Chocolate, after hearing this word the mouth fills with water. We start dreaming about the chocolate and feel the yummy flavor in our mouth. There is no one in this world who doesn't like the chocolates. Children, girls are fond of eating chocolates. They come in different colours as they may dark, light and white as well in different flavours enriched with nuts and raisins that enhance the taste of chocolate.
The word chocolate has got its origin from the Nahuatl language of Aztecs. The word which has been modified into chocolate comes from the word xocolatl of the Nahuatl language meaning bitter drink. It has been consumed in the form of a drink since ancient times but the people of Olmec were the first to be reported for consuming chocolate in the form of drink. Chocolate is derived from the Cacao tree that is native to Mexico, Central and South America and is cultivated since three millennia. The first use of chocolate began in Mesoamerica where the people consumed chocolate in the form of beverage and well as an ingredient of food.
It is available in many flavours. The pure unsweetened chocolate is obtained from cocoa solids and cocoa butter combined in a different ratio. The major proportion of chocolate that is marketed today is in the form of sweet chocolate. The sweet chocolate is prepared by combining cacao drink and sugar in different proportions. Milk chocolate is prepared from milk powder. White chocolate is prepared cocoa solids, milk and sugar having no cocoa butter. Milk chocolate is not at all considered as a chocolate in many countries as it is prepared from the milk powder and does not contains cocoa solids. Herbert Candies for the first time introduced the milk chocolate in 1955 in the United States. The dark chocolate is prepared by the addition of fat and sugar to the cacao mixture. The government of United States call it sweet chocolate and it also contains 15% chocolate liquor. The dark chocolate is a rich source of cocoa as well as flavinoids, epicatechin and gallic acid which are known to act as cardio protectors. Scientists believe that the consumption of dark chocolate in small amounts tends to reduce the risk of heart attack. Another type of dark chocolate is the semi-sweet chocolate which contains less amount of sugar. Bitter chocolate is also a kind of dark chocolate that contains chocolate liquor and lecithin is also added to it.
Commercially it is prepared from the cocoa bean of the cocoa tree. The major proportion of the cocoa is produced from the Western Africa. The cocoa bean is basically collected by the young children as child labour is a common practice in Western Africa. According to a report from the World Cocoa Foundation about 50 million people around the world depend on the cultivation on cocoa tree for earning their livelihood. In the United States most of the chocolatiers purchase the cocoa from these people and convert it into chocolate according their own will. Two jobs are associated with its production, one is chocolate makers and the other is chocolatiers. The first ones make use of the harvested cocoa beans and add other ingredients to produce couverture chocolate. The chocolatiers make use of this couverture to produce candies, bars or truffles.
The cacao trees are understory trees that require well drained soils. They require 2000 millimeters of rainfall every year and the temperature range for their perfect growth is 21-32 ºC. They are unable to unable the temperature range of less than 15 ºC. The three varieties of cacao beans are used in chocolate production. These are criollo, forastero and trinitario. Criollo is the most rare and expensive variety of the cacao tree used for chocolate production. Forastero is the most common variety of cacao tress used for the production of the chocolate. Trinitario is a hybrid of criollo and forastero and is a low grade variety.
The cacao pods are harvested by cutting the cacao pods by a tool called as machete or by using a stick. The cacao beans with their pulp are then stockpiled and left for fermentation. Fermentation process adds a chocolaty flavor to the cacao beans. The purely ripe cacao beans are used for fermentation as if the beans will be unripe it will produce very little cocoa butter. After the fermentation process the beans are allowed to dry in order to avoid microbial onslaught. The process of drying continues for 5-7 days. The dried beans are then passed to the manufacturing facility where the beans are roasted, graded. Later on the shells are removed to obtain the nibs. The nibs are grounded and liquefied to collect the chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor is further processed into two components, cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
The chocolate liquor is mixed with the cocoa butter to produce different types of chocolates which may be the dark chocolate, white chocolate or the milk chocolate. The chocolate producers add an emulsifying agent called soy lecithin to the mixture. The texture of the chocolate is maintained by a process called as conching. Conching is performed in a special container which contains metal beds and acts like a grinder. This special container is known as a conche. In the conche the chocolate is kept in liquid state and the sugar and the cocoa particles are grinded in very small pieces so that their taste can be detected in the mouth only. The high grade chocolates are conched for about 72 hours and lower grade chocolates for about 6 hours only. The final step in the manufacturing of the chocolate is tempering. The uncontrolled crystallization of the cocoa butter results in the formation of the crystals of large size easily detectable by the naked eye. This causes the chocolate to break easily. The chocolate is first heated at 45 ºC and then cooled at 27 ºC. The molten chocolate is set in various forms like candies and bars before manufacturing. They are stored in the refrigerators.
We all consume chocolates for our pleasure but there are certain aspects of chocolates that have been found associated with the human health also. Dark chocolate has a beneficial effect on the circulatory system. Chocolates also contain anticancer, brain stimulating, cough preventing and anti-diarrhoeal properties.
So, let's enjoy chocolate.ts
