Chocolate
Foods, Facts & Fallacies
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What is Chocolate?
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A brown sweet solid?
A brown sweet drink?
A wide range of confectionary
An important flavour ingredient for food
Where does chocolate come from?
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Product of the Cacao tree Theobroma cacao
Native of the American tropics
Origin in the Amazon basin
Widely planted to 20° from the equator
Chocolate Names
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Mayan; Xocoatl
Aztec; Cacahuatl
Mexican; Chocolatl
God of chocolate, Quetzalcoatl
The spread of Cacao
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1517
1600
1615
1650
1670
1800
Spaniards met chocolate
First introduced to Italy
Used in France
Brought to England
Grown in The Philippines
Grown in West Africa
The Cacao Tree
• Small tree 6 to 12m of the rain forest understorey
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Requires a lot of water
Grows well in shade
Dimorphic growth
Cauliflorous flowers
Fertilisation
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Trees produce a vast number of flowers
only 1 in 500 matures to a ripe fruit
no nectar or scent, pollen sticky
stigma and anthers concealed
both self incompatible and compatible
varieties
• pollination by flying midges
• only in 2 hours after dawn
• Criollo
– pods from green to red when ripe
– cotyledons white
• Forastero
– pods green to yellow
– cotyledons purple
• Trinitario
– Forastero x Criollo
– colours variable
Cacao Fruit
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Take 5 months to develop
20-30 cm long with a thick husk
contain 20 to 60 seeds
seeds surrounded by a whitish acid/sweet
pulp
• do not open or fall from tree when ripe
• seeds germinate rapidly, short viability
From Cacao to Cocoa
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Husk removed from ripe pods
Fermented for 4 to 7 days to remove mucilage
Temperature rises to 45°C
Beans killed, pulp consumed by yeasts
Brown colour of beans develops
Loss of astringency, precursors of chocolate
flavour produced
Processing the Cocoa Beans
• Drying to 20% moisture
• Roasting, 120°C,
– further loss of water and acid, full development
of characteristic chocolate aroma
• De-shelling
• Grinding to “nibs”
• End of process until 1828!
Consumption of ground Nibs
• Mayans & Aztecs
• Cold frothy drink
• Chilli & vanilla
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Europeans
Hot drink with sugar
Cinnamon, nutmeg
1700 milk added
later added to cakes
Cocoa Butter
• Cacao beans, 30% water, 30% fat,
• Nibs 55% fat
• (1828) Van Houten
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pressing, removes 80% of fat
provides chocolate powder for good drinking
treated + alkali to increase solubility
what to do with the fat, or Cocoa Butter?
A very special fat
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Solid at room temperature
Melts at 35°C
High content of stearate
Very stable,
– high content of natural antioxidants
– tocopherols
The first solid chocolate
• Mix of cocoa butter, mass & sugar
• 1849 Fry’s chocolate bar
• Early products had very rough texture
From Cocoa to Chocolate
• Grinding, Cocoa Mass
• Roller refining
• Conching, 60°C, 5 days
– (1870) Lindt in Switzerland
– coating of particles with fat, controls viscosity
• Tempering, 50° - 27° - 32°C (1830)
– control fat crystal sizes, critical to gloss &
brittleness of finished chocolate
Hot Chocolate
• Molten chocolate is an emulsion of solid particles
in a continuous phase of cocoa butter
• Particles mainly sugar & cocoa solids
• Viscosity is very sensitive to the addition of the
emulsifier lecithin
• Low viscosity desirable for moulding
Milk Chocolate
• 1880
Peter & Nestle in Switzerland
– added condensed milk
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Cadbury in UK
– added milk powder
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Hershey in US
– added fresh milk
Types of Chocolate
• Definition, UK
– minimum 18% cocoa butter, 35% cocoa solids,
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White chocolate, no cocoa mass added
Dark or plain chocolate
Milk chocolate, minimum 14% milk solids
Filled chocolates (moulded)
Chocolate coated products (enrobed)
Shaping
• Moulding, for traditional bars
• Shelling, for centred chocolates
– uses mould for liquid soft centres
• Enrobing, (1901) coated products
– centres pas on a continuous belt through a
falling curtain of molten chocolate.
• Panning, for hard centres
– mixed + chocolate in revolving drum
Not Chocolate
• Substitution of vegetable oil for cocao
butter (permitted up to 5%)
• Adjust melting temp & viscosity with
stabilisers and emulsifiers
• Carob chocolate
– uses seed galactomannans, roasting gives
brown colour.
Where is it eaten?
• 1 Switzerland
10 kg pca
– plain with high cocoa solids content
• 2 United Kingdom 9 kg pca
– milk with less cocoa fat
• 8 United States
5 kg pca
– dark with smokey flavour