Oct 13 2011 --- Investment by Cargill’s cocoa & chocolate business has boosted Cargill’s chocolate capabilities in speciality tastes. Three new chocolate tastes are the first fruits of this investment: chocolate with mocha (coffee) paste, chocolate with hazelnut paste, and an authentic Gianduja (hazelnut) chocolate, and are produced using two new processes developed by Cargill.

“At Cargill we work in partnership with our customers to create tailor-made recipes,  which address customers’ unique requirements relating to the taste, texture, mouthfeel, and rheological properties of chocolate, and we will take the same approach with these new chocolate tastes”, explains Rens de Haan, Marketing and Communications Director, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate.

“Our philosophy is that no two customers are the same – we have as many recipes as we have customers, and pride ourselves in creating individual tastes and products, which our new investment will further enhance”, added de Haan.

Coffee flavouring in confectionery is a growth area, and in the past three years the number of new tracked confectionery product launches with coffee flavouring has increased dramatically from 378 in 2008 to 834 in 2010, according to Innova Market Insights data.

Traditionally, it has been difficult for manufacturers to create chocolate with strong flavours such as coffee, but Cargill has developed two new processes that allow such flavours to be incorporated into chocolate in a homogenous and consistent way. They also resolve the issue of line and product contamination with strong flavours, ensuring a consistent taste experience.

Cargill’s new mocha paste is flavoured with superior coffee beans and can be used mainly in dark, but also milk chocolate, for applications such as filled bars, pralines, ice cream, and bakery products, including biscuits.

“Our chocolate with hazelnut paste is available from 0.5% to a maximum of 40% hazelnut content”, explains De Haan. “At 0.5% hazelnut content, the chocolate has a greater creaminess and an enhanced mouthfeel, from 1-2% a subtle and natural signature nut profile emerges, and at 15-20% an authentic Giandjula chocolate is produced.”

Giandjula chocolate paste has a legal definition for minimum hazelnut content – 20% for dark and 15% for milk chocolate. It was invented in 1852 and takes its name from an Italian carnival and marionette character which traditionally represents those native to the Italian region of Piedmont.

“This is a luxurious product with a great history and legacy and is widely used in chocolate confectionery applications”, De Haan clarifies. “It is understandably popular in Italy, but is also widely used in the UK, US and Germany.

“Our expanded chocolate capabilities complement our single origin, organic and UTZ Certified sustainable chocolate, which we offer our customers through our eight factories across Europe. Additionally our formulation capabilities and taste expertise helps create products for our customers that their consumers will love”, concludes De Haan.