A study published this month in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a well respected US scientific journal, comes to the conclusion that there may be an association between more frequent chocolate consumption and lower body mass index. The study was conducted among more than 1000 men and women in San Francisco area.

It goes on to say: Chocolate has shown favorable metabolic associations with blood pressure (BP),^1-3 insulin sensitivity,¹ and cholesterol level.³ Chocolate is rich in antioxidant phytonutrients like catechins that could contribute to favorable relationships of chocolate consumption to insulin sensitivity and BP. However, because chocolate is often consumed as a sweet and bears calories, there are concerns related to its intake. Body mass index (BMI) is part of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) picture, and other MetS elements relate favorably to moderate chocolate consumption. Therefore, we hypothesized that the benefits of modest frequent chocolate intake might extend to reduced fat deposition, potentially offsetting the added calories. To evaluate this, we examined the cross-sectional relationship of chocolate consumption frequency to BMI.

Summer, or at least Spring was all out in Oxford this weekend for the 2nd edition of the Chocolate Festival there. Thanks Cafe On for your marvelous Original Beans macarons, and Damian Allsop for those incredible Original Beans Easter eggs. And thanks to Yeal Rose and her team for organizing this great event. We look forward to London Chocolate Festival next weekend!

Peter Gordon is one of our favorite chefs. We love his open spirit which is so well reflected in his cuisine. Peter has been taking a stance on environment for a long time. We’re grateful for the collaboration and for this Climate Week recipe which features amazing texture and a true explosion of fruit flavour.

Cru Virunga chocolate and passionfruit delice with coconut tapioca and raspberries

For 10 (although the delice will make enough for 20)

400 ml cream

200 ml milk

120g sugar

160g egg yolks

650g Cru Virunga chocolate

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

500ml passionfruit puree (Boiron passionfruit puree is excellent)

2 Tablespoons tapioca or sago pearls

300ml coconut cream (Boiron coconut puree is excellent)

½ teaspoon freshly ground cardamom

50g toasted coconut

300g raspberries

Bring the cream, milk and half the sugar almost to the boil. Whisk the remaining sugar with the egg yolks till pale then pour on the hot cream and cook out as for custard. Pour the custard over the chocolate and whisk it all together, then whisk in the vanilla and passionfruit puree. Pour through a sieve into a dish and leave to cool. Place a sheet of baking parchment on the surface as it cools, then place in the fridge for at least 6 hours to firm up.

Bring 1 litre of water to the boil, add a pinch of salt then whisk in the tapioca, and cook over a rapid simmer until almost cooked through and transparent. Bring the coconut cream and cardamom almost to the boil then take off the heat. Drain the tapioca in a fine sieve and rinse briefly under cold water, then put into a bowl with the warm coconut cream and leave to absorb, which will take 4-6 hours, stirring frequently. Keep covered in the fridge.

To serve, place a quenelle of the delice onto a plate and spoon the tapioca around it, then scatter with the toasted coconut and raspberries.

Recipe © 2011 Peter Gordon. All rights reserved.

Here is Ben Spalding’s recipe contribution to Climate Week. At 24, Ben’s über-talent, skill and creative imagination is breath-taking. We have rarely enjoyed a dinner as inspired as at Roganic. We feel honoured that Ben’s using Original Beans in his kitchen. Here is his low-carbon recipe for Climate Week, London.

WARM SALTED CHOCOLATE, ICED BLACKBERRY, GRANNY SMITH, AND SALTED ALMONDS

WARM SALTED CHOCOLATE

480g Double cream

100g whole milk

400g ORIGINAL BEANS CRU VIRUNGA chocolate

5 leaves of gelatine

8g Maldon sea salt

1. In a bowl add the chocolate and sit over a bowl of slowly simmering water to melt
2. Soak gelatine leaves in cold water
3. Meanwhile in a pan, warm milk and cream to 80c
4. Pour milk and cream over the chocolate and whisk, adding gelatine leaves and keep whisking
5. Strain through a fine chinois and add the salt, whisking to break down
6. On a pair of scales weigh out 600g of mix into a large cream whipper and charge twice with co2 chargers, keep in a pan of hot water no more than 70c

