When most of us hear the word chocolate, we picture a bar, a box of truffles, or any favorite chocolate. It comes in your mind that milky, crunchy, chewy, dark, and sweet. I often call chocolate as the best food because it changes your mood in a few seconds and make you joyful and also a stress buster.
Everyone has a curiosity that how chocolates are made today I will tell you that from where it has come and how it made. It is made from the fruit of cocoa trees, which are native to Central and South America. The fruits are called pods and each pod contains around 40 cocoa beans. The beans are dried and roasted to create cocoa beans. Then it is powdered and mixed with sugar, lecithin, milk or cream powder or milk crumb (used to produce a caramel-like taste in milk chocolate), and spices such as vanilla.
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History Of Chocolate
The origin of the word “chocolate” to the Aztec word “xocoatl,” which referred to a bitter drink brewed from cocoa beans. The Latin name for the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.” Many modern historians have estimated that chocolate has been around for about 2000 years or even older.
The first cocoa plants were found in Mesoamerica. Fermented beverages made from chocolate date back to 450 BC. The Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the god of wisdom, and the seeds once had so much value that they were used as a form of currency.
After this chocolate has reached many parts of the world like Spain, America, Europe, etc. It remained immensely popular among the aristocracy. Royals and the upper classes consumed chocolate for its health benefits as well as its decadence. At that time it is produced by hands which is a slow process. But later with time, the innovative device could squeeze cocoa butter from roasted cacao beans, leaving a fine cocoa powder behind. The powder was then mixed with liquids and poured into a mold, where it solidified into an edible bar of chocolate.
Now chocolate has reached its extent where different forms and flavors of chocolate are produced by varying the quantities of the different ingredients. Other flavors can be obtained by varying the time and temperature when roasting the beans. The various types of chocolates are:-
Dark Chocolate
It is also known as “plain chocolate”, is produced using a higher percentage of cocoa with all fat content coming from cocoa butter. Dark chocolate can be eaten as is or used in cooking, for which thicker baking bars, usually with high cocoa percentages ranging from 70% to 100%, are sold. Couverture chocolate is a high-quality class of dark chocolate, containing a high percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter, and precisely tempered.
Milk Chocolate
It is solid chocolate made with milk added in the form of powdered milk, liquid milk, or condensed milk. In 1875 a Swiss confectioner, Daniel Peter, developed the first solid milk-chocolate using condensed milk, which had been invented by Henri Nestle, Peter’s neighbor in Vevey. It is mild, velvety taste from a delicate balance of ingredients and creamier taste, texture, and lighter color. Cadbury is the leading brand of milk chocolate.
White Chocolate
It is made of sugar, milk, and cocoa butter, without the cocoa solids. It is a pale ivory color and lacks many of the compounds found in milk and dark chocolates. It remains solid at room temperature as that is below the melting point of cocoa butter. It does not contain cocoa solids.
Raw Chocolate
It is chocolate that has not been processed, heated, or mixed with other ingredients. It is sold in chocolate-growing countries, and to a much lesser extent in other countries, often promoted as healthy. Dairy products are often not added to raw chocolate. It is naturally gluten-free and generally considered vegan.
Modeling Chocolate
It is a chocolate paste made by melting chocolate and combining it with corn syrup, glucose syrup, or golden syrup. It is primarily used by cake makers and pâtisseries to add decoration to cakes and pastries. It is formed into a variety of shapes and structures that cannot be easily accomplished with other softer edible materials.
Ruby Chocolate
It is a type of chocolate created by Barry Callebaut. The variety was in development from 2004 and was released to the public in 2017. This is made from the Ruby cocoa bean, resulting in a distinct red color and a different flavor, described as sweet yet sour, which is comparable to that of berries, as the chocolate’s main characteristic is its acidity.
