Carob - What Is It & What Are It's Benefits?

Carob powder is used in Nutcessity's Caromel Cashew nut butter; it lends a deliciously 'malty' and slightly sweet flavour to the cashews. This blog post was written by Charlotte Miller, co-founder of the totally delicious cocoa-free 'not-choc' company Caroboo! (They make carob 'chocolate' bars; full of flavour and totally vegan too)!

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Carob comes from the Ceratonia siliqua tree and is from the legume (which put simply, means bean) family and is cultivated by us humans for it's edible pods, which are technically a fruit. Native to the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, our lovely Carob likes a warm climate and being by the sea (as do we). Traditionally the pods are collected by laying out nets on the floor and knocking the branches with a large stick, yes really, waiting for the wonderful crop to fall and gathering them up to make into lovely chocolatey treats.

Labelled a 'superfood', carob is known for many fab reasons including being; gluten free, full of calcium (but no oxalates), high in fibre, naturally low in fat and a good source of antioxidants. Unlike cocoa, it is naturally sweet with no refined sugar, no caffeine and no theobromine, it is perfect for creating our indulgent chocolatey bars to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Whilst being abundant in natural sugar carob still packs a punch with high levels of vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A and B, magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc!

Carob can be an awesome alternative to chocolate especially if you are sensitive to caffeine too! Caroboo get fantastic feedback from people who haven't been able to eat chocolate for years because of the Theobromine usually found in chocolate but our Caroboo bars don't contain any of this!

When it comes to making and baking, carob tends to commonly come in two forms, powder and chips. The chips are made from the powder which is in turn is made by de-seeding the pod, drying out the pulp, roasting it and then grinding it down into a fine powder. In both forms it is similar to the famous cocoa, but has a distinctly mellow, slightly nutty flavour which makes it great for cooking. If you are looking for carob chips for cooking, you can chop our carob bars up and voila! Caroboo carob chips!