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Chocolate

Chocolate most commonly comes in dark, milk, and white varieties, with cocoa solids contributing to the brown color Main ingredient(s):

Chocolate liquor Recipes at Wikibooks:

Chocolate Media at Wikimedia Commons:

Chocolate

Chocolate

/tk()lt/ is a processed, typically sweetened food produced from the seed of the

tropical Theobroma cacaotree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including theMayans and the Aztecs,[1] who made it into a beverage known as xocoltl t , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After fermentation, the beans are dried, then cleaned, and then roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter

chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk.White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids. Cocoa solids contain alkaloids such as theobromine, phenethylamine and caffeine.[2] These have physiological effects on the body and are linked to serotonin levels in the brain. Some research has found that chocolate, eaten in moderation, can lower blood pressure.[3] The presence of theobromine renders chocolate toxic to some animals,[4] especially dogs and cats. The Europeans sweetened and fattened chocolate by adding refined sugar and milk, two ingredients unknown to the Mexicans. In the 19th century, Briton John Cadbury developed an emulsification process to make solid chocolate, creating the modern chocolate bar. Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and a vast number of foodstuffs involving chocolate have been created. Chocolate chip cookies have become very common, and very popular, in most parts of Europe and North America. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate. Although cocoa is originally from the Americas, today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world's cocoa, with Cte d'Ivoire growing almost half of it.
Contents [hide]

1 Etymology 2 History

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2.1 Mesoamerica history 2.2 European adaptation

3 Types 4 Production

o o o o o o

4.1 Cacao varieties 4.2 Processing 4.3 Blending 4.4 Conching 4.5 Tempering 4.6 Storage

5 Health effects 6 Labeling 7 Manufacturers 8 In popular culture

8.1 Holidays

8.2 Books and film

9 See also 10 Notes 11 Further reading 12 External links

Etymology

"Traits nouveaux & curieux du caf du th et du chocolate", by Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, 1685.

The word "chocolate" entered the English language from Spanish.[5] How the word came into Spanish is less certain, and there are competing explanations. Perhaps the most cited explanation is that "chocolate" comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, from the word chocoltl, which many sources derived from xocoltl t , from xococ 'sour' or 'bitter', and tl 'water' or 'drink'.[5] However, as William Bright noted,[6] the word "chocolatl" does not occur in central Mexican colonial sources, making this an unlikely derivation.Santamaria[7] gives a derivation from the Yucatec Maya word "chokol" meaning 'hot', and the Nahuatl "atl" meaning 'water'. Sophie andMichael D. Coe agree with this etymology. Pointing to various sources dating from the time of the Spanish conquest, they identify cacahuatl ("cacao water") as the original Nahuatl word for the cold beverage consumed by the Aztecs. Noting that using a word with caca in it to describe a thick brown beverage would not have gone over well with most speakers of Spanish because "caca" means 'faeces' in Spanish, the Coes suggest that the Spanish colonisers combined the Nahuatl atl with the Yucatec Maya chocol, for, unlike the Aztec, the Maya tended to drink chocolate heated.

The Spanish preferred the warm Mayan preparation of the beverage to the cold Aztec one, and so the colonisers substituted chocol in place of the culturally unacceptable caca.[8] More recently, Dakin and Wichmann derive it from another Nahuatl term, "chicolatl" from eastern Nahuatl, meaning "beaten drink". They derive this term from the word for the frothing stick, "chicoli".[9] However, the Coes write that xicalli referred to the gourd out of which the beverage was consumed and that the use of a frothing stick (known as a molinollo) was a product of creolisation between the Spanish and Aztec; the original frothing method used by the indigenous people was simply pouring the drink from a height into another vessel.[8]

History
See also: History of chocolate

Mesoamerica history

A Mayan chief forbids a person to touch a jar of chocolate

Chocolate has been used as a drink for nearly all of its history. The earliest record of using chocolate dates from the time of theOlmecs.[10] In November 2007, archaeologists reported finding evidence of the oldest known cultivation and use of cacao in Central America at a site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, dating from about 1100 to 1400 BC.[11] The residues found and the kind of vessel they were found in indicate the initial use of cacao was not simply as a beverage, but the white pulp around the cacao beans was likely used as a source of fermentable sugars for an alcoholic drink.[11] The Maya civilization grew cacao trees in their backyards,[12] and used the cacao seeds the trees produced to make a frothy, bitter drink.[13] Documents in Maya hieroglyphsstated chocolate was used for ceremonial purposes, in addition to everyday life. [14] The chocolate residue found in an early ancient Maya pot in Ro Azul, Guatemala, suggests the Maya were drinking chocolate around 400 AD.

