<p class="fly-title">All, <br></p><br>there are two articles that I liked in this week's economist -- both have substances that shoot me the good way. This one is more Internet like so some of you may not thrown at me ;-) and the other is about coffee : <a href="http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11058477">http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11058477</a> <br>
<p class="fly-title">ar<br></p><p class="fly-title"> Technology start-ups</p>
<h1>Chocolate.com</h1>
<p class="info">Apr 17th 2008 | SAN FRANCISCO<br>From <em>The Economist</em> print edition</p><h2>A start-up innovates in an unexpected field</h2>
<br>
<p>TCHO, a small company based in a warehouse in San Francisco, sounds
like a typical high-tech start-up. The brainchild of an engineer who
previously worked on computer-vision systems for the space shuttle, the
firm is developing "beta" versions of its new product. Volunteer
testers are invited to submit feedback via the web. Louis Rossetto, the
co-founder of <em>Wired</em>, a technology magazine, is on board as
chief executive. All the employees have stock options. But Tcho is not
about to launch a new website or mobile device; it is a technology firm
that makes chocolate.</p>
<p>Its founders believe there is vast scope for innovation in the way
chocolate is made and sold. Most cocoa farmers have never tasted
chocolate, and produce cocoa beans without any idea of how they will be
used, says Timothy Childs, Tcho's founder. The resulting chocolate is
classified and sold in a very unsophisticated way, labelled at best by
country of origin and percentage cocoa solids. (It is rather like
labelling a wine "France, 13% alcohol".) So Mr Childs wants to put
things on a more technical footing—just as Americans formalised
techniques for winemaking in the 1970s. He has developed ways to
analyse and grade beans, and a six-segment "flavour wheel" to map out
their natural aromas. Using a variety of jury-rigged spice grinders,
heaters and temperature sensors, he has worked out how to get cocoa
beans to reveal their complex flavours and to get chocolate to solidify
evenly.</p>
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<p>Tcho
is also working with cocoa growers, in conjunction with two research
groups it has equipped with satellite-internet connections, to help
them improve the quality and consistency of their beans. Tcho hopes
that the most effective techniques will then spread in an "open source"
fashion to other growers. Beans will be turned into chocolate on Tcho's
elaborate production line, which is being used as a test-bed for remote
video-monitoring of industrial processes by researchers at Fuji Xerox
in Palo Alto.</p>
<p>The firm will sell much of its chocolate to other food companies,
for use in other products. Such customers, says Mr Rossetto, like the
idea of buying chocolate based on a consistent flavour profile; Tcho's
flavour wheel could become a de facto industry standard, he suggests,
as <span class="scaps">IBM</span>'s <span class="scaps">PC </span>did in the computer industry. Tcho will also sell chocolate using its <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tcho.com/" title=" (opens in a new window) ">website</a>, and through a shop and visitors' centre due to open in the summer.</p>
<p>San Francisco, a capital of food culture as well as technology, is
the logical place to produce a high-tech chocolate. John Kehoe, Tcho's
sourcing director, says chocolate is going down the trail blazed by
speciality coffee, as consumers become more discerning. Chocolate
today, he says, is where coffee was five years ago. Having been ahead
of the curve with <em>Wired</em>, which launched just as the web was emerging, Mr Rossetto seems to have spotted another trend.</p>