chocolate history
Chocolate has a 250-year history, and cocoa beans were first discovered by the Olmecs, an ancient Mexican civilization. Cacao beans were passed down through many ancient Mexican civilizations, and were eventually used by the Aztecs. Aztec civilization incorporated the use of the metatea, a groundstone base with a hammer-like grinder for grinding roasted cocoa beans into a cocoa paste. Cocoa beans are a popular trade. They even used cocoa beans as currency, religious rituals, and gifts.
By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the use of chocolate had spread to most European countries, such as France, Italy, and Spain, mainly by merchants and missionaries.
In the nineteenth century we saw the development of chocolate as we know it today. Cocoa powder was mixed with alkali to make the cocoa darker and smoother in flavor, a process still used today.
Sweets as we know them today first appeared in England in the first half of the nineteenth century. Swiss chocolatier Rudolph Lint invented the conching process to give chocolate a creamier taste and texture. Other chocolate makers and technicians have found ways to use milk-based products and powders mixed into the chocolate base.
Today, chocolate desserts, cakes, chocolate-covered strawberries and candies have become an important part of everyday life. Cocoa and the products it produces have come a long way from cocoa pounded on stone slabs to the massive factories that exist today. The future is bright and there will be many new and interesting spin-offs as the centuries go by.
Where does chocolate come from?
All chocolate grows on trees. There are approximately 20 types of chocolate derived from the genus Theobroma. The tree is native to southern Mexico and mainly grows in continents such as South America and Mexico south of the equator. The South China Sea is rich in cocoa plants.
Theobroma cacao (theobroma cacao plant) comes in three varieties:
- Forastero, a robust plant with a faint chocolate flavor;
- Criollo, a strong plant with high-quality chocolate;
- The Trinitario is somewhere in between.
Beans received from the factory are placed on the ground for fermentation. After the beans are fermented in the ground at 110 degrees, they are dried in the sun. The beans are then roasted, and once dry, the outer shell is removed and the beans are broken down into smaller pieces, which are often purchased by chocolate factories to make chocolate.
The chocolate is taken out of the factory and processed by grinding it into whole or roasted pieces. The fragments are crushed to create a liquid substance that is used by factories as complete sugar-free chocolate.
How is chocolate made?
The chocolate making process starts with beans or nibs. The first step is to crush them into a chocolate liquid. The pressed natural fat is extracted from the chocolate liquid, leaving behind what is known as the "cake". The cake can then be pressed even harder into a powdered material. Cocoa can be treated with alkali in this process, also known as Dutch cocoa or alkalized cocoa. For other types of chocolate makers, additives such as sugar, vanilla extract, and creamer are added. This process, called refining, mixes all the ingredients together and processes them.
Cocoa beans are grown in tropical areas of South America and West Africa. These cocoa beans are collected, roasted, ground into a paste, and mixed with cocoa butter and sugar to make chocolate. The quality of chocolate varies greatly depending on the ingredients and techniques used.
All chocolate is derived from cocoa beans, except white chocolate. This chocolate is made only from cocoa butter and sugar, not any cocoa bean parts. Although white chocolate has the unique taste of chocolate, it should not be considered the same chocolate as milk or dark chocolate.
Is chocolate a fruit?
The cacao tree is very different from traditional trees. Cocoa pods hang from long branches and are filled with precious cocoa beans. Similar to the apple tree, the cacao tree is a fruit-bearing tree plant. Therefore, the cocoa seeds used in chocolate are also considered a fruit.
From here on, the vocabulary can become unclear even to experts. The main ingredient in chocolate is fruit, but this ingredient undergoes extensive processing to make chocolate.
Cider can also be considered a fruit, but it is more commonly said that cider is made from the fruit, rather than the fruit itself. The same goes for chocolate. Although chocolate is made from fruit, it combines many different ingredients to create something new.
