Table of contents
-
Introduction
- Acrostic poem on chocolate
- Chocolate
through the years
- Where
chocolate comes from
- How
chocolate is made
- Recipe -
Delicious Chocolate Cake
- Fun facts
about chocolate
- Two Sides
to the Story
- Conclusion
Introduction -
I was biting
into a big bar of light brown, milky chocolate filled with luscious liquid
caramel. "Come on Sara, you have to complete your English writing
project", my mother reminded me. I got up, sighing reluctantly. What could
I write about? I really didn’t know. Ideas presented themselves before me, each
more ridiculous than the last. I asked my mother for some suggestions. She had
lots of good ideas, but I just didn't feel that I could do them well. After
fifteen minutes my mother said, "Sara, put that chocolate back in the
fridge". I nodded and picked up the chocolate. Still thinking about what I
could write, I approached the fridge. I pulled open the door and took another
bite of the chocolate. The smooth, delectable taste filled my mouth. "Why
don't you write about chocolate?" my mother asked. "Yes!" I
agreed. It was the perfect plan! It definitely meets all the requirements that
an English writing topic needs. I know lots about it, and I am really
interested in it. So that was how I made my decision to write about chocolate.
When you buy
a bar of chocolate from the supermarket do you ask yourself how it was made?
Where does it come from? And what about its history? These are all questions to
which you will find the answers to in this feature article. In addition to
that, you will get to read some unusual facts, an acrostic poem featuring this
marvelous treat, the other side to the story of chocolate, and a recipe for
delicious chocolate cake that's true to its name.
So read
on........
ACROSTIC POEM ON
CHOCOLATE -
C hunky, crispy, crunchy, creamy
Hot, marvelously melty
O bviously perfectly praiseworthy
C old, deliciously dreamy
O ut to make everyone happy
L uscious, liquid, lovely
A ddictive, scrumptious, squidgy
T errific, tantalizingly tasty
E xcellently exquisite.... Oh, enough already!
Chocolate through the years
It seems
like forever that this wonderful treat was around, but is this true? I think,
and I'm sure you agree, that a world without chocolate would be missing
something vital. So let us see how it all began.....
Cocoa beans
were used by the Mayans as currency as you already know. Chocolate was also
used as medicine, during religious ceremonies (they had a cacao god) and for
weddings. But chocolate was only ever used in the liquid form. Chocolate was
considered extremely important. Wealthy people drank melted chocolate out of
specially designed vessels made just for this purpose. Kings were buried with
jars of liquid chocolate at their side.
But then the
Mayans were conquered by Aztecs. Cacao could not grow in the capital city, so
it had to be imported through trading and taxes. Cocoa beans were used as
money, still, and were also used as a drink. One chocolate history legend says
that the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl brought cacao to earth and was cast out of
paradise for giving it to man. Only the gods could drink chocolate!
After that
Cortez and his men arrived to take control of the Aztecs. They tried chocolate
but found it quite disgustingly bitter. "More a drink for pigs than a
drink for humanity", one of them said. But they continued to use cocoa
beans as currency.
The Spanish
were dominating several Caribbean islands - which had a stock of sugar.
Somebody put sugar in chocolate and then everyone wanted to try this divine
treat.
The first
solid chocolate was invented by Joseph Fry in the 1850s. In 1879, Rudolphe
Lindt invented the conch.
So here it
is..... The history of Chocolate.
Where Chocolate comes from -
This is
quite a curious question, and the answer is just as surprising. Chocolate grows
on trees! Well, not exactly.... but
close enough. This chapter gives information about the cacao tree, so let us
find out where chocolate comes from!
Chocolate
comes from the fruit of the cacao tree. The scientific name for this tree is
Theobroma cacao. This tree requires a hot and rainy climate to grow and
flourish. Usually it grows best in rainforests, which are shady and have rich
and fertile soil. Chocolate is grown in West Africa, South-East Asia, and
Central and South America. 70% of the world's cocoa is grown in Africa. The
cacao tree grows up to 30 feet tall, and has bright green leaves and pink and
white flowers. However it is quite fragile and has shallow roots. This tree is
indeed very tall, and to get the cacao fruit down people use long poles to snap
the fruit off the tree. The fruit grows straight out of the trunk of the tree.
This tree can live up to 100 years but stops producing fruit after its 25th
year. The forest animals eat up the fruit but leave behind the seeds inside.
These are scattered on the ground to form new trees. Inside the cacao fruit,
there is white or rosy pale pink pulp that coats the seeds, known as cocoa
beans. There are 30 - 40 cocoa beans in each fruit. The cacao fruit can be of
many shapes - such as long and pointy, or round and smooth. They can also be of
different colors, like purple, scarlet or even gold! It is from their seeds
that this delightful treat, chocolate is made.
How Chocolate is made -
It's an
incredibly interesting journey that chocolate has to take......from a seed
nestled in a fruit high up in a tree to the wrapped, wonderfully smooth and
sweet bar of chocolate lying on the supermarket shelf and just enticing you to
pick it up. How is chocolate made? Let's see...
