Raw chocolate

I was recently reading about raw chocolate, apparently it's a 'superfood' and is great for your health. Has anyone ever tried it?

Do you mean just like mashed up cocoa beans before they add milk and sugar?

I read about it a while ago, but it's not easy to get hold of unless you buy it online and can be quite expensive. It's unheated cacao (butter/powder), tends to be sweetened with the likes of agave nectar, then cold pressed into bars.

I'd try it if offered, but haven't gone out of my way to find it. There are cheaper, easier to get hold of bars of chocolate on the market.

You can yget percent cacao in a lot of places online, they also used to sell it in selfridges. But I'll warn you it isn't pleasant and there is a reason chocolate has sugar in it. Saying that I bought some really good quality 100% cacao once and grated it into a chillie con carne. Bloody lovely! Also made short shots of super rich hot chocolate with it, just a bit of sugar and milk added. Again, lovely and like you say supposedly really good for you!

Don't get this. Even 100 percent cacao isn't "raw" it still gets cooked down and refined. It is a great ingredient though. DId anyone see Willie's Wonky Chocolate factory when it was on. It was that show which brought it to every ones' attention. The one you mentioned in Selfridges was his "Venezuelan gold".

I saw this series and really enjoyed it- especially as the whole family would go out to Venezuela and oversee the process. My friend's mum got to meet Willie and so I got a whole block of the good stuff! I've heard it's great in casseroles etc to give meals depth in flavour- but it's so tempting just to bite into the block of chocolate (even though it tastes really bitter and earthy- not the sort of choc I'm used to!)

It is raw. You can actually buy the beans themselves for eating, whole or broken up, so these haven't been cooked or refined at all.

If you buy it as a bar it has sometimes been heated but, according to this article, it "isn't heated above 42C, the point at which nutrients start to die", so it is still classed as raw. I know you can get 100% cacao that isn't raw, but I'm wondering about the ones that are.

I wonder what health benefits it has? Would it have similar properties to something like brazil nuts?

I've tried this! It's high in magnesium and antioxidants (which protect against diseases as well as helping to prevent wrinkles), helps to suppress the appetite and contains loads of chemicals which help to boost your mood.

It's got a bit of a different texture I think from normal chocolate but some brands taste really nice. It's more like dark chocolate so if you're used to milk it might take a bit of getting used to. I'd also advise going for bars sweetened with agave nectar (most of them are) as plain raw chocolate is quite bitter.

What's agave nectar? It sounds exotic!

I've never tried it, but have heard it tastes disgusting. Agave nectar is an real alternative to sugar. It's natural unlike the synthetic sweeteners.

The unsweetened one is pretty bad, but it's not all disgusting. I've tried a few different brands and have found some really nice ones.

Yeah agave nectar comes from Mexico, from a plant similar to a cactus. It is low GI, is sweeter than sugar (so you need less), is raw and high in minerals. Also it's supposed to be safe for diabetics (so it says on the bottle but I can't vouch for this) as it doesn't cause blood sugar to spike.

This gets my vote!

I really want to try some!He made it look great in the Willie wonka show - I'd like him to come and cook for me ideally though...

I'll haveto try it, i wonder if you can cook with this sweetner

Fruit-type sugars don't tend to cause diabetics the same problems with sugar spikes, but as with all sugars it's more of a calorie thing. It's best to keep consumption down if you are diabetic because it's sensible to keep your weight lower (not necessarily because you're fat, but because the bodys own insulin (and the medication) work more effectively if it doesn't have as far to go!).

As for cooking with it, sort of defeats the purpose of consuming raw chocolate :) It is cookable though, chilli con carne is a good example, a small amount of chocolate adds depth of flavour to the sauce.

With agave nectar? Yeah you can cook with it. It's good for replacing sugar in biscuits and cakes (there are quite a few recipes on the internet).

That's good to know then, i'll let you all know how it goes