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Chocolate

Chocolate is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets—one of the most popular in the world—made from the fermented, roasted, and ground seeds of the tropical cacao tree Theobroma cacao. Dictionaries refer to this cacao substance as "chocolate," which is an intensely flavored bitter (not sweet) food, although this is properly defined as cocoa in many countries. However, 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).

Chocolate is often produced in the form of little sculptures (usually of animals or people), for example as rabbit- or egg-shaped chocolates, near a holiday in many countries called Easter, and other shapes for Christmas and Saint Nicholas (for the latter also chocolate letters).

Additionally, chocolate is often the main ingredient, or a major ingredient, in ice cream, cookies, cake, pie and other desserts.

Table of contents

1 Different kinds of chocolate 2 The history of chocolate 3 Chocolate as a stimulant 4 Chocolate is toxic to dogs 5 Why chocolate tastes so good 6 How chocolate is made 6.1 Harvesting 6.2 Blending 6.3 Conching 6.4 Tempering 7 Chocolate in the media 8 See also 9 Further reading 10 Popular/Historically Significant Makers of Chocolate 11 External links

Different kinds of chocolate

The history of chocolate

The xocoatl was said to be an acquired taste. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote:

Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant to taste. Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very greedy of this Chocolaté. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.

The first recorded shipment of chocolate to the Old World for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Seville in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added sugar to counteract the natural bitterness, and removed the chili pepper. By the 17th century it was a luxury item among the European nobility.

In 1828, Dutchman Conrad J. van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the so-called Dutch process of treating chocolate with akali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. It is believed that Joseph Fry made the first chocolate for eating in 1847.

Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle-maker joined his father-in-law's chocolate business. In 1867 he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875. He was assisted in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing by a neighbor, a baby food manufacturer named Henri Nestlé. Rudolph Lindt invented the process called “conching,” which involves heating and stirring chocolate ensuring the liquid is evenly blended.

Chocolate as a stimulant

The primary stimulant in chocolate is the theobromine, which is frequently confused with caffeine. Contrary to popular belief, chocolate does not contain significant amounts of caffeine, except where the caffeine content is intentionally increased in chocolate by the manufacturer.

Chocolate is toxic to dogs

The LD-50 (Lethal Dose for 50% of a population) of theobromine in canines is 330 mg/kg - the same LD-50 as for caffeine in humans. A typical 20 kg dog will normally experience intestinal distress after eating less than 240 g of milk chocolate, and won't experience bradycardia or tachyarrythmia unless it eats at least a half a kilogram of milk chocolate. If it does not expel the chocolate from its system because of the fat and sugar content, then it would have a 50% chance of surviving after eating 5 kg of milk chocolate. Dark, sweet chocolate has about 50% more theobromine and thus is more dangerous to dogs.

Why chocolate tastes so good

How chocolate is made

The beans are then roasted, graded and ground (in a process similar to the production of coffee). The resulting powder is then pressed to extract the fat or cocoa butter. The residue is what is known as cocoa powder or, as it is called in the trade, 'cocoa mass'.

Blending

The cocoa powder or 'mass' is blended with the butter and liquor in varying quantities to make different types of chocolate or couverture. The basic blends of ingredients, in order of highest quantity first, are as follows:

Plain dark chocolate: cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, lethicin and vanilla.

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.

Different manufacturers develop their own 'Signature' blends based on the above formulas but varying proportions of the different constituents used.

The finest plain dark chocolate couverture contains at least 70% Cocoa solids. The best Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate couvertures contain only 33% Cocoa solids. Inferior and mass produced chocolate contains much less cocoa, (as low as 7% in many cases). Some chocolate-makers opine that these "Brand Name" milk chocolate products can not be classed as couverture or even as chocolate, because of the low or virtually non-existent cocoa solids content.

Conching

The penultimate process is called conching. A conche is a container filled with metal beads that act as grinders and the refined and blended chocolate mass, kept liquid by fractional heat. Chonching is a process by which the particles of cocoa and sugar are ground to a size that is smaller than the tongue can detect, hence the smooth feel of chocolate in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of chocolate. High quality chocolate is conched for a minimum of a week. After the process is completed, the chocolate mass is stored in heated tanks at about 45-50°C, ready for final processing.

Tempering

The final process is called tempering. Since cocoa butter exhibits a polymorphous or unstable crystal formation, the mass must be cooled very carefully to encourage the crystals to stabilise in the right order to produce the desired properties of snappy bite, tender melt and a good gloss in the finished product. This is achieved by the tempering process. Firstly, the mass is cooled in stages from about 45°C to about 27°C and rewarmed to about 37°C followed by cooling down to its solid state.

The chocolate is then ready for sale as couverture (used for coating chocolates, biscuits and other coated products) or as the finished product such as solid chocolate bars etc.

Chocolate in the media

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (book, movie)
• Chocolat (book, movie)
• The Poisoned Chocolates Case (book)
• Like Water for Chocolate (book, movie)

• Chocolate milk
• Kinder Egg
• Valentine's Day
• Christmas
• Easter
• Cocoa
• List of chocolate-related articles
• How chocolate is made

• Hershey's
• Whitman's

• Xocoatl: All about Chocolate
• Exploring Chocolate, an Exploratorium article
• Why chocolate is poisonous to dogs from the American Veterinarian Medical Association

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