From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Chocolate block in melted chocolate
Chocolate is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets -one of the most popular in the world .
Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted and ground seeds of the tropical cacao tree Theobroma cacao . The resulting product is known as "chocolate," an intensely flavored bitter food; this is the definition of chocolate used in many dictionaries. This product is defined as cocoa in many countries. In the American chocolate industry, cocoa is defined as the solids of the cacao bean , cocoa butter is defined as the fat component, and chocolate is the combination of the solids and the fat. This is usually sweetened with sugar and other ingredients and made into chocolate bars (the substance of which is also and commonly referred to as chocolate ), or beverages (called cocoa or hot chocolate ).
There are three types of cacao beans used in chocolates. The most prized, rare, and expensive is the Criollo, the bean of the Maya .
Only 10% of chocolate is made from the Criollo, which is less bitter
and more aromatic than any other bean. The cacao bean in 80% of
chocolate is the Forastero. Forastero trees are significantly hardier
than Criollo trees, resulting in cheaper cacao beans. Trinitario, a
hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, is used in about 10% of chocolate.
Chocolate, when not produced in "bars" or other geometric shapes, is often produced in the form of little sculptures (usually of animals or people), for example as rabbit - or egg -shaped chocolates, near Easter , and other shapes for Christmas and Saint Nicholas .
Additionally, chocolate is often the main ingredient, or a major ingredient, in ice cream , cookies , cake , pie and other desserts. The word chocolate is of Nahuatl origin.
History of Chocolate
Chocolate: Food of the Gods
The
story of chocolate, as far back as we know it, begins more than 2000
years ago in equatorial Central America where the Mayan Indians held
cocoa beans in high regard. Images of cocoa pods were carved into the
walls of their elaborate stone temples, and Mayan writings refer to
cacao as "food of the gods." It was the Mayans who first created a
beverage from crushed cocoa beans which was enjoyed by royalty and
shared at sacred ceremonies.
Chocolate's
importance in the Aztec Empire also is clearly recorded. The Aztecs
called the prized drink they made from cocoa beans "chocolatl," which
means "warm liquid." Like the earlier Mayans, the Aztecs drank the
unsweetened beverage during special ceremonies. Montezuma II, a royal
monarch of the Aztecs, maintained great storehouses filled with cocoa
beans and reportedly consumed 50 or more portions of chocolatl daily
from a golden goblet. Cocoa beans, however, weren't only consumed. They
also were used as a form of currency. According to records of the time,
a rabbit could be purchased for four cocoa beans.
Europe
was first introduced to the principal ingredient of chocolate when
Christopher Columbus brought a handful of the dark, almond-shaped beans
back to Spain from his last voyage to the Caribbean islands in 1502. He
presented many strange and wonderful objects from the lands he explored
to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Included among them were cocoa
beans, placed before royalty as little more than a curiosity. They
appeared most unpromising. The King and Queen of Spain never dreamed
how important cocoa beans would become. It remained for Hernando
Cortes, the Spanish explorer, to grasp the commercial possibilities of
cocoa beans.
Chocolate Travels to Spain
When
Cortes arrived in what is now known as Mexico in 1519, the Aztecs
mistakenly believed that he was the reincarnation of a former god-king
who had been exiled from the land. They did not realize that Cortes was
seeking Aztec gold which was rumored to exist. Montezuma greeted the
Spanish explorers with a large banquet which included cups of a bitter
chocolate drink. By the time the Aztecs realized their mistake, the
Spanish had begun to overpower them. Within three years, Cortes and his
followers brought about the fall of the Aztec empire.
During
this time, Cortes realized the economic potential for cocoa beans. He
experimented with chocolatl, adding cane sugar to make it more
agreeable to Spanish tastes. He also established additional cacao
plantings in the Caribbean region before returning to Spain .
Back
in Spain , the new version of chocolatl found favor with the wealthy,
and continued to undergo flavor refinements. Newly imported spices,
such as cinnamon and vanilla, were added to the drink. Ultimately,
someone decided the drink would taste better if served steaming hot,
creating the first hot chocolate, which quickly won followers among the
Spanish aristocracy. Spain proceeded to plant more cacao trees in its
overseas colonies in Ecuador , Venezuela , Peru and Jamaica to ensure
an ample supply of cocoa beans. Remarkably, the Spanish were able to
keep their ventures in cocoa cultivation and their creation of early
cocoa drinks a secret from the rest of Europe for nearly one hundred
years.
Chocolate Spreads Across Europe
Spanish
monks were assigned the task of processing the cocoa beans. It may have
been these monks who let out the secret by discussing cocoa with their
French counterparts. Then, in 1580, the first cocoa processing plant
was established in Spain . It did not take long before chocolate was
acclaimed throughout Europe as a delicious, health-giving drink. For a
while it reigned as the chosen beverage at the fashionable Court of
France. Chocolate drinking spread across the English Channel to Great
Britain , and in 1657 the first of many famous English Chocolate Houses
appeared.
Mass production of cocoa
became possible with the introduction of a perfected steam engine,
which mechanized the cocoa grinding process. By 1730, cocoa had dropped
in price from three dollars or more per pound to within financial reach
of all.
The invention of the cocoa press
in 1828 was another major breakthrough in cocoa production. This not
only helped reduce prices even further, but more importantly, improved
the quality of the beverage by squeezing out about half of the cocoa
butter (the fat that occurs naturally in cocoa beans) from the
ground-up beans, leaving behind a cake-like residue that could be
further processed into a fine powder. From then on, chocolate drinks
had more of the smooth consistency and the recognizable flavor of those
enjoyed today.
The 19th Century
witnessed two more revolutionary developments in the history of
chocolate. In 1847, an English company introduced the first solid
eating chocolate made by combining melted cocoa butter with sugar and
cocoa powder. This chocolate had a smooth, velvety texture and quickly
replaced the old coarse-grained chocolate which formerly dominated the
world market. The second development occurred in 1876 in Vevey ,
Switzerland , when Daniel Peter devised a way of adding milk to
chocolate, creating the product we enjoy today known as milk chocolate.
Chocolate Comes to America
In
the United States of America , the production of chocolate proceeded at
a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. It was in
pre-revolutionary New England - 1765, to be exact - that the first
chocolate factory was established in this country. During World War II,
the U.S. government recognized chocolate's role in the nourishment and
group spirit of the Allied Armed Forces, so much so that it allocated
valuable shipping space for the importation of cocoa beans. Many
soldiers were thankful for the chocolate bars, which gave them the
energy to carry on until more food rations could be obtained. Today,
the U.S. Army's Meals Ready to Eat contain chocolate bars and chocolate
candies, and chocolate has been taken into space as part of the diet of
U.S. astronauts.
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