ICED BLACKBERRY

2 punnets blackberries

50g caster sugar

1. Juice the blackberries and strain off
2. Heat 1/3 of the juice and whisk in the sugar to dissolve
3. Add to the remaining juice and pour into a plastic container to freeze

MULLED WINE

400g caster sugar

350g port

250g red wine

1 cinnamon stick

100g alexander seeds

1 orange zest and juice

1 lemon zest and juice

½ a bay leaf

10 black peppercorns

5 juniper berries

3 sprigs of rosemary

3 granny smith apples

1. Mix all ingredients together except the granny smith apple and bring to the boil, whisk and leave to cool down
2. Peel and dice the granny smith apples and add to the wine whilst cooling

SALTED ALMONDS

250g Salted almonds

25g rapeseed oil

5g fine salt

10g caster sugar               1. Mix together and roast at 160c for 30 minutes

In run-up for Easter an interview conducted by The Chocolate Festival London since it wraps it up pretty well.
[don't even think junk-choc Easter eggs (instead Damian Allsop's awe-inspiring master egg www.damianallsop.com)!]

Thank you for spreading the news.

Master of Chocolate Interview with Philipp Kauffmann:

Kauffmann comes from a long line of conservationists. His ancestors include Georg Ludwig Hartig, the 18th century agriculturalist, who helped coin the term ‘sustainability’ and who argued in 1791 that forests should be managed in such a way that future generations can draw as much advantage from them as those living in the present.

In 2008 Philipp Kauffmann left his UN job in New York to co-found Original Beans. The award-winning chocolate and conservation company was set up based on the simple idea that what we consume, we must replenish. So for every bar you buy, local cocoa farmers plant one tree that can be tracked on the company’s website. Their cocoa is ethically sourced from the Bolivian Amazon, the rainforests of Northwest Ecuador, the foothills of the North Peruvian Andes and around Virunga National Park in Eastern DR Congo.

Q. Where did your love of chocolate begin?

A. In the rainforests. Cacao is a magical tree, mythical like our olive and apple tree. I love the tree, with its beautiful flowers, the funny fruit on the stem, with this uniquely fine perfume and taste of lychee, pear, citrus… And I love the gentle humid air of a tropical forest, with all the endless sounds and all this abundance. That is what I want to taste in a chocolate.

Q. Tell us one fact about chocolate that you find fascinating.

A. That the evolution of chocolate is actually just the beginning. All the really exciting developments – discovering and protecting the diversity of cacao, developing flavours through fermentation, changing the industry to become sustainable – are ahead of us.

At Original Beans, we use Domori’s ratio that of 100% end product quality, 50% comes from nature (i.e. variety, soil, biodiversity, shade, etc.), 25% is added by the craftsmanship of a cacao farmer (farming, harvest, fermentation, drying), and only 25% we add in the factory (roasting, grinding, conching).

The industry has hardly invested in the last 25%, i.e. good manufacture. Let alone in the remaining 75%. Now that the consumer is slowly discovering all of this, there is so much to develop and change for the better.

Q. If you were stranded on a desert island which chocolate would you most crave?

A. One that doesn’t melt too quickly! So: dark cacao, but enough sugars to taste fruit flavors. You can already hear: I’d have to bring a library, like Original Beans ‘Story of Cacao in 4 Bars’.

Q. What was the catalyst that prompted you to set up Original Beans?

A. My experience as a conservationist and entrepreneur. I have seen the rainforest of Borneo disappear – go up in flames – within the last decade. For palm oil in my soap, and illegal timber in your living room. Thoughtless business is destroying the world and conscious business will take care of it. Original Beans is our contribution to transforming a horrendously thoughtless chocolate industry towards becoming a conscious, replenishing force.

Q. What are the company’s aims?

A. Our slogan is “The Planet: Replant It”. There you have it. Simply: if we replant secondary forest quicker than we deforest primary rainforest, and we empower smallholder farmers to become conservation stewards in the process, we may have a chance to help conserve rainforests.

