Matt Caputo

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Ask Matt Caputo: Are Most Extra Virgin Olive Oils in Grocery Stores Mislabelled?

by Matt Caputo on January 11, 2016

“Ask Matt Caputo” is an ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. This week, he discusses the mislabelling of EVOO found in many grocery stores.

Q: I heard that most Extra Virgin Olive Oils found in grocery stores are mislabeled. How so?

A: Last week, 60 Minutes had a big exposé on how 70 to 80% of the olive oils found in U.S. grocery stores are mislabeled, meaning they are not real Extra Virgin grade.

Although it was “breaking news,” this is not new news. Tom Mueller first broke this story in a 2007 New Yorker article titled “Slippery Business.” But even before then, we knew something was not right in the industry. We were seeing incredibly vibrant-green colors in olive oils that tasted flat, stale, and worse.

After years and years of blind taste tests, I can identify between dozens of oils and name the brand and region of production (I’ve even been able to impress my wife, Yelena, with this skill). I’ve learned to put a lot of faith in my nose and palate.

Over the years, any oil whose flavor, aromas, and textures did not add up to the claims on the label were discontinued at Caputo’s. We always eagerly analyze samples for quality before putting products on our shelves.

We do not stop at blind taste tests, however. We wanted to make certain, so in cases where the price seemed too good to be true, we sent the oils in for professional taste tests to Agbiolab where they conduct many gustatory, chemical, and other scientific tests on olives and olive oil. At no small expense, we have had them run a full spectrum of tests—a tasting panel, UV light test, chemical analysis, etc.—on oils we were curious about.

When a study came out by the UC Davis Olive Center that tested 40 popular brands of olive oil showing how the vast majority of them failed the tests to be called Extra Virgin, we were proud—but not surprised—that Caputo’s did not carry a single one of them.

The moral of the story: Even the less expensive Extra Virgin Olive Oils on Caputo’s shelves are the real deal, and those that are more expensive have been selected for a reason and will be worth every penny. The only thing to decide upon is whether you would like a grassy Sicilian, a thistly Tuscan, or a more complex Umbrian oil.

We keep samples open, so patrons can taste each to ensure they are going to enjoy their purchase. So come on in!

Disclaimer: While Matt Caputo is a Certified Cheese Professional and specialty food fanatic, he is not a medical professional, doctor, or certified nutritionist. Please consult with your doctor or other qualified health care professional before making any healthcare decisions, diagnostics or treatment decisions based on Matt’s answers.

Ask Matt Caputo: Will Bitters Help With Over-Eating?

by Matt Caputo on December 17, 2015

“Ask Matt Caputo” is a new, ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. This week, he discusses bitters as a cure for a distressed stomach.

Q: I over-ate this Thanksgiving. And with holiday parties and Christmas coming up, I’m wondering if I should look into aromatic bitters to ease my pain. Will they make a difference?

A: Well, I actually have quite a bit of experience with eating too much. If there is one thing I love it is food, and during the holidays, I can’t stand the thought of not having each and every one of my old favorites. On top of that, how could I pass up a new gastronomic experience. Shun a new dish just because I am full? Pah! No chance.

As the years go by, it is slowly but surely getting more difficult to put up with the physical aftermath, though. Over the past year, I have had more opportunities than I am proud to admit to test the curative powers of aromatic cocktail bitters.

As one would learn in our Intro to Bitters class, the history of these elixirs includes wild claims from the producers, purportedly curing everything from flatulence to impotence and absolutely everything in between. Luckily, the FDA cracked down on the “snake oil” side of bitters a long time ago.

However, from my experience, there is certainly truth to bitters ability to aid in digestion. Anytime I have overeaten or I am not feeling tip top in the tummy, I have a nice big glass of sparkling water with a healthy dose of Peychaud’s. Within a few minutes, I feel notably better. It almost never fails. Put 10 to 12 dashes in a small white wine glass, and that ought to do. Yeah, I take it in a wine glass. Why not? It smells incredible.

Obviously, I am no doctor, scientist, or herbalist, so I will leave it to them to tell you exactly which ingredient in these bitters is doing exactly what. But this practice should not seem that strange. Monks, apothecaries, and even grandmas from all around the world have long known the digestive value of things with bitter flavors.

