Chocolate Hype Pt. 1

So, I'm sure by now you've heard from somewhere and someone that 'dark chocolate is healthy'. But is this true? Or is it just wishful thinking?

So first of all, what EXACTLY is chocolate?

At its core, chocolate is fermented cacao beans with other things (milk and/or sugar) added. To take you through the whole process, this is how it works:

Stage 1 - Cultivation and Harvesting

This is where we have cacao trees growing cacao pods. Each cacao pod is about 5-12 inches long, and contain 30-50 seeds. These seeds are what we commonly refer to as 'cacao beans'. Thus, when we harvest the cacao pods, we open it to obtain the seeds.

Stage 2 - Fermentation

Beans are cleaned by hand and fermented by yeast and/or bacteria. We could drill down to the specifics but lets no go too scientific on this.

Stage 3 - Drying and Roasting

Beans are dried under the sun (usually 7-14 days). Now its ready to be shipped/transported to factories.

Stage 4 - Preparing cocoa mass

Beans are roasted to bring out more flavour. It is then 'winnowed' in which shells are removed to leave cocoa nibs. Nibs are finely ground into a paste called cocoa mass (cocoa liquor).

Stage 5 - Separation

The cocoa mass can be split into two products: cocoa butter and cocoa solids. These can be used separately or recombined to form the chocolate.

Stage 6 - Forming of chocolate

To produce dark chocolate (which is what we will focus on today), cocoa butter, cocoa mass and sugar is combined. 'Conching' then takes place to stir and smoothen the mixture under heat. This ensures a silky texture when you eat chocolate.

Stage 7 - Tempering

This really is a fancy term for forming right crystals so that the chocolate is shiny and snappy.

So there you have it. That's how you make chocolate. Here, my primary aim was to explain to you what exactly you are consuming, and based on this I want to extend this discussion to the nutritional aspect of chocolate. But if I do so, this blog will become way to long. So I'll stop here, and continue on the next post!

BUT BEFORE YOU GO, PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS. As you may expect, cacao is usually grown in less developed countries in West Africa and South America. So it's no surprise that lots of exploitation and child labour takes place. For that reason, please PLEASE go for fair trade chocolate when you can. Out of everything I said today, that is the one thing I want you to take away the most.

Have a great day, and be ready for 'Chocolate Hype Pt. 2'!