Valentine’s Day is not so very far away and in our house, Valentine’s Day is an excuse to eat lots and lots of chocolate! How much do you know about this tasty treat? Read on, and see how much you already knew about chocolate!
Origins and History
The Mayans were the first recorded people to use chocolate. They mixed it together with chilies and spices to make a drink. The first ‘hot chocolate’ was used as an offering to the gods, as well as in royal ceremonies. It was very bitter and nothing at all like the hot chocolate we’re used to drinking.
In fact, cacao is quite bitter. Cacao is harvested from the cacao tree. Cacao trees have large fruit, similar to a small coconut. The ’fruit’ is peeled to reveal a white pulp which is generally eaten raw by native peoples who are used to the taste. The white pulp has seeds and this is what’s harvested to get the chocolate we know.
Cacao trees are harvested all along the equator but my understanding is that they originate in the Amazon rainforest. There are three types of trees and how your chocolate tastes depends as much on which tree the beans came from as it does anything else. The cacao bean is roasted and ground. This results in a paste that is known as chocolate liquor. The type of chocolate is in large part, is classified by how much liquor is in it.
Types of Chocolate
Baking Chocolate. . .is finely ground and roasted cocoa beans made with chocolate liquor. It is used in recipes that contain sugar.
Milk Chocolate. . .contains at least 12% milk solids and no more than 10% chocolate liquor. As a result, it has a very mild chocolate flavor.
Sweet or Dark Chocolate. . .is a general term for chocolates that contain 15% to 35% chocolate liquor and less than 12% milk solids. Generally, there are ingredients like sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla to make it less bitter. Semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolates would fall into this category. Most commonly used for candy bars, chocolate chips and similar confections.
Cocoa. . .is the powdery remains after the liquor has been taken out. It is the least fatty form of chocolate and is good for reduced calorie or low fat recipes.
Dutch Chocolate. . .is chocolate liquor or cocoa powder that has undergone treatment with an alkalizing agent to modify color, flavor and dispersability in beverages. It is used for anything in which deep color is important, as well as ice cream and beverages.
White Chocolate. . .is not really chocolate as there is no chocolate product found in it, except for cocoa butter.
Some interesting facts about chocolate. . .
U.S. manufacturers currently use about 3.5 million pound of whole milk in one day to produce chocolate.
The melting point of cocoa butter is just below 98.6 degrees (the temperature of the human body) which is why it literally melts in your mouth!
The largest chocolate bar ever made was 5,026 pounds. I couldn’t find out who got to eat it, although it was exhibited in Turin, Italy in 2000.
Don’t worry–I’m not telling you all this without sharing some recipes! Check back soon for a few of my favorite chocolate recipes!
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