Mayan writing referring to cocoa.

The sweet chocolate residue found in jars from the site of Puerto Escondido in Honduras from around 1100 BC is the earliest found evidence of the use of cacao to date.[15] An early Classic (460480 AD) period Mayan tomb from the site of Rio Azul, Guatemala, had vessels with the Maya glyph for cacao on them with residue of a chocolate drink.[16] The Maya are generally given credit for creating the first modern chocolate beverage over 2,000 years ago, despite the fact that the beverage would undergo many more changes in Europe.[17] By the 15th century, the Aztecs gained control of a large part of Mesoamerica, and adopted cacao into their culture. They associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility,[18] and often used chocolate beverages as sacred offerings.[16] The Aztec adaptation of the drink was a bitter, frothy, spicy drink called xocolatl, made much the same way as the Mayan chocolate drinks. It was often seasoned with vanilla, chile pepper, and achiote, and was believed to fight fatigue, which is probably attributable to the theobromine content, a mood enhancer. Because cacao would not grow in the dry central Mexican highlands and had to be imported, chocolate was an important luxury good throughout the Aztec empire, and cocoa beans were often used as currency.[19]For example, the Aztecs used a system in which one turkey cost one hundred cacao beans and one fresh avocado was worth three beans.[20] South American and European cultures have used cocoa to treat diarrhea for hundreds of years.[21] All of the areas ruled by the Aztecs were ordered to pay a tax, leading those that grew the beans to offer cacao seeds as tribute.[22]

European adaptation
See also: History of chocolate in Spain

Chocolate soon became a fashionable drink of the nobility after the discovery of the Americas. The morning chocolate by Pietro Longhi; Venice, 17751780.

The first European contact with chocolate came when Montezuma (then tlatoani of Tenochtitlan) introduced Hernn Corts, a Spanish conquistador, to xocolatl in the 16th century.[16] Antonio de Sols, Philip

IV's official Chronicler of the Indies, described Montezuma customarily taking a chocolate beverage after meals, as part of a sumptuous daily ritual: He had Cups of Gold, and Salvers of the same; and sometimes he drank out of Cocoas [i.e., coconut shells], and natural Shells, very richly set with Jewels.[...] When he had done eating, he usually took a Kind of Chocolate, made after the Manner of the Country, that is, the Substance of the Nut beat up with the Mill till the Cup was filled more with Froth than with Liquor; after which he used to smoak Tobacco perfum'd with liquid Amber.[23] Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote of it: Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant 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 Chocolate. 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.[24] The first recorded shipment of chocolate to Europe for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Sevilla in 1585.[18] It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added cane sugar to counteract the natural bitterness and removed the chili pepper while retaining the vanilla, in addition they added cinnamon as well as other spices.[16] What the Spaniards then called "chocolatl" was said to be a beverage consisting of a chocolate base flavored with vanilla and other spices that was served cold.[25][26] Montezuma's court reportedly drank about 2,000 cups of xocolatl per day, 50 of which were consumed by Montezuma himself. Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples.[27] It was not until the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs that chocolate could be imported to Europe. In Spain, it quickly became a court favorite. In a century it had spread and become popular throughout the European continent.[27]To keep up with the high demand for this new drink, Spanish armies began enslaving Mesoamericans to produce cacao.[28] Even with cacao harvesting becoming a regular business, only royalty and the well-connected could afford to drink this expensive import.[29] Before long, the Spanish began growing cacao beans on plantations, and using an African workforce to help manage them. [30] The situation was different in England. Put simply, anyone with money could buy it.[31] The first chocolate house opened in London in 1657.[31] In 1689, noted physician and collector Hans Sloane developed a milk chocola