Chocolate
Sweeteners
Fats
Milk
Flavoring
Emulsifiers
Christopher Columbus was the first to discover the cacao bean on the voyage to the New World. It was in 1502 when it was found, but was not until years later when Europe turned the cacao beans into xocolatl (bitter water). The cacao beans were thought to be given to humans by the gods. Chocolate was thought to spread geographically and then socially. Chocolate was likely to spread to France by the Spanish monks. The beans were also used as a form of currency for the Aztecs, a days wage for a porter would be 100 beans. The English picked up chocolate from raiding spanish ports, and Diplomats passed it on to Italy, Australia, and then Northern Europe. The Dutch especially liked chocolate and encouraged the trade of it. The secrets of chocolate took about 140 years to come all the way out of Spain.
Chocolate manufacture started in the early 1900’s. Milton Hershey started the town of Hershey in Pennsylvania because he wanted to address Quaker societal concerns. The Hersey kiss was brought into the world in 1907. Frank Mars formed Mars in Chicago, 1922. Frank had a son that invented the Mars bar in England, and when he moved back he worked with Bruce Murray to create M&M’s with the companyM&M Ltd.
Chicago became the center of the US candy industry, and so many other companies started there as well.
Swiss chocolate tradition started in the early 1800’s with Francois-Louis Cailler. He was the first producer of Swiss chocolate which was bought my nestle eventually, and Phillipe Suchard which was bought my Kraft foods. The Swiss chocolatiers Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle invented milk chocolate. They are also known for inventing conching, and the beginning of tempering created by Rodolphe Lindt.
Cocoa liquor was invented by a Dutch chemist named Conrad J. vanHouten to remove the fat from chocolate. Cocoa liquor is a mixture of cocoa powder and cocoa butter. vanHouten also created the process called “Dutching” which is done by adding certain agents to increase the pH of the cocoa powder. This process is used to improve solubility and flavor of the cocoa. Cocoa liquor does not include any alcohol, despite the name.
Manufacturing process
Cocoa beans come from a cocoa tree. This tree is an evergreen that is found in 50 tropical countries. It is grown by around 2.5 million producers, mostly small-scale farmers with no more than 12 acres. The tree can grow up to 30 feet tall and is often pruned to make it easier for the people that produce them. It takes up to five years for the cocoa pods to even be produced but it continues to bud up to 30 times every year until the tree is 25-30. A pod is the size and shape of a football, and there are 30-50 beans in each. The color of the pod could be red, brown, yellow, orange, and green. These beans are used to turn into cocoa powder or chocolate.
A pod becomes ripe 5-6 months after it flowers. Once they are ripe, they are cut down from the tree with a machete. The producer has to be very careful when cutting so that they do not damage the stalks. Stalks cannot be damaged because they have to flower all year. There are two main harvest times, the main harvest and the mid-harvest. The mid-harvest happens about 6 months after the main harvest.
The producer has to grade the pods for quality and then they place them into different piles. They open them with machetes or clubs, they try to crack the pod in half. They are then taken out and put somewhere safe, usually on the top of very large leaves.
When the cacao beans are out of the pods the next step is to ferment them to remove the gooey substance, and to stop the bean from germinating. This is when they need to start their flavor development. Sometimes they are fermented in large piles on the ground in between banana tree leaves, and sometimes in wooden boxes for up to 6 days.
The drying process can take up to a week but they cannot be dried for too long because they will become brittle, and if they are dried too long, then there is the risk of becoming moldy. Once they are dry, they can be stored for 4-5 years.
