| The Brief Guide to Chocolate |
|
Chocolate is a passion, an ever-present source of temptation - and the cause of perennial guilt. The British eat an average of 9.3 kilos of the stuff, each, every year - that's the equivalent of almost two 100-gram bars of chocolate a week.
Is that cause for alarm? Perhaps - but only if this intake of a high-energy, high-fat food is out of proportion to other key factors of your health, notably diet and exercise. As with all the best things in life, moderation is the key. And there are plenty of indications to suggest chocolate - especially if it is good-quality chocolate - can actually be beneficial to your health. |
| How can you identify good-quality chocolate? |
|
For a start, you can predict the quality of chocolate from the reputation of the manufacturer. The production of chocolate is a complex process, and the outcome depends on a number of factors. Chief among these are the quality of the ingredients, and the amount of time (equals money) that has been invested in the various procedures.
Start by looking at the ingredients. Good-quality dark chocolate should consist of at least 52% cocoa solids (cocoa with the fats removed); purer dark chocolate has 70% or more cocoa solids (the maximum sustainable is about 90%, but the flavour can become quite winey). Milk chocolate (in Europe) must have at least 25% cocoa solids; good milk chocolate will have around 35%. To make more sense of this, you need to know how chocolate is made. |
| How is chocolate made? |
|
The original source of chocolate is the cacao tree, which grows in tropical climates between 20° north and south of the Equator. Orange pods, growing from the trunk and branches of these trees, are harvested twice a year (October-November and March-April); each contain about 35 cocoa beans.
The pods are split open and the beans are left to ferment and turn brown for about a week, to allow their distinctive flavour to emerge. At this stage they are bitter and unpalatable. Once separated from the pods, they are dried. For good-quality chocolate, the beans are dried in the sun for about a week. For standard-quality chocolate, the beans are artificially dried. The dried beans are then shipped to the chocolate manufacturers. Their first task is to roast the beans, the slower the better - again, to enhance the flavours. The roasted beans are then crushed into gritty pieces called nibs, and separated from their shells by winnowing. Then the nibs are finely ground to form the oily, semi-liquid 'cocoa mass' (or 'chocolate liquor'); it is kept warm by friction but solidifies on cooling. Some 53% of this is fat called 'cocoa butter'; if all of it is extracted, the result is cocoa powder. The cocoa butter - a precious commodity - is filtered and purified. Alternatively, the semi-liquid cocoa mass can be turned directly into chocolate. Sugar is added, as well as refined cocoa butter to give the chocolate a creamy flavour and lustrous finish. For milk chocolate, milk is also added at this stage, in the form of powdered or condensed milk. The mix is then blended to form a smoother liquid. In the last and most important phase of the refining process, the chocolate mix is 'conched' - massaged with metal rollers for several hours (or, for supreme chocolate, up to four days) to create a silky-smooth and consistent liquid. The size of the particles is an important factor in the eventual quality of the chocolate, so the amount of conching has a direct bearing on quality. Finally, the chocolate has to be carefully cooled to ensure that the particles remain evenly distributed, a process called 'tempering', which involves lowering the temperature, then raising it again, before allowing the chocolate to solidify. The end-product should be a chocolate that looks glossy, has a crisp 'snap' when broken, and melts gently in the mouth. This chocolate can then be made into bars, or moulded into shapes. High-quality, cocoa-butter-rich chocolate known as 'couverture' is used to form the cases of filled chocolates. The basic ingredients of the main three types of chocolate are: Plain dark chocolate: cocoa mass + sugar + cocoa butter Milk chocolate: cocoa mass + milk + sugar + cocoa butter White chocolate: sugar + cocoa butter + milk Other common ingredients are vanilla, and an emulsifier, such as lecithin (to prevent the chocolate and cocoa butter from separating). |
| Does the quality of the ingredients matter? |
|
Yes. For a start, there are three main types of cacao tree. Criollo produces the most highly-prized beans, with the most intense, aromatic flavour. But production is tricky, and limited primarily to Venezuela, Ecuador, Jamaica, Trinidad and Indonesia; Criollo provides less than 10% of world production. Most chocolate is made of Forastero beans; the flavour is less intense, but the trees are hardier. They grow in the Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast, by far the world's biggest cocoa producer), Ghana, Nigeria and Brazil. In addition there is Trinitario, a cross between Criollo and Forastero that was developed in Trinidad, but now grows in most cacao-producing regions.
The amount of cocoa butter used in manufacture is also critical. Cocoa butter melts at a lower temperature than the human body, giving chocolate that essential ability to melt in the mouth. The heat exchange as it melts generates the cooling sensation noticeable when eating good-quality chocolate. British chocolate manufacturers have been in the habit of substituting vegetable oil for cocoa butter (up to 5% of the total weight). European manufacturers, who disdain this practice, have been keen to keep this kind of British chocolate out of their market. Their lobbyists at the EU have suggested that such chocolate should be rebranded as some kind of non-chocolate (the cheeky term 'vegelate' was coined). But a review of the relevant EU directive in 2000 decreed that it can be sold in Europe if labelled 'family milk chocolate' and provided that the vegetable fat content is listed in the ingredients. |
| The history of chocolate |
|
Chocolate came originally from Central and South America. The word itself is derived from the Aztec xocolatl (x was pronounced 'sh'). This meant 'bitter water' - for the Aztecs treasured it as an unsweetened drink. Indeed, they treasured it so much, that they used the beans as currency (100 beans could buy a slave). The Spanish conquistadors were bemused by the drink, but realised that if they planted cacao seeds in their territories in the tropics they could literally grow money. Hernán Cortez, conqueror of Mexico, also took some beans back to Spain in 1528, but it was another fifty years before chocolate caught on as a drink, now sweetened with cane sugar or honey. The habit spread slowly in Europe: Pepys drank some 'jocolatte' in a London coffee house in 1664, and pronounced it 'very good'.