Ask Matt Caputo: What is the Best Process to Taste Fine Chocolate?

by Matt Caputo on November 12, 2015

“Ask Matt Caputo” is an ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. In conjunction with Chocolate Week, he discusses how to taste chocolate like a pro and the one key component: focus.

Q: What is the Best Process to Taste Fine Chocolate?

A: I think most “experts” put so much emphasis on the methodology that it can suck the fun right out of tasting chocolate. You hear things like, “Don’t chew,” “Put the chocolate on the front of your tongue,” “…the back of your tongue,” etc. This is all crazy to me. The texture on your tooth is part of the satisfaction of eating not only chocolate, but all food. Why deprive yourself of part of the pleasure? Additionally, different parts of your tongue are for different things. You’ve all heard it: saltiness and sweet towards the front, acidity on the sides, bitterness in the back, and savory in the middle. Your palate would be very bored without any one of those tastes so why focus chocolate on just one area?

2dsc_1493 No, I say we all have the equipment to taste, and nature will take its course to allow us to get the most out of it if we just focus. Whether for a professional analysis or just pleasure, focus is the key to tasting chocolate. In our busy lives it is all too common for us to shovel food into our mouths and wolf it down without really being present enough to describe what we are experiencing.

Slow down. Look first. The eyes take the first bite. What tints of color do the chocolate exhibit? Then before you eat, smell. Over 90% of what we consider taste is actually our sense of smell, so prime the pump. Chew, but don’t wolf it down. Use your teeth to get the satisfaction of snap but don’t just let your reflexes swallow too fast. Let it melt on your tongue by working it all around your tongue and roof of your mouth. Suck air in through your mouth and out through your nose.

Now, you can swallow, but it does not end there. The flavor will continue to develop. A lot of our taste is experienced after swallowing—little particles coming up through your throat and continuing to titillate your senses via this retronasal taste. So despite the fact that “eating” is over once you swallow, the experience continues, so by all means continue to be present. Don’t let the mind wander. See how the flavor continues to evolve and change. Then, do it all again. And again. And again. This is how to taste chocolate. Or anything for that matter.

Ask Matt Caputo: Do Various Pasta Shapes Taste Differently, or Is It Just About Texture?

by Matt Caputo on October 13, 2015

“Ask Matt Caputo” is a new, ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. This week, he discusses how the shape of pastas will affect taste and texture

Q: Do various pasta shapes taste differently, or is it just about texture?

A: Different shapes of pasta, even though they might be made by the same brand with the same ingredients, will actually taste differently. Differences in texture will affect how we experience both the taste of the sauce and the pasta.

Take two examples from the extremes: Capellini (tiny hair-like threads) and Calamaretti (thick squid-like ringlets). Both are made from two ingredients: durum semolina and water. The Capellini threads are cut into shorter and shorter threads by the tooth, but are rarely actually smashed and ground by the tooth before swallowing. The Calamaretti, however, are thick and will have a richer texture as the tooth smashes through and releases creamy textured starches, which are also rich in grain flavor.

The heavier Calamaretti will lend a creamy, almost porridge-like flavor to the pasta dish. The ringlets are also great at catching large chunks of coarsely hand-ground tomatoes or other large particles, such as vegetable slices, cubes of pancetta, and so on. If you’ve never had it, Maestri Pastai’s Calamaretti will show you that dried pasta can be far better than most fresh pasta.

Matt Speaks at the Fine Chocolate Industry Association

by Matt Caputo on January 29, 2015

Pam Williams, president of the Fine Chocolate Industry Association, invited me to attend and speak at the 2015 Annual Winter Meeting held in San Francisco earlier this month. The audience consisted of major players in the national and international fine chocolate industry, including chocolate authorities, professionals, retailers, entrepreneurs, conservationists, media, and others.

I was asked to discuss how the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Initiative has added value to Caputo’s as a retailer, A Priori as a distributor, and, ultimately, the end consumers.

Below is the copy of my speech that I’d like to share with our readers:

“At Caputo’s Annual Chocolate Festival we donate 100% of the proceeds to the HCP. This year we raised over $3000 in one night. For some, that’s a large donation, for others a small. But beyond donating the money, the best part was seeing our customers connect with the HCP and what it stands for. The reason why that is so amazing is because our customers don’t put much stock in certifications and the HCP is by nature a certification.

