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#Cocoa

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🌍 🌳 In collaboration with the African Forest Forum, we invite you to a three-day virtual Community of Practice focused on #cocoa smallholders and the EU Regulation on #Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR).
This #webinar provides a space to exchange insights, build alliances, and advocate for policies that protect both #forests and livelihoods. Join the live webinar on 15–17 July 2025 at 11:00–14:00 (CEST). Register now 👉 african-forestry-community.in.
#policy #environment #valuechains

For years I bought Hershey's 100% cocoa. It is, like their candies, a dark cocoa, with a slight bitter aftertaste. They note on the package that it's processed with alkali.

Then I tried Ghirardelli 100% cocoa. Delicious, but expensive. No alkali message. And no more Hershey's for me!

Later I discovered that Kroger's baking cocoa is very similar, if not identical, to Ghirardelli's. The only ingredient is cocoa. Also no alkali message. It's cheaper than either of the others, comes in a ridiculously wide can, and they - brace yourselves - paid to have a shaker opening embedded in the protective seal. You can pull part of it off to shake cocoa directly from the ridiculously wide can.

I don't use the shaker, but it's possible, if that's your groove. I spoon it into coffee.

I was making light the other day of the fact that climate change has raised the Swedish price of #coffee about 1.4 times in one year. But the joke is on me, because now I read that over the same year the price of #cocoa has risen almost 1.7 times. And unlike coffee, I actually like to drink cocoa.

That's a pretty concrete and immediate indicator. One year, not a decade. A radically raised price sticker down at our local grocery store.

I don't know why I'm surprised. Hershey's 100% cocoa and Ghirardelli 100% cocoa are very different. Hershey's is processed with alkali and is dark in color, with a flavor resembling their dark chocolate bars. Ghirardelli's is lighter in color and tastes like any of their chocolate bars. The Hershey's version was not available, so I bought the San Francisco treat. I wonder if that's because of tariffs. Hershey's chocolate is made in Mexico now.

A brief #Introduction or actually, re-introduction post.

I'm Sarah. I'm an entomologist. I work at Niab in the UK, studying insects important in fruit crop production. This includes #Pollinators like bees and hoverflies, as well as natural enemies of pests, and the pests themselves.

Most of my work is on UK crops like #Apples and #Strawberries but I also have an area of work on entomology in #Cocoa (there are a lot of parallels with orchards really!).

I'm always happy to infodump enthusiastically about #SolitaryBees, #Forcipomyia, #Cacao cultivation, #Strawberry varieties, and also about hamsters.