Description

Cacao Evaluation Certification India

Cocoashala, India in collaboration with International Institute of Chocolate & Cacao Tasting, UK (IICCT) presents Cacao Evaluation certification to you in India.

About the course

The IICCT Certificate Course in Cacao Evaluation is an advanced sensory training course suitable for anyone wishing to develop a deeper understanding of flavour in fine cacao and wishing to explore the role cacao flavour potential plays in developing the flavour of finished fine chocolate. It gives you an understanding of the flavor potential of fine cacao, cacao production, cacao varieties and common cacao defects.

In this certification course we explore fine cacao through a series of tastings using the IICCT flavour profile system. The course will be taught in English over a 4 day period, with exams held at the end of the course. The exams will consist of a multiple choice element and a blind tasting assessment.

The Certificate Course is based on the concept that the quality of fine chocolate is measured by the enjoyment of its flavour and that cacao with the potential to make good chocolate will also have a pleasurable, complex or distinctive flavour.

The Cacao Evaluation course will help to develop the sensory skills needed to assess cacao quality through its flavour, the potential transformation of cacao flavour into finished chocolate and how cacao flavour relates to technical methods of evaluating cacao.

The course will be based around extensive tasting of example cacaos, including reference high quality cacao and cacao samples that represent common defects. The tasting methodology uses the Institute’s standard cacao sample protocols, including as unprocessed cacao and various finished stages of cacao-to-chocolate production.

The evaluations made during the course are made using the Institute’s electronic sensory evaluation method, which is based on an understanding of cacao flavour and quality that can be applied with any sample preparation protocol, including dried cacao, cacao liquor and sample or retail chocolate.

Our approach recognises that cacao is a crop grown to produce foods giving us hedonistic pleasure and an enjoyable eating experience. Products made with fine cacao focus on improved flavour that is directly related to the flavour of the cacao. We use basic tasting principles to determine if cacao has an enjoyable flavour or has defects to create a comprehensive flavour profile and to generate a quality score.

The course will also include background sessions on the cacao trading market, the supply chain from farmer to bar, how to source and buy cacao and recommended sources, fermentation and post-harvest processing, cacao varieties and their historical distribution around the world and other useful background topics in short presentations as breaks between tasting.

Entry requirements:

There are no previous entry requirements for this course. An understanding of fine chocolate is recommended, which can be achieved through our Certificate in Chocolate Tastings courses. This is however, not a requirement. Please note that there will be some repetition of Level 1&2 Chocolate Tasting material explaining the IICCT sensory approach and profiling system.

What’s included:

• Training the senses to appreciate cacao flavour
• Sensory exploration, practice and the brain science of cacao tasting
• What is fine cacao and how we define it
• History of cacao growing and distribution around the world
• Origins and varieties of cacao and their history
• How cacao is processed and how this affects flavour
• Cacao production, quality and flaws
• Understanding and tasting flaws and defects in cacao
• Tasting of Samples processed with different sample preparation protocols (Fermentations, Roasts etc)
• Samples of 20+ different cacaos
• Examples of cacao processed through to chocolate
• Tasting practice and profiling with our online system
• Cacao farming, economics and trading
• Cacao sourcing and direct trading
• Take away study guides
• Certificate for exam passes

This course would be perfect for you if:

• Established chocolate makers
• Start-up chocolate makers
• Chocolate tasters
• Cacao trader or commercial grower
• Cooperative technicians
• NGO staff members
• Progressive Cacao Farmers
• anyone with an interest in cacao flavour and quality

Please call L Nitin Chordia on +919600064846 or nitin@cocoatrait.com for any queries/questions.