Chocolate and its history

Chocolate most commonly comes in dark, milk, and white varieties, with cocoa solids contributing to the brown coloration.

Chocolate (pronounced /ˈtʃɑklɪt/ (help·info), British English: /ˈtʃɒklət/; it originates from a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water") comprises a number of raw and processed foods that originate from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. It is a common ingredient in many kinds of confections such as chocolate bars, candy, ice cream, cookies, cakes, pies, chocolate mousse, and other desserts. It is one of the most popular and recognizable flavours in the world.

Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted, and ground seeds taken from the pod of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. The tree is native to lowland tropical South America but is now cultivated throughout the tropics. The seeds have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the chocolate flavor. The resulting products are known as "chocolate" or, in some parts of the world, cocoa.

Chocolate, or cacao, beverages were made by many Mesoamerican civilizations in antiquity, including the Maya and the Aztecs. The fermented seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree were ground and mixed with other ingredients such as honey, chile peppers, water, and the ground seeds of other plants.

Today, chocolate commonly refers to bars made from the combination of cocoa solids, fat (usually cocoa butter), sugar and other ingredients. Chocolate bars have a melting point just below body temperature. Chocolate contains alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine, and has numerous physiological effects on the body: it has been linked with serotonin levels in the brain. The presence of theobromine renders it toxic to some animals such as dogs.

Chocolate is often produced as small molded forms in the shape of squares, animals, people, or inanimate objects to celebrate festivals worldwide. For example, there are moulds of rabbits or eggs for Easter, coins for Hanukkah, Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) for Christmas, and hearts for Valentine's Day. Chocolate can also be made into drinks (called cocoa and hot chocolate), as originated by the Aztecs and the Mayas. In England, Samuel Pepys records in his diaries at least two entries relating to "jocolatte" as early as the 1660s.^[1] Later, in 1689 Hans Sloane developed a milk chocolate drink in Jamaica initially used by apothecaries, but later sold by the Cadbury brothers.

Brazilian candy Brigadeiro

History

A mug of modern hot chocolate. The first chocolate was drunk rather than eaten.

Main article: History of chocolate

The word "chocolate" comes from the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs of Mexico. The word is derived from the Nahuatl word xocolatl (IPA /ʃo'kola:tɬ/)^[2], which is a combination of the words, xocolli, meaning "bitter", and atl, which is "water". The Aztecs associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. Chocolate is also associated with the Mayan god of Fertility. Mexican philologist Ignacio Davila Garibi, proposed that "Spaniards had coined the word by taking the Maya word chocol and then replacing the Maya term for water, haa, with the Aztec one, atl."^[3] However, it is more likely that the Aztecs themselves coined the term, ^[4] having long adopted into Nahuatl the Mayan word for the "cacao" bean; the Spanish had little contact with the Mayans before Cortés's early reports to the Spanish King of the beverage known as xocolatl.^[5] However, Micheal D. Coe, professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Curator Emeritus in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, and coauthor of the book The True History of Chocolate, argues that the word xocolatl appears in "no truly early source on the Nahuatl language or on Aztec culture."

The earliest record of using chocolate pre-dates the Mayans. Chocolate residue has been found in pottery dating to 1100 BC from Honduras,^[6] and 600-400 BC from Belize. The chocolate residue found in an early classic ancient Maya pot in Río Azul, northern Guatemala, suggests that Mayans were drinking chocolate around 400 A.D.. Chocolate has been used solely as a drink for nearly all of its history. In the New World, chocolate was consumed in a bitter, spicy drink called xocoatl, and was often flavored with vanilla, chile pepper, and achiote, (which is known today as annatto). Xocoatl was believed to fight fatigue, a belief that is probably attributable to the theobromine content. Other chocolate drinks combined it with such edibles as maize starch paste (which acts as an emulsifier and thickener), various fruits, and honey.

Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and cacao beans were often used as currency.^[7] For example, the Aztecs used a system in which one turkey cost one hundred cacao beans and one avocado was worth three beans.

In 1689 noted physician and collector Hans Sloane, developed a milk chocolate drink in Jamaica which was initially used by apothecaries, but later sold by the Cadbury brothers.^[8]

Production

A cacao tree with fruit pods in various stages of ripening

Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in Western Africa, with close to half of the total sourced from Côte d'Ivoire. Like many food industry producers, individual cocoa farmers are at the mercy of volatile world markets. The price can vary from £500 ($945) to £3,000 ($5,672) per ton, in the space of just a few years. While investors trading in cacao can dump shares at will, individual cocoa farmers cannot increase production or abandon trees at anywhere near that pace. When cocoa prices drop, farmers in West Africa sometimes cut costs by using slave labor.^[9] It has been alleged that an estimated 90% of cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire have used some form of slave labor in order to remain viable.^[10]

Despite some disagreement in the EU about the definition, chocolate is any product made primarily of cocoa solids and cocoa fat. The different flavours of chocolate can be obtained by varying the time and temperature when roasting the beans, by adjusting the relative quantities of the cocoa solids and cocoa fat, and by adding non-chocolate ingredients.

Production cost can be decreased by reducing cocoa solid content or by substituting cocoa butter with a non-cocoa fat. Chocolate is a popular ingredient in many other foods, so any change in its cost has a significant economic impact on the food market.

There are two main jobs associated with creating chocolate candy, chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Chocolate makers use harvested cacao beans and other ingredients to produce couverture chocolate. Chocolatiers use the finished couverture to make chocolate candies (bars, truffles, baked goods, etc.).^[11]

source