How Does Carob Flowering and Pollination Happen?
Carob is known as the only tree among Mediterranean trees whose main flowering period coincides with autumn. During this period from September to November, small, fragrant flowers bloom on the trunk and old branches; It is pollinated by insects such as bees, flies, hornets and night-flying moths, and partly by wind.
Read MoreCarob Kibble Quality Grades
Carob kibble is the fleshy parts obtained during the separation of the fruit from its seeds and is often referred to as "carob cracked" or "granule" in Turkish. It is used as a raw material in many areas from molasses and must production to roasted powder, from animal feed to beverage industry.
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Carob in Ancient Egypt and Greece
Carob left its mark in different ways in the two great cultures of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean, the Egyptian and Greek world. The Egyptians used a sign in the form of a carob pod when writing the concept of "sweet"; The Greeks, on the other hand, compared the pod of the tree to the horn and gave it the name that forms the basis of today's scientific name.
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Carob Flour Cake Recipe
Carob flour, with its distinctive slightly caramelized flavor and dark color, gives cakes a cocoa-like appearance and aroma. Since it is naturally sweet, it also allows to reduce the sugar in the recipe somewhat.
Read MoreCarob Antioxidant Properties
Carob; It is a fruit rich in polyphenolic compounds such as gallic acid, gallotanins, condensed tannins and flavonoids. In laboratory studies, carob extracts and powders show significant antioxidant activity.
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Use of Carob in Bread and Bakery Products
Carob flour (powder) is a raw material that bakery product manufacturers are increasingly interested in with its fiber, natural sugar and phenolic compound content. While it contributes color, aroma and nutritional value in bread, cakes, biscuits and gluten-free products, it also significantly changes the behavior of the dough.
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How to Make Carob Tea?
Carob tea is a caffeine-free and naturally slightly sweet drink prepared by steeping or boiling carob pods or cracks in water. In different regions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, it is an old tradition to prepare carob fruit as a hot or cold drink; today, it can be easily made at home due to its simple preparation.
Read MoreUse of Carob Gum in Ice Cream
Carob gum (E410) is one of the longest-used stabilizers in the ice cream industry. The smooth texture of ice cream depends on how much the ice crystals grow during storage; carob gum helps slow this growth, giving the mixture body and delaying melting. It is most often included in stabilizer blends with other hydrocolloids such as carrageenan, guar gum, or xanthan because it has some limitations when used alone.
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Factors Affecting Carob Prices
Carob prices have experienced remarkable increases and fluctuations in producing countries in recent years. There is not a single reason behind these fluctuations; There are many factors that affect each other, such as yield, seed demand, climate, exchange rates, product quality and logistics.
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How to prune a carob tree?
Carob is a tree that requires little pruning, unlike many fruit trees that require regular pruning every year. Once a solid crown skeleton has been established on the young tree, a light maintenance pruning is often sufficient. The difficulty in healing large cuts and the formation of fruit largely on old wood require moderate pruning of carob.
Read MoreMale, Female and Hermaphrodite Carob Trees
Some carob trees do not bear any fruit, while others fill them with pods every year. The main reason for this is that carob is largely a dioecious species: male, female and hermaphrodite flowers are mostly found on separate trees. The male tree does not produce pods, but it provides pollen for female trees to bear fruit.
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Do Carob Products Have Added Sugar?
The distinct sweetness of carob products often begs the question "Is sugar added to it?" However, carob fruit naturally contains high amounts of sucrose, glucose and fructose; the sweetness of carob powder and molasses comes mainly from these natural sugars.
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The Origin of the Name Carob and Its Names in Different Languages
Since carob is a tree that has been known in the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years, it is called by different names in every language and even in different regions of the same country. It is called "carob" and "carob" in Turkish, "carob" in English, "algarroba" in Spanish, "garrofa" in Catalan and "carruba" in Italian. Most of these names go back to the Arabic word "kharrūb". The scientific name Ceratonia siliqua is derived from the Greek words "horn" and Latin "pod".
Read MoreCarob Extraction Technologies
What products such as carob must, molasses, syrup and extract have in common is that the soluble components in the fruit are transferred to a solvent, most often water. This stage is called extraction and the method used; It directly affects sugar yield, amount of phenolic compounds, taste, color and production time.
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Differences Between Carob Syrup and Molasses
Dark, fluid and sweet products obtained from carob; It is called by different names such as "molasses", "syrup", "essence" or "carob syrup" and "carob molasses" in English. These names sometimes refer to the same product, and sometimes to products that are different in terms of production method, density and composition. This can lead to confusion for both consumers and wholesale buyers.
