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Everything is good in cocoa, and even its juice! Because yes, you can get a kind of superpowered water by squeezing all the pulp that covers the fresh beans. While many pastry chefs are still trying to figure out how to use this mucilage, a whole new thirst-quenching offer is in the process of being structured. And it just might steal the limelight from coconut water.
If you thought you had tasted everything from cocoa, it was without counting on the cocoa water. If we know that the fruit of the cocoa tree can be used in several ways – the beans are dried to be melted into tablets, the shards become nibs which can be infused into a cream, the pod can be transformed into compost to enrich cocoa crops with nutrients and increase yields, the raw material has not yet been fully optimized.
According to an industrialist, Oded Brenner, around 70% of the fruit is considered waste, according to revelations entrusted to the specialized media Food Navigator. The boss thus wants to demonstrate that we can make the cultivation of the cocoa tree more profitable by using all the components of his famous pod. To do this, he sculpted the outlines of a new American brand called Blue Stripes. Next July, a brand new product from its range will be listed on the shelves of Whole Foods, one of the largest Anglo-Saxon distributors, and which will arrive just in time with the hottest hours of summer: from cocoa water.
It is a cold extraction of the pulp surrounding the fresh beans which makes it possible to obtain this tangy liquid. The brand ensures that the juice is particularly thirst-quenching and tasty. And we believe it because consuming this pulp, which is called mucilage, is not actually a new trend. The South American employees who harvest the pods have always been in the habit of sucking on this white matter like one savors a candy.
Why cocoa water could become the new trendy water?
We constantly praise the nutritional merits of cocoa, always recalling its antioxidant properties but also the presence of theobromine which has energizing effects. In the case of cocoa water, we would find these two qualities. A briquette of 30 cl would have antioxidant powers twice as high as a handful of blueberries. This drink would also be the promise of replenishing magnesium.
This is why the recipe has already resonated with a category of consumers: that of athletes. In the United States, gym enthusiasts have already started to share the tip to replace their too-sweetened energy drink, delighted moreover to prefer a more respectable alternative to the environment to their plastic bottle… ” In two to three years, there will be more companies entering the cocoa water market,” says Oded Brenner.
For the time being, in Europe, consumers have to settle for cocoa infusion when they want a chocolate drink other than a steaming (and calorie!) cup of hot chocolate.