Q. Why do you consider conservation so important?

A. In this age, I don’t think there is anything more relevant than re-establishing the balance between humans and our planet. Rainforests are the lungs of the Earth, our largest freshwater reservoirs, and the great genetic library of life on our planet. We are allowing them to be destroyed by poverty and greed. And here is the exciting good news: quality chocolate can really change that.

Q. What in your opinion makes for magnificent chocolate?

A. I think as consumers we are beyond the point of defining products in one dimension, say taste or fairness. I want a product that offers me empowering consumption, which aligns my interest to enjoy, with my interest to contribute, with my interest to learn and explore. To enjoy, I love beautiful packaging. To contribute, I want to have it fully natural. To learn, I like it to tell me a story. To enjoy, I like tasting authentic fruit notes. To contribute (to my health) I want no additives. To explore, I like to discover new cacaos and ingredients.

Q. What is Original Beans’ greatest achievement to date?

A. That we are continuing to walk our talk, even if the economy is slow and the market noisy. We have discovered and protected a rare cacao (the Piura Porcelana). We are deeply invested in developing a sustainable, high-end cacao origin in one of the most tormented places in the world, Eastern Congo. We have just released our new packaging that is entirely made from wood, carton and foil, 100% renewable and bio-compostable. And we’ve just become the first chocolate supplier accredited by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

Q. Have you noticed any changes in consumer attitudes towards chocolate over the past decade?

A. I think we consumers are awakening from the dream world of plastic-wrapped Easter eggs that turn out to be a nightmare for everybody involved, from the child who may be forced to produce the cacao to the child that may be forced to become obese on it. Taste, health, and true happiness are becoming key to our consumer choice. What I think needs to change more dramatically is the role of retailers. I would hope for more leadership and less catering to our engrained expectations and tastes.

Q. Who or what inspires you?

A. Without doubt, the professionals I have the privilege of working with every day in the supply chain of Original Beans. There are dozens of people who make this product and brand happen, and they are all deeply committed to the values of excellence, sustainability and social good. I would love to bring them all together at one point.

Q. Who would you invite to your ideal dinner party and what would you serve for dessert?

A. Ah well, I just made my wish (see above). This would be a dinner with a guest list that brings together indigenous Indian cacao gatherers from the Beni (Bolivian Amazon) to Prince Jaime de Bourbon Parma, who is a friend and advisor and goes out to Congo to clean up the mining industry there.

Q. What plans do you have in store for Original Beans?

A. Inspire, grow the community, make the best products, and replant the next million trees… We are continuously screening new conservation project and cacaos to develop another original bean. I hope later this year, we’ll be able to announce one. Thanks for staying tuned.

We want to thank Phil Usher, Head Pastry at Caprice Group in London, for his  i n c r e d  i b l y delicious Virunga recipe, and for his ‘walk the talk‘ standing on environment and sourcing. Here belows is his choc pudding souffle recipe… try it at home.

Scott’s Cru Virunga chocolate pudding soufflé with banana ice cream and plantain crisp

 Serves 4

Original Beans Cru Virunga is the first single-origin chocolate from Virunga National Park in war-torn eastern DR Congo.

For the chocolate pudding soufflé

• 200g Cru Virunga chocolate (we sell this at The Mount Street Deli www.themountstreetdeli.co.uk; if you cannot find it, substitute with a 70% chocolate)
• 100g unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 medium sized free range eggs
• 3 medium sized free range egg yolks
• 40g plain flour

Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC / gas mark 5.

In a bowl or food processor, whisk eggs, egg yolks and sugar until they’ve doubled in size. Meanwhile, break the chocolate into small pieces. Add to the butter in a heat-proof bowl and melt over boiling water bath (bain-marie), stirring occasionally. This should take no more than 5 minutes. Once melted, remove from the heat and fold in to the egg and sugar mixture. Add sieved flour and mix well. Spoon into 4 buttered ramekins or heat-proof dishes and cook for 8 minutes.