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Grafting Techniques in Carob Tree
The way to establish a productive garden in carob and to get economical products from wild trees in nature is through grafting. About half of the trees grown from seeds are male and do not produce any pods; the fruit characteristics of the female ones vary from tree to tree. Thanks to grafting, male or wild trees that produce poor quality fruit can be transformed into a known and productive variety.
Read MoreCarob Tree and Carbon Footprint
Carob; It is increasingly mentioned in climate change and carbon discussions because it is an evergreen, long-lived tree that can grow in arid regions. While current scientific reviews suggest that carob can be an additional source of income for farmers through carbon markets, they also emphasize that it is still difficult to measure how much carbon the tree binds in different climatic conditions.
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Carob Health Claims: EU and Turkish Legislation
As the number of scientific studies on carob increases, expressions such as "lowers cholesterol", "balances blood sugar", "strengthens immunity" are more common on product labels and advertisements. However, both in the European Union and in Turkey, the use of health claims in foods is subject to strict rules, and the existence of a scientific study does not mean that the expression can be used on the label.
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Carob for Athletes
Carob is a fast-to-use energy source thanks to its high natural sugar content and attracts the attention of those who do sports with this feature. Practical forms such as molasses, powder or energy ball can be used as a snack before training or during long exercises. In recent years, D-pinitol found in carob has also been frequently mentioned in the context of sports supplements.
Read MoreCarob Chocolate and Cocoa-Free Chocolate Production
Carob chocolate is confectionery products in which cocoa powder is completely or partially replaced with carob powder, resembling chocolate in appearance and use. The color and aroma of roasted carob reminiscent of cocoa, its lack of caffeine and theobromine, and its natural sweetness have made it one of the most well-known cocoa alternatives for many years.
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Locust Bean Gum (LBG) World Market
Locust bean gum (locust bean gum, LBG or E410) is a natural thickener obtained from the endosperm of carob seeds and is considered the most valuable product of carob. It has a wide range of uses, from ice cream to dairy products, from pet food to medicines and cosmetics.
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Carat Measurement and Carob Seeds: Myth or Reality?
The sentence "Carob seeds are all the same weight; that's why jewelers used them as scales and carat measurement was born from here" is one of the most repeated carob information on the internet. Some of this sentence is true and some of it is legendary.
Read MoreMinerals Found in Carob: Potassium, Magnesium and Others
Carob is a fruit that attracts attention with its mineral content as well as its sugars and fiber. Scientific studies show that the most abundant mineral in the pulp of the carob fruit is potassium, followed by calcium, and magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, copper and manganese are also present in certain amounts.
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Does Carob Have Iron? Examining a Common Belief
In Turkey, carob and especially carob molasses are referred to as "blood formers" or "iron stores" with a belief passed down from generation to generation. So to what extent does this belief coincide with food analysis? Is iron really found in carob, if so, how much is it, and to what extent can the body benefit from this iron?
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What Causes Color Differences in Carob Products?
Of the two carob powders sold under the same name, one can be light brown and the other can be almost as dark as cocoa. Similar differences are seen in carob crumb, molasses and even the gum obtained from the bean. This often brings to the mind of the consumer the questions "which one is real?" or "which one is of better quality?".
Read MoreCarob Sugars: Sucrose, Glucose, and Fructose
The most distinctive feature that distinguishes carob from other leguminous fruits is the high sugar content of the pulp. Most of this sweetness comes from sucrose; glucose and fructose are found in lower proportions, but in proportions that affect the taste and processing behavior of the product.
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Sample and Laboratory Analysis in Carob Trade
The most concrete basis of trust between the buyer and the seller in the trade of carob and carob products is the representative sample and the laboratory analyzes performed on this sample. Moisture, sugar, ash, protein, mineral, HMF and adulteration tests; It becomes part of the specification according to the type of product and its intended use.
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Carob Production in the World: Countries and Figures
Carob is a product native to the Mediterranean basin and its production is concentrated in a few countries. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey provide most of the world's production. However, the answer to the question "how much carob is produced in the world?" varies significantly depending on which data source is looked at.
Read MoreCarob Sapling Selection and Sapling Certificate
Carob is a long-lived tree; The choice of saplings made when establishing a garden determines the yield, fruit quality and operating cost of the garden for decades. It takes both time and effort to correct the mistake of the garden established with a sapling of the wrong sex, unknown variety or weak root structure.
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How Many Years Does the Carob Tree Bear Fruit? Yield and Lifespan
Carob is a long-term tree that requires patience. In gardens established with grafted saplings, the first product usually begins to be obtained a few years after planting; commercially significant yields usually come after the sixth or seventh year. The tree reaches full yield in its 20s and can last more than a hundred years in good conditions.
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