Let me explain more about my certification averse clientele. In addition to being CEO at Caputo’s, I also own A Priori, a company specializing in distribution and wholesale of fine chocolate. We carry over 500 bars of chocolate. More than 150 of these bars retail for more than $10. None of them for less than $5. Hardly any of them carry the “Fairtrade” branded certification. In fact, the more expensive the bar, the less likely it is to have common certifications. I am not saying certifications are always a bad thing, but I am just pointing out that my customers don’t look to certifications to validate their purchases.

Like me, my customers understand that HCP is more than a certification. It is a protection for farmers who go to the trouble to grow something special. Who dare to fight an uphill economic battle to preserve one of mankind’s greatest achievements in agronomy. It is a protection for barsmiths who actually use the cacao beans they claim, who shout their sources from the roof tops instead of shrouding them in secrecy, or worse.

Imagine in the wine world if it was discovered that a wine labeled Barolo was found to neither be made with Nebbiolo grapes, nor came from Piedmont, Italy. There would be a huge price to pay for the offender. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens all too often in the chocolate world. But in the chocolate world there is no sheriff in town. In the long run, HCP has the best shot at changing this sad vacuum of oversight.

In addition to the HCP’s benefit of protecting heirloom cacao, it is also different from other certifications in that it causes people to be more thoughtful instead of less. With most certifications people use them to stop thinking. Once they have bought into what the certification stands for and they see a chocolate has that “box checked” they stop thinking and buy. HCP invites people to look for more information and provides the name of the farm and where it comes from. HCP will cause more people to fall down this rabbit hole and become completely obsessed with chocolate like I did 10 years ago. It will swell the ranks of our fellow chocolate geeks.

Coto Brus, Costa Rica, funded by Caputo’s Chocolate Festival proceeds.

Like me, many of you retailers may not sell many HCP bars, but as more and more cacao beans become designated, more and more quality chocolate makers will start using them. There are already some things coming down the pipeline that are going to absolutely blow you away.

But even if you are not in the elite chocolate business — maybe you are a large manufacturer or a retailer selling chocolate on the cheaper end of the scale — you should care about HCP most of all. HCP adds value to our whole industry. Think about it: A $3 Hershey bar doesn’t sound so expensive if connoisseurs are accustomed to paying $30 for a good bar of Tranquilidad.

So whether or not your company will ever use or sell HCP beans or chocolate, I would encourage you to support HCP because it supports the growth and sustainability of our whole industry.”

Inspiring Chocolate

by Matt Caputo on January 15, 2015

It has been a long time since I have personally written a blog post. I wish I had more time, but with our recent growth I have been too buried to justify time to write. However, few things send jolt me to attention like two new chocolate bars from Chocolate Naïve — made in a little town on the Eastern side of Lithuania.

Here’s how it happened.

I was sitting down with another unrelated chocolate maker tasting through a bunch of new bars while being filmed for a chocolate documentary. Throughout the tasting we were enjoying or not enjoying things as much or as little as might be expected. However, shortly after we popped our first bite of Naïve’s Chuao and Porcini bars, I gasped in ecstasy then involuntarily made guttural exclamations of awe and disbelief.

At the exact same time the other chocolate maker expressed his first compliments of the day. I knew instantly something incredibly great was sitting before me. Although Chuao is more commonly accompanied by a balancing amount of vanilla, Naïve’s rendition has none. I appreciated this rare opportunity to delve into the aromas intrinsic to raw Chuao beans that always remind me of horse blanket. Other aromas like, fine cigars, campfire, perfumed woods, toasted marshmallow, black currants and molasses are harder to pinpoint if you’re not really trying, but certainly make for one profound flavor journey either way.

Sure the Chuao bar has a far from silky texture, but one should not look a gift Chuao in the mouth. Instead, a jaded connoisseur should appreciate this visceral glimpse into the soul of this prized jewel of the rain forest.

The Porcini bar is even more of a surprise given I did not expect to like it. Porcini is not the most hip ingredient and it seems that inclusion bars (bars with non-cacao ingredients) these days have to have super trendy flavors added to them to get attention. Also, inclusion bars with mushrooms normally highlight the mushroom and the chocolate is an afterthought. Not the case here. The origin is completely clear and the Porcini add depth and nuance to an extent that truly is still freaking me out.

I have a lot more to say about the ethos surrounding Chocolate Naïve, but that will have to wait for another time. Until then, make sure you get them quickly “Limited Edition” means limited edition with Naïve and both of these bars will be gone soon.