What scientist Katie did next . . .with chocolates (From The Oxford Times)

What scientist Katie did next . . .with chocolates

3:14pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in Leisure By Helen Peacocke

Chocolate is one of those products that can add real cheer to a dismal February day.

I am not talking about chocolates manufactured in bulk, but beautiful hand-crafted chocolates with a rich diversity of flavours — each one bursting with flavour. Two years ago, former biologist Katie Christoffers, who now lives in Wallingford, bade farewell to her career in biology research, swapped her lab coat for an apron, converted her kitchen to comply with hygiene regulations, then began experimenting with flavours and the art of chocolate making.

She didn’t train with a chocolatier; instead she painstakingly taught herself, calling on the skills she acquired as a scientist. She says: “Science calls for hands-on experiments and research; the flavours I am experimenting on call for similar expertise.”

The result of her endeavours is a range of fine, hand-crafted chocolates with imaginative fillings that she is selling on-line (as Matcha Chocolat) with great success.

Katie began by pairing tea with chocolate and found that the delicate taste of the first complemented the rich flavour of the second perfectly. The fascinating thing is that both flavours are altered when they are combined and new tastes arise from the mix.

Although Katie has never travelled to Japan, China or India, her chocolate flavours are deeply influenced by the tea traditions of these countries. She said: “The black teas of India have a rich deep flavour; whereas the green teas of the Orient have more herbal, grassy undertones because of the chlorophyll they contain.”

The chocolate couvetures she uses as the base ingredient all offer fascinating flavour differences too. One from Bolivia is from cacao trees in the Amazonian rainforests. This has substantial cocoa and dried fruit flavours complemented by a touch of fresh lemon and grapefruit. The Criollo and Trinitario beans from Peru create a dark chocolate with a slightly bitter cocoa taste and a bouquet of dried fruit, while beans from Madagascar have an intense, yet sweet red fruit flavour with a touch of acidity.

It is thought there can be up to 400 different aromas in one piece of chocolate that come from at least 300 compounds that it contains. These aromas especially intrigue Katie, particularly as the flavour and aroma of teas is equally complex. She sees both ingredients as offering endless opportunity for sensory exploration.

She pointed out that it was celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal who stumbled on the unlikely combination of white chocolate and salt caviar. The pairing proved so successful that he sought the opinion of a scientist about why these flavours worked so well together. He was told that the major components these ingredients shared were giving the pair their complementary nature. So it is with tea and chocolate.

Having mastered this combination, Katie went on to explore other flavours for her chocolate range, including Vietnamese cinnamon— a blend of dark chocolate and finest Vietnamese cinnamon used in a sweet, aromatic and spicy truffle. Other combinations she has created include a dark chocolate with a slightly salted muscovado caramel centre infused with Tahitian vanilla. There is also a Masala Chai caramel which gets its flavour from Indian spices, tea and pink Himalayan salt. A particularly delicious chocolate in her range is filled with chestnut and Japanese whisky.

Many of her chocolates are award winners. She has collected Gold awards from the Academy of Chocolate and the Great Taste Awards — a fantastic achievement given that she is self-taught.

Katie is also committed to limiting the environmental impact of her packaging by using recyclable cardboard for the boxes. Her printing is done by Seacourt Ltd, an Oxford-based company offering low-impact printing to the highest environmental standards. All the bags she uses are made from a biodegradable and compostable packaging film, and even her website (www.matchachocolat.com) is powered by renewable energy.

There are no artificial colourings or additives in her chocolates. Her main flavouring agents are spices ground by hand, fresh ginger, China tea and organic cream. Her products are not cheap — but given what goes into them you get exactly what you pay for. To market her chocolates at the moment Katie is calling on Twitter and Facebook — and these popular sites add a sociable aspect to her new-found skills.

Because everyone loves chocolates, she get loads of hits. “At the end of the day when the chocolate making is over, it is so easy to share what I am doing with other people. Chocolate is accessible, whereas science is very specialised. Few people read the papers that scientists write. Everyone wants to talk about chocolate.”