Well I have two points I thought of when you said that…

1)When adding cocoa butter you are going to lower the bitterness OR sweetness of a chocolate…because fat is neither…so you can have a 70% chocolate bar that has a very mild bitterness if it has a lot of cocoa butter added.

2)There is Deodorized cocoa butter and natural non deodorized cocoa butter. So some taste and smell can stay with the cocoa butter if not deordorized and that can play a role in a chocolates taste or smell. Especially in white chocolate…and probably less in dark…

Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

Has been discussed before [url="http://www.seventypercent.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=337&SearchTerms=deodorized,cocoa,butter/"]this forum topic[/url].

Cocoa butter most certainly plays a part in overall flavor of a chocolate. Case in point: El Rey’s two bars, Apamate (73.5%) and Gran Saman (70%), the latter of which is much stronger and more assertive despite the misleading percentages. Read the reviews here for a descriptive comparison because a few of your questions may be answered there. Also, Bonnat is known for excess cocoa butter and I detect a slight fresh pasta flavor in all their bars. Is this cocoa butter? Who knows, but it’s certainly there, most notably at the beginning of the length.

The Deoorderized Cocoa butter is used for its melting properties but WILL NOT add to aroma and taste of the white chocolate. The texture isn’t effected between deordorized cocoa butter and natural cocoa butter. Only aroma and taste.
Then there is white chocolate and white compound or coating…white chocolate has cocoa butter while compounds/coatings have vegetable fats(cheaper and they set at a certain temperature so no tempering is needed).

If you want go try some great white chocolate you MUST try El Rey’s White Chocolate. El Rey is a company in Venezuela. Their white chocolate is the best in the World in my opinion and in many other professionals opinion…
If you are in the USA you can go to http://www.chocolateguild.com and click on the big link on the left that says “buy chocolate at…”.

Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

Ilana, you could find El Ray in Fresh & Wild in London, big chunks, just wrapped in cling film. White as well.
Very Merry Christmas to everyone! [:X][:X]

For some reason I thought you were in Israel? I’d love to bring my family there, as every time I’ve been there it’s been a fantastic experience – although i do have some memories that were somewhat less than family friendly, and wouldn’t want them to experience (most of them involve land-mines, bullets, and knives..) While I can’t direct you to any local places that might carry a variety for you to look at, mail order is always a possibility.

Well when you come to the states then you will have to EAT EAT EAT UP…haha…I have had a few people from Israel come on my site…have you been one of them? Just wondering…It is always fun to meet others from all over the world….how did you get into liking fine chocolate?

Merry Christmas,
Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

I’ve been pretty much all over – one of the funny stories from the first time i was there – it was just after the first gulf war. One of the places i was in was eilat – at some point, i managed to get into a discussion with what was effectively the mayor of eilot – apparently, every year he holds a contest that has a prize going to the individual or organization who increases tourism to his town the most (eilot is a port town on the red sea, it’s economy is tourism based). During the first gulf war, it was also the only place that the scuds couldn’t reach, so people flocked there. After the war was over, he sent a plaque to Saddam Hussein to award him as the individual who won that years contest 8-)

Cute story!! I guess this year Nassrallah will get the plaque for bringing flocks of tourist to Eilat! We should be selling chocolates there!

yeah he is Israeli. He was bought by Elite chocolates here, which is a big chocolate company, kinda like an Israeli version of Cadbury. Since then it is mass produced and tastes appropriate to that. He has quite a few extremely popular cafes here with all sorts of chocolate and related items, a whole menu…,and the general public thinks highly of his places. His packaging and cups and stuff are also considered a break through… In this country when something is in, it is in big time and everyone has now equated fine chocolate with Max Brenner.
Where does your brother live?
Bye!
Ilana