The Wild New World of Flavor Fermentation in Cacao

Craft chocolate has introduced chocolate lovers to a whole new world of flavors, and now innovations in fermentation are expanding chocolate’s flavor spectrum even further. 

Fermenting cacao photo credit Fu Wan Chocolate

Chocolate is an exceptionally complex and fascinating food. Compared to other delicacies like wine, coffee and cheese, it takes many more steps to transform the raw ingredients to the finished product, and there are more opportunities to steer flavor nuance and complexity.

While adding flavored ingredients to chocolate has long been a way for some chocolate makers and confectioners to create new bars and confections, that isn't the only way to experiment with flavor. One of the most fascinating and important parts of the chocolate-making process is cacao fermentation, and this is one of the most exciting areas of experimentation right now, with many farmers and fermenters developing new techniques that can help their cacao stand out from the crowd. “The cocoa producers we work with are constantly figuring out new things to try and ways to play around,” says Greg D’Alesandre of Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco. “One of the main things they look for is value-added products… As a chocolate maker we have bars, confections, pastries and drinking chocolates, but as a cocoa producer you just have beans.”

Spicing Chocolate Up from Dandelion Chocolate

Fermentation facility at Maya Mountain Cacao in Belize photo courtesy Uncommon Cacao

To ferment cacao, freshly harvested beans are placed in boxes or baskets and covered with organic materials like banana leaves. Natural yeasts and bacteria then break down the fruity cacao pulp, generating heat and instigating the fermentation of sugars into alcohol, then acetic acid. This process typically lasts 5-7 days, and some fermenters are trialing the addition of aromatic ingredients to the fermentation, so that the beans absorb the flavor.

Dandelion Chocolate Spiced Fermentations

Dandelion Chocolate makes chocolate with only 2 ingredients and chooses not to add any additional flavored ingredients to their bars, but in April 2024, they released a limited edition ‘Spice Fermentation Set’, which featured three bars crafted from cacao beans that were fermented together with fragrant spices. Kokoa Kamili in Tanzania fermented beans together with cinnamon, while Regal Plantations in India infused their beans with nutmeg, and Maya Mountain in Belize incorporated allspice and black pepper. The resulting chocolate bars had distinctive spice flavors, even though the ingredients of all three bars were just cacao and sugar.

“One of the things that’s exciting about making a craft product is that you can experiment,” says D’Alesandre. “The interesting thing about innovation is trying something new, and then somebody else trying something new – based on what you did – and on and on and on it goes.”

Fruits, Flowers, Honey & More from Fu Wan Chocolate

Honey Ferment chocolate photo credit Fu Wan Chocolate

Tree-to-bar chocolate makers Fu Wan Chocolate in Taiwan have also done extensive testing with flavored fermentation also known as co-fermentation. Founder Warren Hsu was inspired by Valrhona’s passionfruit-fermented Itakuja 55% – a rare example of a mass-produced chocolate that uses this technique – as well as co-fermented specialty coffees.

Working with beans from his own farm, Hsu has tested micro-batch fermentations with over 50 different flavor additions, as well as a variety of different yeasts. “I’ve tried vegetables like bamboo, different leaves, a lot of fruits, like raspberry, pineapple, grapes, guava, lychee… all the fruits I can get in Taiwan!”

Hsu’s favorite additions have been flowers, such as jasmine, magnolia and orange blossom. He also loves the batches he’s made with floral honey, such as the 70% ‘Spring of Austranesia’ bar that was released in March 2024. “I like working with honey because the results are very beautiful,” says Warren. “Honey is also a precious ingredient – we have to remind people to save the bees… it has a very strong relationship with sustainability.”

Co-fermented chocolate: a Grey Area for Awards

Fu Wan Chocolate have entered many of their co-fermented chocolates into the International Chocolate Awards, picking up multiple silver and bronze awards in the 2023 and 2024 Asia-Pacific competitions. 

Co-fermented chocolate is a somewhat controversial issue in the world of chocolate awards, because it blurs the border between ‘plain’ dark chocolate and flavored bars. The flavor is infused during fermentation, but it doesn’t need to be a listed ingredient on the chocolate wrapper.

Judith Lewis from the Academy of Chocolate Awards committee said this about co-fermented chocolate… “Because we can likely predict that the microbial interactions and physicochemical and aroma changes are significant enough to present as a detectable flavor quality, it would go into the flavored bar category, even though nothing has been added post fermentation.”

Conversely, Martin Christy from the International Chocolate Awards says “The rule is that if the flavoring is done before the cacao is dried, it's not treated as flavoring of the chocolate. If the flavoring is done to dried cacao or onwards (so infusing of beans, re-fermenting, soaking, 'scenting' etc of beans or nibs, or any flavoring or addition to ground liquor or chocolate), then it's considered a flavored bar.” Christy also acknowledged that a new category may need to be introduced to the awards in the future, to accommodate co-fermentation.

Five fruity ferments from Ivee Promenade

Plum fermented chocolate photo credit Ivee Promenade

Katsiaryna Dembouskya of Ivee Promenade in Gdansk, Poland, has been experimenting with a different method of additional fermentation. When launching her chocolate collection at Salon du Chocolat in Paris in October 2023, she created a lot of buzz around her beautiful bars, particularly the ‘Fruit Elegance’ range. These five bars are made with cacao beans from Madagascar, Uganda and the Congo, which are re-fermented in her factory with added fruits, including plums, grapes, blackcurrants and apricots.

“Before starting working with any fruit, you need time to be ready,” says Dembouskya. “Each fruit should be learnt in advance because they all have different chemical compositions.”

Dembouskya’s process is essentially like making fruit wine, cacao beans are mixed with fruit juice and yeast, and then stored in a special tub that controls the temperature and flow of oxygen. It can take anywhere from several weeks to several months for the additional fermentation to finish, before the beans are dried, roasted and transformed into chocolate.

The resulting bars offer delicate and unique flavors that are totally different to what you might expect from a traditionally chocolate flavored with dried fruit. Dembouskya’s bars are more intricate and multidimensional, just like how wine tastes more complex than fresh grapes. “This is a very interesting way to work,” says Dembouskya. “It’s very experimental and very inspiring, because we don’t have any limitations to work with the [regular] flavor of cacao beans.”

The Future of Fermentation

Craft chocolate has transformed the chocolate industry over the past 20 years, changing perceptions of what chocolate can be and broadening flavor experiences. Flavored fermentations are the latest exciting development, and while there are currently only a handful of cacao fermenters working this way, it will likely become more common in the future. “I think we’re definitely going to see people experimenting more with ferments,” says D’Alesandre, “and I think those experiments are going to take a lot of different forms.”

Co-fermentation adds yet another flavor constellation to the galaxy of chocolate potential, as well as opening up a host of opportunities for cacao farmers, cacao suppliers, and chocolate makers. It’s yet another point of difference that craft chocolate can harness, and another way to elevate itself above mass-produced confectionery.

For chocolate consumers, the 21st Century has already been a mind (and palate) expanding period, and with these latest developments in fermentation, it promises to be the era that keeps on giving.