It's the Flavor We Favor
The results are in. The favorite flavor of
kids and adults in Europe and the United States is chocolate. This yummy confection
begins as a seed of the tropical cacao tree.
It has been a prized taste sensation for more than 2,500 years.
One reason chocolate is so nice to eat is that it melts just below body temperature.
So it really does melt in your mouth! From hot cocoa to double fudge ice cream,
chocolate shows little sign of fading in popularity.
The melting chocolate chips have come a long way from the cacao tree but
their journey may not be done. These chips may be added to a bowl of chocolate
chip cookie dough or maybe straight into your mouth.
©Chad Spaulding A Treat Fit for Rulers and Gods
Evidence of cacao’s important role in Mayan culture can be seen in
ancient artifacts. The vase above shows a Mayan diving goddess holding a
cacao pod.
©Justin Kerr Our story of chocolate begins in South and Central
America, where cacao trees are indigenous.
The people of ancient Maya grew
cacao and drank chocolate mixed with water, honey, and even chili peppers.
The Maya believed chocolate had medicinal value.
Offerings of cacao beans were given to the gods, and the drink was a part
of religious ceremonies.
Maya hieroglyphs show
rulers and gods alike enjoying the drink. But the word “cacao” is
thought to be Olmec in
origin. Since the Olmec Indians lived 1,000 years before the Maya, chocolate
may have an even longer history.
What a Bean Could Buy
The bags full of dried cacao beans would have been very valuable to an Aztec
person thousands of years ago.
©A30_Tsitika When the Aztec civilization
conquered the Maya, they took a love of chocolate to a new level. Cacao beans
became a form of money. One cacao bean bought a tomato. Three bought a turkey
egg. Aztec rulers demanded payment in cacao seeds from their subjects. When
the Spanish came to Mexico and Central America in the 16th century, they realized
the value of cacao too. They took shipments of the beans back to Spain, where
the addition of sugar soon made chocolate very popular. But because chocolate
was expensive to make, it remained a drink of the upper classes. That changed
in the 1800s, when industrial production of chocolate made it available to
everyone.
Growing Cacao Trees: It's Not Easy
Before long cacao was being grown outside
of Central and South America. Today, the Republic of Ivory Coast in Africa
produces the most cacao. Next are Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Guatemala, and
several countries in South America. Cacao trees need lots of rain and humid conditions.
They won’t grow very far from the equator and
are prone to disease and
pests. They grow best in the shade of taller trees in tropical rainforests.
But they also grow on farms. A cacao tree needs to be about five years old
before it flowers and produces seeds.
Protecting Cacao's Rainforest Environment
Traditional cacao production is dependent
on rainforests, which are threatened the world over. Farming practices that
are sustainable help
protect the rainforests and the farmers who earn a living growing the trees.
Farmers are encouraged to grow cacao in the shade of existing rainforest trees
near the forest border. They may also grow other trees and plants that
produce products they can sell, such as rubber, cashews, or mangos. These techniques
help protect the existing rainforests and the diversity of
forest life.
Three Kinds of Cacao
In some countries, cacao is eaten before it is processed into chocolate.
In addition to the beans, the pulp inside of the fruit is edible.
©G.Ellis/GLOBIO.org The fruit of a cacao tree is a pod that grows
all along the tree’s branches and trunk. If you picked a pod and split
it open, you’d see light fleshy pulp surrounding about 40 almond-shaped
seeds. There are three varieties of cacao.
Forastero is the most common type, and the variety most grown in Africa.
The rarest cacao is Criollo, which was the type the Maya grew. Criollo grows
today in Central and South America.
Trinitario is a hybrid of
the other two varieties.
Three Kinds of Delicious
The three kinds of chocolate look and taste different. Which one is your
favorite?
©Christian Guthier There are three kinds of chocolate, dark, milk, and white. Dark chocolate
is made of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and sugar with vanilla sometimes added.
Add milk to those four ingredients, and you have milk chocolate. Take away
the cocoa solids and you get white chocolate. Whichever chocolate you prefer,
there is a special process to get from the bean to your favorite candy treat.
Step-by-Step from Bean to Bar
Fermenting cacao beans don’t look good but they will eventually
become tasty chocolate.
©Sarah Endline/Sweetriot
Fermenting
To harvest cacao beans, first workers use
large knives to cut down the pods and hack them open. They scoop the seeds
and pulp out and allow the seeds to ferment in
piles or shallow boxes. Fermenting makes heat and acids that change the flavor
of the beans. It can take up to eight days for the white seeds to ferment
and turn dark brown while the pulp falls away.
Cacao beans drying in the sun.
©Sarah Endline/Sweetriot
Drying
Then the beans are dried. Drying keeps them from getting moldy during shipment.
