Chocolate Explained

7 min readFeb 17, 2020

What is Chocolate

Chocolate is made from the fruit of tropical cacao trees, named Theobroma cacao or “food of the gods’. The fruits are about the size and shape of a papaya and are called pods. Each pod contains about 40 to 50 cacao beans which are covered in white pulp.

The seeds are harvested by hand to protect the trees. This is done by laborers removing the pods, which are orange when ripe, and opening them up with machetes. The seeds are placed on large trays for fermentation which are covered with banana leaves and are left for several days.

The fermentation process produces the flavor and aroma while also destroying the seed’s embryo which prevents germination, as well as causing the white pulp around the seeds to fall off.

After this process is done, the beans are dried out on sunny platforms with workers turning them several times a day for three to five days to complete drying.

After being dried, the beans are taken to a chocolate factory where they are cleaned and then roasted. The roasting process brings out the flavors and helps remove the beans from their shells. The final product is called the nib.

The nibs are ground down and this results in a thick paste called chocolate liquor. This is not to be confused with chocolate liquer, as chocolate liquor does not contain alcohol.

This chocolate liquor is then the foundation for making chocolate when used in combination with other ingredients like cacao butter, sugar, vanilla, and milk fats and solids.

Origins

It is believed that chocolate has its beginnings in ancient Mesoamerica, or present day Mexico. The Olmec, an early Latin American civilization, appear to be the first to have turned the cacao plant into chocolate, using it for rituals and as medicine.

Centuries later, the Mayans revered chocolate as the drink of the gods. They would make a brew of roasted and ground cacao seeds with chillies, water, and cornmeal. The name for this drink was “xocolatl”, or “bitter water”. It is thought that it is from this word that the modern day term of “chocolate” derived from.

Even the Aztecs held chocolate in high regard, They would drink it as a refreshment, an aphrodisiac, to prepare for war, and even used cocoa beans as currency.

Historians can’t be sure exactly who brought chocolate over to Europe, but it occurred during the Spanish conquest of Latin America. One legend states that the Aztec king Montezuma gave Hernan Cortes a chocolate drink when the Spanish arrived. It is reported that he initially thought the drink too bitter (“a bitter drink for pigs” to be exact), but changed his mind after adding cane sugar and honey and so brought it back to Spain in 1528.

Europe and Beyond

It seems as though the Spanish kept their chocolate a secret from the rest of Europe for some time. It wasn’t until 1615, when French King Louis XIII (13th) married Anne of Austria, who was daughter of the Spanish King Philip III (3rd), that chocolate made it to the royal courts of France.

From here, chocolate became a popular drink amongst upper class and royal Europeans. The demand continued to increase throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, even reaching the American colonies. In the late 1700s, the invention of the steam engine during the industrial revolution made mass production possible. This massive increase in demand led to the creation of chocolate plantations across equatorial European colonies, which were worked by thousands of slaves.

The 1800s saw massive strides in the production of chocolate. In 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten discovered a way to make powdered chocolate by removing cacao butter from chocolate liquor, grinding what remained, and adding alkaline salts to cut the bitter taste. This became known as Dutch cocoa and allowed for wide spread availability of cocoa powder while also paving the way for the creation of the chocolate bar.

In 1847, British chocolatier Joseph Fry created the first chocolate bar by adding melted cacao butter back into Dutch cocoa.

In 1868, a small company called Cadbury was selling boxes of chocolate candies in England.

In 1878, Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter added dried milk powder to chocolate to create milk chocolate. A few years later, Peter and his friend Henri Nestle created the Nestle company and began selling milk chocolate to the mass market.

During this time Rodolphe Lindt invented a conching machine which gave his chocolates a velvety texture.

Also during this time, Milton Hershey began selling chocolate coated caramels and developed his own formula for milk chocolate. He began mass producing chocolate bars and unique shapes like Hershey’s Kisses in 1900.

