High-quality chocolate products can produce a light film. This is made from cocoa butter which can emerge and crystalise when stored for a short time at over 35 degrees celsius. This optical variation is however no quality defect - the chocolate products have neither gone off nor are they mouldy.
Originally, Manner chocolate was produced with a 30% cocoa content according to Josef Manner's motto "affordable chocolate for everyone". It was then possible for nearly all Austrians to enjoy chocolate. With the increasing wealth it has been possible to increase this cocoa content to about 40% over the past 20 years. .
Manner cooking chocolate moulded the tastes of the Austrians and is characterised by the somewhat bitter taste which can be specifically achieved through the roasting of the beans.
Manner uses real chocolate in its Sacher icing particularly fine icing sugar, concentrated butter and water.
Due to its special composition the glaze never hardens, yet it tastes like and is as fine as the original Sacher icing. Owing to the liquid content in the product the Manner chocolate icing is a very delicate product.
The cocoa bean comes from Central America. Cocoa was probably used by the Aztecs 3,000 years ago and was also used as a currency because of its special characteristics (stimulant in concentrated form).
Annually approximately 14,000 tonnes of chocolate is produced. Approximately 10% of this is cooking chocolate, the rest is chocolate that we use in and on our products (Manner Mignon, Casali chocolate bananas, Manner gingerbread, Napoli Dragee Keksi, Casali rum coconut, seasonal goods, etc) as a coating.
The cocoa pod grows directly from the trunk. The fruit is roughly the same size as a papaya or a long pumpkin approx 30 cm long, 10 cm in diameter. In one pod there are approximately 30 beans embedded in soft flesh.
Most of the beans come from Africa. About 200 years ago the cocoa bean was spread all over the world including the main cocoa crop growing countries of today in west Africa, which are currently responsible for 80% of the world's production. Beans from Latin America (Central America and the Caribbean) are generally described as "Fine Flavour Beans". Significant cultivation areas are still in Malaysia and Indonesia as well as in Brazil.
