CHOCOLATE is the most celebrated and versatile food in the world.
From seed to sweet, it has an incredible history.
Tomorrow is World Chocolate Day, when we can celebrate this treat’s creativity.
Most chocolate is sweet and brown and prepared from roasted and ground Theobroma cacao seeds. It can come in liquid, paste or a solid block. It can also flavour other food.
Chocolate was first found in ancient Mesoamerica – the strip of land between north and south America – as a fermented beverage back in 350 BCE.
Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gifts of Quetzalcoatl, the god of wisdom. The seeds were so valued that they were used as currency.
To make chocolate, manufacturers roast the cocoa beans which develops the colour and flavour of the beans.
Roasting makes the shells brittle which causes the nibs to be released. The nibs are winnowed, which means they pass through a series of sieves, which strain and sort them according to size.
The cacao nibs are ground into cocoa liquor, unsweetened chocolate or cocoa mass.
Cocoa is the name given to processed cacao.
The heat caused by the grinding causes the fat in the nib to melt and float to the top.
The cocoa liquor is mixed with cocoa butter and sugar.
In the case of milk chocolate, fresh, sweetened condensed or roller-dry, low-heat powdered whole milk is added, depending on the individual manufacturer’s formula and methods.
Then they blend the cocoa liquor with moulding chocolate. This is refined further to reduce the size of the milk and sugar content to the desired fineness. The cocoa powder or mass is blended back with the butter and liquor in varying quantities to make different types of chocolate or couverture.
The basic blends, in order of highest quantity first, are:
- Milk chocolate: sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, lethicin and vanilla.
- White chocolate: sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, lethicin and vanilla.
- Plain dark chocolate: cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, lethicin and vanilla.
