Emerging cacao vinegar market and its applications

Gastronomic experiences are attracting growing interest as part of the generalized Western lifestyle switch from products to services. In this environment, vinegar industry is extending its offering to a wide range of new flavours and gastronomic applications beyond traditional salad dressing. Cacao is thus one of the latest trends in the vinegar industry.

Cacao and cocoa are two terms that are often confused and mixed-up. It is important to clarify cacao is the term used for the raw and unfermented bean, while cocoa is the powder that is industrially produced from fermented and roasted cacao beans. Cacao tree is native to South and Central America. When Spanish sailors arrived at the said continent in late XV century in their attempt to find an alternative route to Asia, they brought cacao with them back to Europe. Today, over 70 percent of the world cacao is grown in Africa. Until 1847, when Joseph Storrs Fry produced the first solid chocolate bar in Bristol, UK [1], cacao had always been drunk.

Given its worldwide popularity, the global cocoa processing market represented about 10.9 billion EUR in 2020 [2], turning cocoa into a valuable good. In its origin, cacao was already very much appreciated, to the extent of being used as currency in trade. Despite its value, cocoa industry profits have not been fairly spread across its supply chain for many years. Some big food corporations have been using their bargaining power to grant low cacao purchase prices, forcing producers to modern equivalent to ancient slavery. Thanks God this trend is slowly changing because of several business initiatives which consider fair cacao trade an important component within their missions. Unsurprisingly non-governmental organizations such as German GEPA and Spanish Oxfam Intermón [3] are already active in reversing the situation, by selling fair trade chocolate bars produced under their control. Also profit-making business initiatives are contributing to a positive change, such as Dutch Tony's Chocolonely [4], whose colourful chocolate bars are available in a variety of shops, from airports to newsstands. Big corporations such as Mondelez, have launched related initiatives as well [5].

Within the vinegar industry, cacao has initially attracted attention as a new niche for delicatessen producers. Like with other fruit vinegar varieties, there are typically two types of vinegar. On one hand there are wine or apple cider vinegars that have been mixed with standard flavouring ingredients such as cocoa powder produced from cacao beans. This category includes artisanal producers such as El Perolet in Spain [6], Beaune [7] in France and MR Spezialitäten in Germany [8], as well as more industrial ones such as Sibari [9], also in Spain.

On the other hand we have vinegars produced from fermentation of the own fruit, cacao's white pulp in this case. We can consider these to be the most authentic and complex to produce, as they are based on the announced fruit rather than featuring it just as a flavouring addition to wine vinegar. Fermented cacao vinegar has been locally produced for some time in cacao producer countries such as Biolcom (Ecuador) [10], Afrodisiak (Ecuador) [11] and Bésame Negro (Venezuela) [12]. Unlike cacao-flavoured vinegars, which typically have similar appearance and consistency as chocolate sauce, fermented cacao vinegars seem more like ambar. One of the latest additions to this category is KOA, a Swiss-Ghanian company, which takes advantage of its European presence to sensibilize consumers about fair trade [13].

Like in other segments of food industry, initiatives to reduce cacao waste are already ongoing. Indonesia, third largest cacao producer worldwide after Ivory Coast and Ghana, seems to be the most active country in this regard. Soegijapranata Catholic University (SCU) [14] and Syiah Kuala University [15] have published research papers on vinegar production from cacao pods for gastronomic and pest control applications, respectively.

In summary, its relative infancy is allowing cacao vinegar market to adopt from very beginning some of the latest trends in the food production, such as fair trade and waste reduction, besides offering a healthy alternative to other higher-sugar-content cacao preparations.

[1] Swinnen, Johan F. M.; Squicciarini, Mara P. (2016). The Economics of Chocolate. Oxford University Press.

[2] Statista (August 31st, 2023) Cocoa industry - statistics & facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/3211/cocoa-industry/#topicOverview

[3] Chocolate ecológico, Oxfam Intermón. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://tienda.oxfamintermon.org/10-chocolate-bio-y-de-comercio-justo

[4] Our mission, Tony's Chcololonely. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://tonyschocolonely.com/int/en/our-story/our-mission

[5] Building a promising future for cocoa farming communities, Cocoa Life. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://www.cocoalife.org/the-program/approach/

[6] Vinagre Balsámico al cacao 25cl, El Perolet. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://elrincondelasmermeladas.com/epages/9a9ce6b1-c595-4283-afbe-98fde52ca8bb.sf/es_ES/?ObjectPath=/Shops/9a9ce6b1-c595-4283-afbe-98fde52ca8bb/Products/V202

[7] Nos bons vinaigres à savourer, Vinagrerie Artisanale de Beaune. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://vinaigrerieartisanaledebeaune.fr/nos-bons-vinaigres-a-savourer/

[8] Schokoladen-Balsam-Essig "Der Fabelhafte", MR Spezialitäten. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://www.mr-spezialitaeten.de/Balsamessig/Balsamessig-250-ml/Premium-Balsam-Schokolade-Frucht-Essig-Der-Fabelhafte::129.html

[9] Crema de Vinagre Balsámico de Chocolate Negro, Sibari. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://sibari.org/producto/crema-de-vinagre-balsamico-de-chocolate-negro/

[10] Box of cocoa vinegar, Biolcom. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://www.biolcom.com/product/cocoa-vinegar/

[11] Afrodisiak solo cacao, Afrodisiak. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://www.facebook.com/people/Afrodisiak-solo-cacao/100063713688958/?sk=about

[12] Besame Negro Cacao. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://www.instagram.com/besamenegrocacao

[13] Cocoa fruit balsamic vinegar straight from the source, KOA Switzerland & Ghana. Retrieved November 19th, 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/posts/koaswitzerland_koaimpact-tasteyourimpact-ghana-activity-7116084419831963648-EPr5/

[14] : Liliana Rahmadewi Santoso (January 31st, 2019). PRODUCTION VINEGAR FROM CACAO (Theobroma cacao L.) POD HUSK FERMENTATION USING SUCROSE AND Acetobacter aceti FNCC 0016. https://repository.unika.ac.id/19594/

[15] Hera Desvita et al (June 25th, 2022). Antimicrobial potential of wood vinegar from cocoa pod shells (Theobroma cacao L.) against Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214785322010811#:~:text=Wood%20vinegar%20from%20cocoa%20pod%20shells%20has%20the%20potential%20to,zone%20formed%20by%20the%20antifungal