In 1923, the Mars Company created the Milky way bar by adding a nougat inside a chocolate bar. During the same year, a former Hershey employee named H.B. Reese began selling Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

During the 20th century, the term “chocolate” was used to cover a wide variety of affordable sweets with more sugar and other additives than actual cacao.

In more recent years, there has been a resurgence in artisanal chocolate making as chocolatiers create handmade chocolates from sustainable cacao producers.

Types of Chocolate

Milk chocolate is made with milk added in the form of powder, liquid or condensed. A minimum of 20 -25% cocoa solids are required.
Dark chocolate has a much higher percentage of cocoa with the fat coming from cocoa butter instead of milk. An unsweetened variety is what is commonly used for baking.
Couverture chocolate is a high quality version of dark chocolate that is used by professionals for dipping, coating, molding, and garnishing.
White chocolate is made using sugar, milk, and cocoa butter without cocoa solids. White chocolate was considered a confectionary instead of chocolate until 2002, which is when the United States Food and Drug Administration changed their classification after petitioning from The Hershey Food Corp and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association.
Ruby chocolate was developed in 2004 and was released to the public in 2017. It is made from the Ruby cocoa bean which results in a red color and different flavor which has been described as “sweet yet sour”.
Cocoa powder is made by pulverizing the cocoa solids left over when the cocoa butter is extracted. It is most commonly used in baking and for making chocolate drinks.
The two types of unsweetened cocoa powder include natural cocoa made by the Broma process, which includes no additives, and powder made by the Dutch process which adds alkali salts to neutralize acidity. Dutch cocoa is used more commonly in hot drinks but lacks many of the flavonoids originally held in the cocoa due to how it is processed.

Health Facts

Cacao is used to describe products derived from the cacao bean that have remained raw. These include cacao nibs, cacao butter, and cacao powder.

Cocoa looks similar but is actually more processed. Cocoa powder comes from beans that have been roasted at high temperatures.

Cacao is reported to be a high source of antioxidants, fiber, magnesium, copper, iron, and more. Because of this, some studies have found cacao consumption in moderation to have the following health benefits:

Can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes
Lowers the risk of cognitive decline in older people
Can be a mood enhancer

Most chocolate bought in stores do not have these health benefits as they are highly processed and contain a lot of added sugar and fat.

Ethics and Environmental Impact

Similar to coffee, the massive global demand for chocolate has put a lot of pressure on cacao farmers. Wages for the very manual harvesting of cacao beans tend to be very low. Many farmers run to low-wage, child, and even slave labor in order to meet production needs. In fact, many children are trafficked into working on cacao plantations. It is estimated that about 2.3 million children work in chocolate production across Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

Because of the inhumane labor environment that has been cultivated over centuries, many chocolate companies are opting to source their cacao and cocoa products from more ethical locations. If you want ethically made chocolate, shop for brands that show certifications including Fair Trade, Rain Forest Alliance, UTS, and Fair for Life.

Chocolate production has also been harmful to the environment as farmers resort to deforestation, illegal in some cases, to expand cacao plantations.

Because of the cacao plant’s need for humid temperatures, chocolate production is threatened by climate change. With increasing temperatures along the equator without a similar increase in rainfall, humidity levels are decreasing. To combat this farmers and scientists are developing strategies to maintain production to meet demand. This includes planting taller trees next to cacao tress to act as shade and reduce moisture loss, as well as using CRISPR DNA editing technology to make a more resilient cacao seed.

Fun Fact:

- During the Revolutionary War, chocolate was given as rations and even payment at times to soldiers instead of money.

- How to make Mayan chocolate (Xocolatl):

1. Remove beans from cocoa pods.

2. Ferment and dry them.

3. Roast them on a griddle until done.

4. Remove the shells and grind the seeds into a fine paste.

5. Mix paste with water, chili peppers, and cornmeal.

6. Pour the resulting concoction back and forth from pot to cup until frothy foam develops on top.

7. Serve with pride in finely decorated earthenware cups.

Links

Chocolate Explained

Written by Aristidis Marousas