The Sun does
the best job of drying, but there are also drying machines.
Roasting and Winnowing
When the bags of dried beans arrive at a chocolate-making plant, the beans
are washed and then roasted in a barrel-shaped oven that turns them over
so they roast evenly. Up to two hours later, they go into a machine called
a winnower. The winnower cracks open the shells and removes them and collects
the “meat” of each bean, called a nib. Inside the nibs are
cocoa solids and fatty cocoa butter, which both go into chocolate.
After the nibs are ground into a paste it can be processed to make cocoa
powder.
©Jeannine Gabriel Grinding and Processing
The nibs are ground into a paste in a heavy mill. This is the basic ingredient
in all chocolate products. The paste is processed in two different ways.
To make cocoa powder, like that used in hot chocolate, the paste is pressed
to remove the cocoa butter. This leaves behind cocoa solids that
can be ground into powder. The cocoa butter that gets removed is used in
making other chocolates.
Rolling
To make a candy bar, the paste goes through several more steps. First other
ingredients such as sugar or milk are added and mixed together. At this
stage, the chocolate mix is still thick and grainy. Running it through
giant rollers smoothes out the mixture and makes it dry and flaky.
Conching
After a bit more cocoa butter gets added in, it’s on to the conching machine.
This machine churns the chocolate for up to six days to make it creamy and
smooth. Conching also removes acids in the chocolate to make it taste better.
Chocolate can be tempered by hand but there are machines that do it too.
©Tamela Wolff Tempering
The final step before molding the candy bar is to temper the chocolate. During
tempering, the chocolate is heated and cooled over and over. This process
makes the cocoa butter hold together and gives chocolate a shiny look.
If it weren’t tempered, chocolate would be crumbly.
Molding
Finally the mix is ready to pour into a mold. It might be made into a bar shape
or poured over candy or nut centers. After the chocolate cools and hardens
it is wrapped and ready to ship to stores.
More than Good Taste
Why do people love chocolate so much? Is
there more to it than just the taste? The Maya and Aztecs believed chocolate
was nutritious and strengthening. They used it to treat fevers and infections.
They also thought it could make someone’s love life better. Perhaps that’s
why the Aztec ruler Montezuma drank 50 cups a day!
You probably don’t drink 50 cups of chocolate a day like Montezuma
but when it looks this good you may think you want to. Hot chocolate drinks
are enjoyed around the world.
©Jamie Lim Love potion or not, the Aztecs may have been right about chocolate’s
effects on the body. Many chocolates are sweet. Sugar causes the body to release
chemicals called endorphins that
create a feeling of happiness and well-being. But chocolate also contains small
amounts of other chemicals that do the same thing. Still other chemicals in
chocolate, including caffeine, make you feel alert.
Benefits, but Bad Stuff Too
Eating chocolate may make us feel good, but
might it also be good for us? There are chemicals in chocolate called antioxidants that
may help fight heart disease by preventing the buildup of artery-clogging particles
in the blood. A small amount of chocolate every day could be helpful. But the
large amount of fat found in many chocolates would most likely offset such
health benefits. There is also evidence that a bacteria-fighting chemical found
in cacao bean husks might help prevent tooth decay. But the large amount of
sugar in many chocolates only contributes to dental disease. Other research
shows that chocolate may suppress coughs and treat diarrhea.
A Deadly Danger for Some
Animals such as dogs don’t know that chocolate is poisonous to them.
The English bulldog may look sad, but he would be more upset if he ate chocolate.
That would make the dog very sick.
©Jenny Rollo Chocolate, in its pure form, may or may not be health food. The sugar, fat,
and other additives, though, aren’t so good for us. So enjoy your chocolate
in moderation. One thing is certain. Chocolate can be very dangerous to animals.
Dogs, cats, horses, birds, and small rodents can die from eating chocolate.
Unlike humans, animals aren’t able to rid their bodies of the chemical
that is chocolate’s main ingredient. The chemical builds up and becomes poisonous.
So if you think your pet has eaten chocolate, you should take it to a veterinarian
right away.
Chocolate's the Star All Year Long
What began as a drink for the rich and powerful
is now a treat loved by most everyone. But because chocolate is everywhere
doesn’t mean it isn’t still special. Chocolate candy is associated
with holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Halloween, and Valentine’s
Day. During Day
of the Dead celebrations in Mexico people make offerings of cacao seeds
or hot chocolate to welcome the spirits of dead ancestors.
It’s even a “star” in the movies. What fun would “Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory” be without the chocolate? Chocolate has always
been more than just a drink or sweet.
Samples of holiday chocolates from around the world. Try to name the five
holidays that are represented by these candies.
©CW: M.Terraza (egg), T.Gerritsen, B.Koslosky, D.Cortez, T.Bowles,
L.Szekeres