In 1828 the Dutch chemist and chocolate manufacturer Coenraad van Houten patented a method of removing the cocoa butter from cocoa beans to produce cocoa powder. Twenty years later, the chocolate makers J.S. Fry & Sons, of Bristol, mixed cocoa butter with cocoa powder, along with sugar, and 'eating chocolate' was born. In 1867 the Swiss manufacturer Daniel Peter, of Vevey, found a way of adding milk to make the first milk chocolate - a task assisted by the milk powder produced by a local baby-food manufacturer called Henri Nestlé. In 1879 the Swiss confectioner Rodolphe Lindt invented the process of conching - essential for making smooth chocolate. The first filled chocolates, known as pralines, were made by the Belgian chocolatier Jean Neuhaus in 1912. |
| Is chocolate bad for your health? |
|
Chocolate has had a bad press in recent decades. But this was not always so. Many people, from the Aztecs on, championed the medicinal virtues of drinking chocolate - good, it was said, for longevity, vitality and the libido. In 17th-century England, it was sold by apothecaries. The 18th-century Swedish botanist Linnaeus, when handing out Latin names to the plants of the world, called the cacao tree Theobroma cacao, Theobroma being the Greek for 'food of the gods'.
Recent research has pointed to many benefits of chocolate. It contains numerous beneficial minerals - iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, copper - and a host of vitamins. Like red wine, green tea and blueberries, chocolate (particularly dark chocolate) contains flavonoids, which have been identified as useful antioxidants for combating heart disease and other diseases associated with ageing. Chocolate is also a good energy source; a 100-gram bar of dark chocolate can contain 20% of an adult man's daily energy requirement - as soldiers on manoeuvres, mountaineers and Arctic explorers appreciate. This is also the trouble. Because chocolate is energy-rich, it may provide more energy than the consumer is able to burn off. The result: weight-gain. In addition, it contains a fair amount of saturated fat, which also has implications for weight-watchers and is associated with cholesterol - although much of the fat is in fact stearic acid, which appears to have a neutral effect on cholesterol. Such negative aspects of chocolate are perfectly manageable, if it is consumed in moderate quantities, and especially if it is good-quality dark chocolate (which is richer in all the beneficial goodies and contains less sugar). In addition, the common belief that chocolate causes migraines and acne is not borne out by scientific study. As many observers say, more damaging to health than the chocolate itself is the guilt that many people needlessly inflict upon themselves when eating it. For more on the health issues surrounding chocolate, visit: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/ |
| Is chocolate addictive? |
|
It might be, just as anything good can be.
Many people notice that eating chocolate can result in a feeling of elation. There may be several reasons for this - apart from the sheer pleasure of eating such as silken, melting, taste-sensation. There are more than 300 chemicals in chocolate, and among them are several that have known effects on brain function and the nervous system - albeit in tiny quantities. Chocolate, for instance, contains caffeine. Theobromine (which takes its name from the cacao tree) is recognised as a mood-improving stimulant. Chocolate also contains tryptophan, which is used by the brain to produce serotonin - a neurostransmitter (chemical messenger) that is associated with feelings of pleasure. Similar effects are ascribed to two neurotransmitters contained in chocolate: phenylethylamine (related to amphetamines) and anandamide (which affects the brain in the same way as cannabis). These factors may explain the mysteries of the pleasures of chocolate. And they may explain why some people - 'chocoholics' - claim to be addicted to it. The active ingredients themselves are probably not present in sufficient quantities to be addictive, but the pleasure received - and ingrained memory of that pleasure - might be enough to form a habit. |
| A danger to dogs |
|
Chocolate may be the 'food of the gods' for human-beings, but can be a serious danger to domestic animals - dogs, horses, kittens, parrots. They cannot accommodate the effects of theobromine and caffeine, and ingesting chocolate in anything like the quantities that humans eat it can cause severe reactions in the digestive and nervous system - and, on rare occasions, may even result in death.
For more on this, visit: http://www.avma.org/careforanimals/ |
| Buying chocolate |
|
Good chocolate does not have to be expensive. Look for reliable and respected brands; listen to word-of-mouth recommendations. Check the manufacturer's attention to detail in sourcing ingredients and the production processes (it is a favourable sign if they are prepared to publicise such information). If good brands are not available in shops near you, you can order their products direct through the Internet. And you can even join a club that will tell you more about chocolate and send you regular tasting samples from selected sources. Mix learning with pleasure!
For one such chocolate organisation, see Hotel Chocolate at http://www.cocoa.co.uk |
| More Information |
|
For more information about chocolate visit:
http://www.chocolate.org http://www.xocoatl.org http://www.cocoa.co.uk |
| Comments, copyright and linking |
|
Comments on this brief guide would be welcome. Also, please let us know if you do put in a link to this guide from your website and we will try to reciprocate with a link from us to your site.
Copyright: these pages are protected by copyright and reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited. Copyright belongs to Giant Games Limited, owner of the briefguides.co.uk and onlineshopping.co.uk websites. © 1997-2006 Giant Games Limited, but you are welcome to have a link to this webpage. |