For the banana ice cream

• 200ml milk
• 180ml double cream
• 6 medium sized free range egg yolks
• 90g caster sugar
• 100g clotted cream
• 200g banana purée, from fresh bananas blended in a food processor
• 50ml good quality dark rum

In a bowl or food processor, whisk egg yolks and sugar until they’ve doubled in size. Bring milk and cream to the boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Remove from the heat and pour onto the egg mixture. Stir and sieve into a bowl. Add clotted cream, banana purée and rum and stir well. Allow the mixture to cool over ice and chill before churning in an ice cream maker.

For the plantain crisps

• 1 plantain
• Sunflower oil for frying

Peel the plantain and shave into thin strips. Pour 6cm of oil into a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan, or use a deep fat fryer. Heat to 140°C. If using a saucepan, please be careful as the oil will be very hot. Cook until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.

Serve the chocolate pudding soufflé warm, dusted with icing sugar and accompanied by a ball of banana ice cream and fried plantain crisp.

 Scott’s │ 20 Mount Street, London W1K 2HE │ 020 7495 7309 │ www.scotts-restaurant.com

What is 360° Luxury?

Like you, we are excited to be part of tonight’s 360° ITB Luxury Networking Event. As a group of premium product suppliers – chocolates, coffees, juices, liqueurs, and wines – we have found each other around one common goal: redefining luxury to take a stance for sustainability and fairness.

We service a growing market that feels like a movement: a lifestyle of health and sustainability. Like you, we envision the Luxury Hotel & Travel industry to become a leader in this market. That is what we understand 360° Luxury to be. Luxury within the cycles of nature and traditions. Luxury that gives back more than it takes. Luxury for our souls to enjoy as much as our senses.

As suppliers, we don’t take this metaphorically: We go a long way to supply products which empower you, the hosts, to offer an experience of luxury that sets the trend for tomorrow.

Take the example of tonight’s chocolate: Original Beans’ Cru Virunga 70% has won international taste and design awards, and is served in some of the finest restaurants. It offers a luxurious melt and a deep flavour experience of ripe morello cherries and smoky tobacco notes. Our sommelier has paired it with a unique natural Vin Doux from Rasteau (Chateauneuf du Pape). Cru Virunga originates from Eastern Congo, a place steeped in natural beauty, but also in severe poverty and a brutal war. Since 2008, Original Beans’ Cru Virunga project has doubled incomes for more than 10.000 of the poorest farmers, reforested 5.000 hectares of rainforest, and has measurably contributed to the protection of Virunga National Park, home of the last mountain gorillas on Earth.

The same philosophy of superior quality and radical sustainability, Luxury 360°, applies for all of tonight’s products: the wines presented by Les Individuels, the liqueurs distilled by Dwersteg, the coffee roasted by Andraschko Kaffee Manufaktur, and the fruit juices produced by Privatkelterei Van Nahmen. Van Nahmen since 1995 has been actively restoring traditional German fruit orchards which represent a unique biological and cultural heritage. Andraschko defines his blends after each new coffee harvest and only sources from ‘specialty’ coffee growers whose publicly acknowledge quality, cooperation, environmental protection, and ethical trade. Dwersteg distillery (since 1882) has been the first producer of organic liqueurs and their new limoncello was awarded product of the year at Biofach 2012. Les Individuels, finally, practices fair trade at our doorstep representing a collection of the best, most natural, tradition-conscious, and unspoiled wines in Europe.

Luxury as a call to action? Before this evening is over, 10 unique animal- and plant species will have gone extinct forever. This unprecedented collapse is easy to explain: humans consume their resources and habitats. And yet it is the breath-taking privilege to witness a gorilla, the profound joy of tasting a long forgotten apple, and the complex sensuality of a natural wine which offer true luxury. It is for our own enjoyment that we conserve them.

And so we wish you an exceptionally enjoyable evening and outlook on 360° Luxury. We’ll be around and look forward to meeting you.

Yes, our home is the world, literally. Here in a Berlin cafe. Thank you Baltas.