As you know,
the cacao fruit is snapped off the tree using long poles. The seeds inside are
delicate and must be handled extremely carefully. Next the cocoa beans must go
through a crucial process - fermentation. But what exactly is fermentation? Fermentation
is the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other
microorganisms, usually involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.
So, the
cocoa beans are placed in wooden bins or earthen pits. Large banana leaves are
placed over them. As time passes a change takes place. The beans contain
sugars, which become acids. The color changes from pale to a very dark brown.
The last of the pulp which covers the beans goes away.
After
fermentation is complete, the beans are dried in the sun. And then they are
taken to the chocolate factory where they are made into chocolate. But what
happens in the factory? How are cocoa beans made into chocolate? Let's find
out...
First the
cocoa beans are sifted, to separate them from rocks, dirt and other impurities.
After that they are weighed and the different kinds of cocoa beans sorted. Then
they are roasted in ovens - this dries the beans and their color darkens.
Roasting takes two hours at most. After this process the beans are cracked and
winnowed. This means that their outer shells are cracked and blown away. These
pieces of cracked cocoa bean are called cacao nibs. These cacao nibs are
smashed and broken down further, to form a thick paste called chocolate liquor.
The chocolate liquor is now slammed by a hydraulic press. This takes away a
substance called cocoa butter, used in making chocolate. Sugar, milk and
vanilla - as well as cocoa butter - is mixed with the chocolate liquor. To
refine the chocolate's texture, the mixture is run through steel rollers. It is
then conched, which means that it is run through a conch - a machine that mixes
and aerates the chocolate. After that the chocolate is tempered. It is mixed,
heated and cooled again and again. Now the chocolate is smooth and delicious!
It is ready to be wrapped and sent to the stores. So here is how chocolate is
made!
Recipe - Delicious Chocolate Cake
I'm sure
that after reading all of this information about chocolate, you are feeling
hungry. After so much reading about chocolate, I’m sure you are thinking that it's
time to eat some chocolate. Fortunately, here is a tasty recipe you can try at
home.
Ingredients
-
- 1 pound
semisweet chocolate
- 4
tablespoons of butter or margarine
- 4 eggs
- 1 and 1/2 cups
sugar
- 1
tablespoon vanilla
- 1
tablespoon instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
- 1/4 cup
flour
- 1 teaspoon
baking powder
- 1/8
teaspoon salt
- 1 pound (2
and 1/2 cups) semisweet chocolate chunks
Method -
1. In a
saucepan, melt the 1 pound semisweet chocolate with the butter, stirring
occasionally.
2. Preheat
the oven to 350 degree F.
3. Grease
and flour a 9" into 13" baking pan.
4. In a
large bowl, beat the eggs. Gradually beat the sugar in until the mixture is
thick and pale. Beat in the melted chocolate, vanilla, and dissolved coffee.
5. In a
small bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the
chocolate mixture, stirring until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in
the chocolate chunks.
6. Spread
the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Transfer from
the pan to a rack to cool. When cool, cut into slices.
Fun facts about chocolate -
Here are the
bits of fun facts that I bet you never knew about before!
1. As you
know the scientific name of the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao. In fact,
Theobroma is Greek for "Food of the Gods"!
2. White
chocolate is not really chocolate. It does not have any chocolate solids in it
- it is made up of cocoa butter and other dairy products.
3. Cocoa
beans were used in Mayan history as currency! The beans were even
counterfeited, as some people tried to carve them from clay.
4. The smell
of chocolate increases produces endorphins which makes you happy!
5. The
inventor of the Chocolate Chip Cookie sold the idea to Nestle company in return
for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
6. Every
second, Americans collectively eat 100 pounds of chocolate.
7. The
World's Largest Chocolate Bar weighed 5,792 kg.
8. Lay's
Company makes potato chips dipped in milk chocolate.
9. Eating a
small portion of dark chocolate every day reduces the risk of heart disease by
one third.
10.
Chocolate has an anti-bacterial effect on the mouth and protect against tooth
decay.
Two Sides to the Story
Now it is
time to shine the spotlight on something that is easily overlooked but is in
fact very important, in the story of chocolate.
Yes,
chocolate is a marvelous creation, but the whole story is not so nice.
Unfortunately, the people who made chocolate were treated like slaves. Children
were also employed and made to work very hard to produce chocolate. Ghana is a
place in Africa where lots of cocoa is grown. Sadly most of the people in Ghana
have never even tasted a chocolate. We get to choose between so many different
flavors, and even have likes and dislikes. The people in Ghana don't have
options like we do, and they would jump at the chance to eat the little piece
of chocolate that we so carelessly throw away.
Now we have come to the end of this feature article. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I had fun researching and writing about chocolate!
Bibliography
–
facts-about-chocolate.com/how-is-chocolate-made
thestoryofchocolate.com
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