ChocolateFoods, Facts & Fallacies

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What is Chocolate?

• A brown sweet solid?

• A brown sweet drink?

• A wide range of confectionary

• An important flavour ingredient for food

Where does chocolate come from?

• 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

• Mayan; Xocoatl

• Aztec; Cacahuatl

• Mexican; Chocolatl

• God of chocolate, Quetzalcoatl

The spread of Cacao

• 1517 Spaniards met chocolate

• 1600 First introduced to Italy

• 1615 Used in France

• 1650 Brought to England

• 1670 Grown in The Philippines

• 1800 Grown in West Africa

The Cacao Tree

• Small tree 6 to 12m of the rain forest understorey

• Requires a lot of water

• Grows well in shade

• Dimorphic growth

• Cauliflorous flowers

Fertilisation

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 – 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

• 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

• Cadbury in UK– added milk powder

• Hershey in US– added fresh milk

Types of Chocolate

• Definition, UK– minimum 18% cocoa butter, 35% cocoa solids,

• 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