This premium-quality, flavourful Cocoa Runners Cooking & Baking Cocoa Powder produced by Kokoa Kamili will have a huge impact on the flavour of your finished bakes – whether they be brownies, chocolate cake, some of our Sourdough Chocolate Cookies or our Chocolate & Rye Sourdough Boule
This powder is non-alkalised, which means it hasn’t been treated with an alkalising agent to lower its acidity. Non-alkalised cocoa powder preserves the complexity and flavours of the beans, giving you the rich and varied flavour profile you’ve come to love in Craft Chocolate. It’s also easier to bake with, as the natural acidity of the cocoa bean reacts with baking soda to create air bubbles, which helps your sponges to rise in the oven.
This cocoa powder was sourced from Kokoa Kamili in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Kokoa Kamili has been paying premium prices for wet cocoa since 2015, saving farmers the tasks of fermentation and drying and adding enormous value to their cocoa beans. In the height of harvest season, Kokoa Kamili employs 50 people from their village, and has set up a scholarship fund for local girls to go to the nearby secondary school.
At the Sourdough School and the Sourdough Club we ensure that we use ethical cocoa and chocolate in all our chocolate-based recipes. Our Sweet Sourdough recipes can be found on our Sourdough Club website.
If you aren’t already a member you can join the Sourdough Club and learn to bake sourdough with Vanessa online.
Beyond Fair Trade chocolate
Many artisan chocolate makers source their cocoa beans directly from the farmers and farmer co-operatives, cutting out the middlemen and ensuring a significantly higher price, which is more than the Fair Trade premium, for the farmer.
Why Bean-To-Bar chocolate?
Just as the way grapes are grown and nurtured is critical for the quality of great wine, the same is true for cocoa beans and chocolate. Soil conditions, climate and the care and attention of the farmers and chocolate makers all impact the final product.
The best chocolate often comes from chocolate makers who have a direct relationship with the farmers they buy from. This direct trade also cuts out middlemen and ensures higher payments to cocoa farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The same care and attention to detail also characterises the makers who source these beans and create the bars or the cocoa powder. Whether they’re working out of a small kitchen or a dedicated factory, all these makers are united in the care and attention they make to creating their chocolate.
You can view the full range of Cocoa Runners cooking and baking chocolate, cocoa powder and cocoa nibs in our shop.
