www.ambiente.us FEBRUARY / FEBRERO 2008
How Chocolate Works
Sponsored by DULCESTORE.COM
Unigue Gifts and Baskets for all occassions
All Things Chocolate and Then Some...
Delivery available within South Florida
Chocolate is a favorite for kids and adults alike. Chocolate
bars, chocolate fudge, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies,
chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk, chocolate cereal, hot
chocolate, chocolate sauce... There is something special
about this substance -- so special that the average person in
the United States eats 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of chocolate every year!
Have you ever wondered where chocolate comes from? In this article, we'll enter the amazing world of
chocolate so you can understand exactly what you're eating!
The Cocoa Bean
Chocolate starts with a tree called the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). This tree grows in equatorial regions,
especially in places such as South America, Africa and Indonesia.
The beans are fermented for about a week, dried in the sun and then shipped to the chocolate maker. In the
next sections, we'll look at how the chocolate maker turns these raw beans into luscious chocolate.
Roasting Cocoa Beans
The chocolate maker starts by roasting the beans to bring out the flavor. Different beans from different
places have different qualities and flavors, so they are often sorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix.
Next, the roasted beans are winnowed. Winnowing removes the meat (also known as the nib) of the cocoa
bean from its shell.
Once roasted, winnowed and blended, the nibs are ground, and the ground nibs form a viscous liquid
called chocolate liquor (the word liquor has nothing to do with alcohol -- that's just what it's called). All seeds
contain some amount of fat, and cocoa beans are no different. However, cocoa beans are half fat, which is
why the ground nibs form a liquid. If you have ever ground up peanuts to make real peanut butter, that is
similar -- real peanut butter is a thick liquid. The difference between peanut oil and cocoa oil is that peanut
oil is liquid at room temperature while cocoa oil is a solid up to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees
Celsius).
Chocolate liquor is pure, unsweetened chocolate. Eaten in this state, it's pretty nasty because it is bitter, but
it's possible to acquire a taste for it.
You can do two different things with chocolate liquor. You can pour it into a mold and let it cool and solidify.
This is unsweetened chocolate. Or you can press it in a hydraulic press to squeeze out the fat. When you do
that, what you are left with is a dry cake of the ground cocoa bean solids and cocoa butter (useful in
everything from tanning products to white chocolate). If you grind up the cake, you have cocoa powder. You
can buy both unsweetened chocolate (baking chocolate) and pure cocoa powder at the grocery store. What
you are buying is ground cocoa beans, either with or without the cocoa butter.
Next, we'll see how the chocolate maker turns this unsweetened chocolate into the chocolate we eat.
Making Chocolate
So far, we've taken the seeds of a tree, roasted them and ground them up. Now the process of making the
chocolate we eat can begin, and it takes a lot of talent.
There are three basic things that must be done by the chocolate maker to make a chocolate bar:
• Adding ingredients - The chocolate that we eat contains sugar, other flavors (like vanilla) and often
milk (in milk chocolate). The chocolate maker adds these ingredients according to his or her secret
recipe.
• Conching - A special machine is used to massage the chocolate in order to blend the ingredients
together and smooth it out. Conching can take anywhere from two to six days.
• Tempering - Tempering is a carefully controlled heating process. Tempering is "a process where
the chocolate is slowly heated, then slowly cooled, allowing the cocoa butter molecules to solidify
in an orderly fashion." Without tempering, the chocolate does not harden properly or the cocoa butter
separates out (as cream separates from milk).
These three steps, along with the blend of cocoa beans chosen at the start and the way they are
roasted, are the art of chocolate making. The steps control the quality, taste and texture of the
chocolate produced, and are often closely guarded secrets!
Copyright © NYTimes & AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
How Chocolate Works
Sponsored by DULCESTORE.COM
Unigue Gifts and Baskets for all occassions
All Things Chocolate and Then Some...
Delivery available within South Florida
Chocolate is a favorite for kids and adults alike. Chocolate
bars, chocolate fudge, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies,
chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk, chocolate cereal, hot
chocolate, chocolate sauce... There is something special
about this substance -- so special that the average person in
the United States eats 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of chocolate every year!
Have you ever wondered where chocolate comes from? In this article, we'll enter the amazing world of
chocolate so you can understand exactly what you're eating!
The Cocoa Bean
Chocolate starts with a tree called the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). This tree grows in equatorial regions,
especially in places such as South America, Africa and Indonesia.
The beans are fermented for about a week, dried in the sun and then shipped to the chocolate maker. In the
next sections, we'll look at how the chocolate maker turns these raw beans into luscious chocolate.
Roasting Cocoa Beans
The chocolate maker starts by roasting the beans to bring out the flavor. Different beans from different
places have different qualities and flavors, so they are often sorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix.
Next, the roasted beans are winnowed. Winnowing removes the meat (also known as the nib) of the cocoa
bean from its shell.
Once roasted, winnowed and blended, the nibs are ground, and the ground nibs form a viscous liquid
called chocolate liquor (the word liquor has nothing to do with alcohol -- that's just what it's called). All seeds
contain some amount of fat, and cocoa beans are no different. However, cocoa beans are half fat, which is
why the ground nibs form a liquid. If you have ever ground up peanuts to make real peanut butter, that is
similar -- real peanut butter is a thick liquid. The difference between peanut oil and cocoa oil is that peanut
oil is liquid at room temperature while cocoa oil is a solid up to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees
Celsius).
Chocolate liquor is pure, unsweetened chocolate. Eaten in this state, it's pretty nasty because it is bitter, but
it's possible to acquire a taste for it.
You can do two different things with chocolate liquor. You can pour it into a mold and let it cool and solidify.
This is unsweetened chocolate. Or you can press it in a hydraulic press to squeeze out the fat. When you do
that, what you are left with is a dry cake of the ground cocoa bean solids and cocoa butter (useful in
everything from tanning products to white chocolate). If you grind up the cake, you have cocoa powder. You
can buy both unsweetened chocolate (baking chocolate) and pure cocoa powder at the grocery store. What
you are buying is ground cocoa beans, either with or without the cocoa butter.
Next, we'll see how the chocolate maker turns this unsweetened chocolate into the chocolate we eat.
Making Chocolate
So far, we've taken the seeds of a tree, roasted them and ground them up. Now the process of making the
chocolate we eat can begin, and it takes a lot of talent.
There are three basic things that must be done by the chocolate maker to make a chocolate bar:
• Adding ingredients - The chocolate that we eat contains sugar, other flavors (like vanilla) and often
milk (in milk chocolate). The chocolate maker adds these ingredients according to his or her secret
recipe.
• Conching - A special machine is used to massage the chocolate in order to blend the ingredients
together and smooth it out. Conching can take anywhere from two to six days.
• Tempering - Tempering is a carefully controlled heating process. Tempering is "a process where
the chocolate is slowly heated, then slowly cooled, allowing the cocoa butter molecules to solidify
in an orderly fashion." Without tempering, the chocolate does not harden properly or the cocoa butter
separates out (as cream separates from milk).
These three steps, along with the blend of cocoa beans chosen at the start and the way they are
roasted, are the art of chocolate making. The steps control the quality, taste and texture of the
chocolate produced, and are often closely guarded secrets!
Copyright © NYTimes & AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
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