chocolate liquor (ground cocoa bean) as well as cocoa butter. (Cocoa butter is made by pressing the fat out of the ground cocoa bean.) Some manufacturers add cocoa powder as part of this. (We do not, because it results in a chocolate with inferior flavor.) Typically, the remaining percentage is sugar, vanilla (to help round out the flavor), and sometimes a bit of emulsifier, such as soy lecithin (no more than .5%). The higher this number, the richer and less sweet the chocolate typically will be.
No. The best chocolate is the chocolate that you enjoy the most. These numbers are a useful way for consumers to gauge how rich the chocolate is and find what best suits their tastes. We recommend that people try a variety of chocolates with varying amounts of cocoa content to find what they like the best.
These loose terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Semisweet is typically more sweet than bittersweet. This may vary slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Chocolate contains cocoa butter, which is a kind of fat. Fats are very susceptible to absorbing odors. For this reason, it is important to store chocolate away from spices, meat (in the case of being stored in the refrigerator), or other items that have strong odors.
Moisture may dissolve the sugar on the surface of the chocolate, causing sugar bloom. For this reason, chocolate should be stored in an area of low humidity, if at all possible.
Optimally, chocolate should be stored at between 61 and 64 degrees F (16-18 degrees C), though chocolate may be stored at as high a temperature as 75 degrees F. Above 75 degrees Fahrenheit there is risk to damaging the chocolate though admittedly, many people store it at this temperature or above without problems.
Chocolate may be stored in the refrigerator or even the freezer if it is properly wrapped so as to not absorb food odors. However, it is important that when it is brought out, it be wrapped in a towel or other insulation so that it warms slowly and evenly. This will help prevent shocking the crystalline structure of the cocoa butter, as well as avoiding condensation that may cause sugar bloom.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion over the term "making chocolate." Only about a dozen manufacturers within the United States make chocolate all the way from the bean to use in chocolate bars. Most people who say that they are "making chocolate" are actually buying their chocolate from one of these manufacturers and then molding it or otherwise making chocolate confections (candies). In Belgium, the term "Chocolatier" may be used only to refer to those who make chocolate all the way from the bean. They then have a separate term for those who make chocolate confections. We wish there were a similar delineation in the United States, because as it now is, the term "making chocolate" creates a lot of confusion.
This is called "bloom" and it does not spoil the chocolate in any way other than aesthetically. There are two kinds of bloom: fat bloom and sugar bloom.
Fat bloom is caused by the crystalline structure of the cocoa butter breaking down and some of the cocoa butter migrating to the surface of the chocolate. This will cause a grey appearance. Chocolate that has been kept in a place that is too warm or that has temperature fluctuations will often have fat bloom. Sometimes, if the chocolate has become too hot, the cocoa butter will change its crystilized form, and the texture will change as well. This is called losing "temper." In this case, it will still taste fine though the texture may be a bit softer.
Sugar bloom is caused by moisture coming into contact with the chocolate. Sometimes this is caused by condensation if the chocolate has been kept in a refrigerator and then brought into the open air too quickly. The condensation dissolves some of the sugar in on the surface of the chocolate; then when the moisture dries, it leaves a thin layer of sugar crystals on the surface. A simple way to test for sugar bloom is to moisten your finger and touch the chocolate. If the bloom disappears, then it is sugar bloom. If it does not, then it is fat bloom.
We have a complete article on sugar and fat bloom that explains the various forms of bloom in greater detail and includes photographs here.
Conching is basically a process of stirring or mixing the chocolate for an extended period of time. Conching is not very well understood and is the subject of much urban myth even within the chocolate industry. It is believed to do a number of things to the final chocolate that improve its flavor and texture:
Conching was probably more important at the time it was invented than it is today because the old chocolate refiners did not always do a good job of creating a smooth chocolate. The early conches called longitudinal conches consisted of a granite roller that moved back and forth, pushing the chocolate in a trough. It is thought that one of the actions of this roller was to slowly grind the chocolate underneath it, completing the refining process. Even so, today there are many different styles of conches and conching continues to be an important part of the chocolate-manufacturing process.