Investigation of chocolate produced from four different Brazilian varieties of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae

• Chocolates were produced from different cocoa varieties inoculated with S. cerevisiae.
• The microbial communities varied according to cocoa variety fermentation as assessed by DGGE analysis.
• The qPCR technique was successfully used for S. cerevisiae quantification.
• The S. cerevisiae population increased significantly (p < 0.05) during the fermentations.
• Results suggest that cocoa varieties had an influence on the chocolate's quality.

Properly conducted cocoa fermentation is an important step for the production of high-quality chocolate. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of four cocoa varieties (CCN51, PS1030, FA13, and CEPEC 2004) inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae CA11 on microbial communities and the profile of volatile compounds and sensory characteristics of chocolate. The S. cerevisiae population increased significantly (p < 0.05) during the fermentations. The microbial communities varied according to cocoa variety fermentation as assessed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The dominant yeasts were S. cerevisiae and Hanseniaspora guilliermondii, while Lactobacillus casei and Gluconobacter oxidans were the predominant bacteria in the four different fermentations analyzed. Sixty-one volatile compounds—including aldehydes (11), ketones (10), esters (14), acids (8), alcohols (8), pyrazines (5), furans (3), and others (caffeine and heptadecane)—were detected and quantified by GC–MS in the different chocolates. The sensory analysis showed that caramel was perceptible in the chocolate of PS1030, while CEPEC2004 was related to astringency, bitterness, and chocolate flavor attributes. The chocolates produced from FA13 and CCN51 were more similar in terms of sour and chocolate aroma. A “temporal dominance of sensation” (TDS) analysis showed that although the bitter attribute was dominant, the fruity, sweet, sour, astringent, and cocoa attributes were also perceptible, depending on the cocoa variety. These results suggest that the cocoa varieties had an influence on the chocolate's quality, which should be considered to obtain chocolate with different sensory characteristics or for better standardization of the process, even when using yeast as a starter culture.