Since I started this blog I have been on a simply massive learning curve, which has included coming to grips – and I mean really coming to grips – with social media. In the last 12 months or so, and with the significant help of some friends, I have become a bit of a dab hand at it and am sometimes now the kind of person my husband deplores as I check in to various places on my Facebook account and tweet out any interesting bits of foodie information that comes my way. It’s clear to me that social media is changing the way we do lots of things and I find it helps to expose me to a great deal of engaging and relevant people and businesses. Some weeks back my attention was drawn to the advent of a new South Australian food company in the Twitterverse, The Australian Carob Co., or @AustCarobCo as they are known on Twitter. I was mildly interested and glanced their way, but having had less-than-delicious brushes with carob in the past I was quickly distracted – probably by something chocolate. A few weeks later Katharine Lindh, she of the brilliant Pangkarra Pasta previously written about here, emailed me and suggested I take a closer look at The Australian Carob Company. She pointed out that things in the world of carob might have changed a little since my last experiences of it when it was often presented as a chocolate substitute and offered to slip some in the post to me.
Carob is naturally quite sweet and was used as a source of sugar before sugar cane and sugar beets became widely available. It was used by the ancient Egyptians as an anthelmintic (to destroy parasitic worms) and also as a digestive, but is known now to have other digestive advantages. It is high in un-absorbable fibre making it helpful in treating diarrhoea and this same property, combined with its natural pleasant flavour, makes it useful in the fight against obesity. It is caffeine-free, rich in phosphorus and calcium, high in protein, low in fat and also contains a substance, Gallic Acid, which is a natural analgesic and anti-bacterial.
Image by Osvaldo Gago, from Wikimedia Commons
Which is all very well, but of no real use to me unless modern processing methods have significantly improved the quality of flavour – and it appears they have done just that! Michael currently produces a carob syrup, roasted carob powder and carob kibble for snacks, with a raw powder to be available soon. The carob syrup is dark and surprisingly sweet, but has absolutely no additives. The powder is slowly roasted bringing about a rich, mellow flavour, again with some sweetness, but not to the same degree as the syrup. I have very happily used the syrup over ice-cream and as a dessert topping and yesterday used the powder to bake a delightful cake (if I do say so myself) which went down very well with the troops. Being the confirmed chocolate addict that I am, I couldn’t really consider it as a chocolate substitute and I wonder if it is not doing the product a disservice to attempt this. The deep, smooth, well rounded flavour that Michael has brought about with his very slow roasting techniques gives this product a distinct, stand-alone quality that I am happy to enjoy for what it is. All the health-giving properties are simply extra icing on the carob cake as far as I’m concerned!
A list of Australian Carob stockists can be found here.
Related posts
Leave Single-Use Plastics Behind – With the Help of the Fleurieu Milk Company
Thanks for the info Amanda! I must try it again too – I’ve been distracted by raw cacao for a while now! 😉 So where’s this lovely cake recipe?? 😀
I didn’t really know where carob came from utnil reading your post, so I enjoyed coming on the learning journey with you. Thanks!
It is always such an interesting read over here Amanda with something new to learn all the time.
Have a happy day.
🙂 Mandy
Thanks for the info. I used to eat ‘carob buds’ heaps as a kid (we had a very healthy school tuckshop) but haven’t ventured there as an adult. I never realised it was good for you either! I just thought it was ‘less bad’ for you than chocolate ..
Carob definitely get a bad rap so it’s good to know that it has changed. I still remember trying it for the first time many, many years ago and not being very impressed 😛
That was great info about carob – stuff I really did not know !!
Thanks Amanda – I’ll have to revisit carob. Like you, I’ve always written it off as a poor substitute for chocolate. Sounds like there’s a lot more to it! 🙂
I’m so glad you changed your mind! I love carob, but have only had the powder or little ‘buds’. I would certainly love to track down the syrup and kibble. I always think it’s a mistake to treat anything as a substitue for chocolate, we know that’s impossible after all 🙂 but if we respect carob as it’s own ingredient entity, we can open up a whole new world of taste.
PS. You aren’t going to keep that lovely looking cake recipe to yourself are you? 🙂
Jo & Bec – Recipe is here – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lambs-Ears-and-Honey/114312568603382 – on my Facebook page. I adapted it from one of Jo’s Thermomix recipes.
Gaye & Mandy – there’s always something new for me to find out and I love to share it all.
Keely – I’ve not seen the carob kibble or ‘buds’, but I image they are quite sweet.
Lorraine – It looks like your previous experience was similar to mine!
Kate & Celia – it is worth giving carob another try, but don’t think of it as a substitute for anything else!
Along with everyone else, I haven’t revisited carob for a long time.
That was so interesting to read of how it’s produced. I think that would look quite lovely hanging down from the tree. I’m not about to push chocolate out of the way but I’ll give carob another go 🙂
Thank you for featuring this inspirational company, Michael and his beautiful wife Jam have worked very hard to realise this dream. The product is superior and will change your perception of carob. A dash of the syrup in warm milk is delish!
interesting to hear it was used as a sweetener – I agree it does carob a disservice to compare it to chocolate – after all chocolate is so bitter and dark whereas I am beginning to think carob would be more favourably compared to toffee or caramel because it has interesting but sweet flavours
My Grandmother is a Bartsch, daughter of first German Lutheran Immigrants in 1838. I live on her daughters place in Q’land where there is a Carob tree and this tree always gets things growing on the branches, is this the buds, I like the tree but it has never had any beans and I have been wondering why, I guess there may be male and female, there for I would like to know if I should search for a couple of varieties and try for male and female, some plants have both sexes is this as good and do they produce as much.
My main thing is where can I get 2 or 4 from I live at Tara in south west Queensland and would like them for ornamentals lut the beans will be sent to some cpocessor etc. Did my Aunt get her tree as an ornamental do you think and there for not making a mess on the ground. My Aunt was born Schaedel at Nurioopta, S.A where her father passed on before her birth, I am told her fathers furnature was very much in demand, however a little story from a cousin suggests this was the case as the chldren cralled into a coffin to stay cool on a hot summer day. SCHAEDEL House heritage listed in Nurioopta. Any one who can suply nrsery names and where I can buy Carob Syrup or whatever please contact me, I am hoping to get more grape vines from Stanthorpe Q’land which come from what was Bartsch Nursery in SA.
Looking above I notice I made 3 mistakes in the second paragraph, they are line 2, (ornamentals but not lut) line 7 (children crawled) In the second paragraph on line 9 suply nrsery names should be (supply nursery names.) sorry for the mistakes.