the cocoa bean quandary is now also a cocoa butter quandary
dear white and not-so-white chocolate, oh how we loved you
Quandary, some might argue, is just a nicer name for crisis, but where one person sees a crisis someone else will see a problem in need of solving: a problem, or potential problem, that can be solved or worked around. Often, leading us to a happy result we never would have found otherwise.
That’s pretty much our gig as craft chocolate makers: pouring down rain + humid on the day we need to temper a kazillion bars? we turn on the A/C, or set up a fan. The batch doesn’t turn out like we hoped? we focus on our roast profile.
The cocoa beans quandary and the cocoa butter quandary do need attention because without beans/cocoa butter or if bean prices/cocoa butter become unaffordable, what we do could become more difficult, whether we are bean to bar makers or craft chocolatiers sourcing chocolate.
Cocoa butter supply
Recently when I needed to re-stock cocoa butter, I noticed on the Meridian Cacao website they were sold out of two of the three options they offer. I was relieved they still had my preferred choice (deodorized kibbles), and added a bag to my shopping cart. At checkout I decided to add another bag.
That was last week; Meridian is now sold out of cocoa butter.
Fact: cocoa beans are required for making cocoa butter. When cocoa bean prices go up, cocoa butter prices go up. When supply decreases but demand increases (this is the law of supply and demand), prices tend to go up, and not come down.
Last week after I ordered my cocoa butter the thought occurred to me that if cocoa beans are in short supply with high demand ( = high cost), then cocoa butter will also be is in short supply with high demand (and high cost). The cocoa butter I ordered from Meridian was 53% higher in price than my previous order at the end of January.
It’s not Meridian’s fault; likely they had to pay a higher wholesale price for the supply of cocoa butter they brought in to retail.
We’ve all been hearing across social media and in big media about the crazy-high unprecedented cost of cocoa on the commodity market, and how it’s due, in large part, to a low supply of beans in West Africa, where most of the world’s supply is produced. Bean supplies are also down in other cacao-producing regions. This is causing a global stampede of sorts, for big makers of chocolate, but also, for cocoa processors who churn out cocoa butter for the chocolate, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as cocoa paste, liquor, and cocoa powder for the food industry.
Now’s a good time to take a deep breath, close our eyes, and imagine a world without cocoa beans.
Like, literally, try to picture it. Push past the sadness :( Forget (for just a moment) being a chocolate maker. Even without making chocolate we encounter cocoa in some form every day, from the mochas at our local Knoops to entire grocery aisles of candy, cookies, desserts, energy bars, protein powders. And then there’s the cosmetics aisle.
The big chocolate companies and big craft companies have a lot at stake; billions on the big end to millions of dollars on the big craft end in product development, supply contracts, and all that goes into being megaliths. They will make sure they have enough cocoa butter on hand (before the price rises higher and after) through their purchasing power.
What this means for small craft makers
It’s one thing to pay higher prices, it’s another thing to not be able to source cocoa butter at all.
If we use cocoa butter we should stock up now. I had the brilliant (at the time) idea that since I know the company where Meridian and Chocolate Alchemy both source their cocoa butter from (even Meridian’s Tanzania Kokoa Kamili cocoa butter was produced by this cocoa processor), I’d reach out to see about purchasing a pallet of 55-pound blocks or whatever other form (kibbled etc) that would be the most affordable on a large scale. Not that I could afford a $20,000++ pallet of cocoa butter: my idea was a sort of small makers buying co-op, as a way to insure supply and cut costs. Here’s the message I received:
What does it mean “if we use cocoa butter”
White chocolate and not-so-white chocolate (dairy and plant-based based) require a high % of cocoa butter, typically 30-42% of each batch.
Milk and dark milk chocolate (dairy and plant-based) require a higher % of cocoa butter.
Tempering with seed: the sole ingredient is cocoa butter (if you are accustomed to buying seed, this might not be available, but an EZTemper or a sous vide seed set-up are more cost-effective options anyway.)
Beyond bars products like chocolate nut or seed spreads, nut/seed butter cups, bonbons, drinking chocolate, panned treats all require cocoa butter.
We may need to re-formulate our recipes
A 45% milk can be re-designed (and of course, this means a whole new flavor profile) at a higher cacao %; say, to a 60 or 65% dark milk. The higher the % in milk chocolate the less added cocoa butter is needed.
Re-calculate white and not-so-white batches to have less viscosity; creaminess is a good thing! If your batch is super thin (the flow is from cocoa butter), re-think it.
We may need to produce our own cocoa butter, even if only in small quantities.
If you have “older” beans or are well-stocked on beans, or if you come across a good deal on beans, a small nut oil press can be used. The link I shared isn’t the same machine I use, but it has the same mechanical design of an auger to extract the oil.
Buying co-ops for beans and cocoa butter
Maybe you’re already in one of these in your part of the world, but if not, the notion of smaller makers joining financial forces (= purchasing power plus cost reduction) is long overdue.
Our craft maker friends at origin
Maybe a way for makers at origin to boost livelihoods will be by selling to fellow small makers products like cocoa butter. Just a thought.
Inclusioncrafting inclusioncrafting inclusioncrafting
Adding stir-in inclusions to a bar reduces the amount of chocolate that gets deposited into our bar mould: the inclusions take up space. This must be by design, that is, intentional to our bar idea + design, but it is definitely a way to stretch the chocolate.
Craft single origin dark bars at anything but the same old/same old 70%
This has nothing to do with cocoa butter, but 100% everything to do with marketability. The reason chocolate lovers went gaga over white chocolate/not-so white and inclusion bars is that the sea of 70% Madagascars and 70% Kokoa Kamili bars was too crowded.
It only stands to reason that, if cocoa butter is no longer available or continues to rise in cost and become unaffordable, makers may shift back to making more dark bars. A dark bar needs just as much intention and thought as any other bar we craft, which is to say, it is a chance to let our unique small batch crafting soul shine. Looking for that lovely fluidity we all adore? the higher the % of the dark bar, the hgher the % of the inherent cocoa butter from the beans.
Re-think the high cost bar wrappers and packaging
I was purchasing that earlier-mentioned cocoa butter for the batches I was crafting for Map Chocolate’s recent bar launch; the 53% price increase should mean I would need to raise my bar prices accordingly (the profit margin, as we know, is already slim). But a 53% price raise would mean selling bars at $18. Um, no. I’m not saying other folks shouldn’t raise prices; this is a business decision, through and through.
I chose to keep my costs in line with my necessary (100% necessary, lol) profit margin by choosing simple packaging. Something to consider: buying 30,000 pre-printed wrappers because that seems cost-effective is only so if we will use all 30,000 wrappers. If we can no longer source the exact ingredients for that bar, we can’t make the bar, and thus, can’t use the wrappers. Easy turn-around labels are a useful thing.
Finally, huge hugs and thank-you’s to all of you who ordered my bars yesterday at Map’s 2024 bar launch. It was a frenzy! Which is my goal for all us small batch makers: long live the craft ba frenzies we work so hard for, and deserve!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on cocoa butter, so please drop them into the comments!
Happy chocolate making,
Mackenzie
ps, if you’re joining me May 1 for the Inclusioncrafting the Garden Workshop, look for the email in your inbox April 30.
Better start stocking your apocalypse bunker with cacao butter! We all knew this was coming... but still it's sobering. Thanks Mackenzie for the update, and for a level-headed assessment of the situation.
Or grow your own cacao… 😉