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'Chocolate contains a substance called
Theobromine, which can be lethal to dogs and other small
animals. About two ounces (30g) of milk chocolate
can be poisonous to a 10-lb (4.5kg) puppy and Plain
chocolate could prove lethal at less than an ounce
(15g)' |
Chocolate
is made from the cocoa bean, found in pods growing from the
trunk and lower branches of the Cacao Tree, Latin name 'Theobroma
Cacao' meaning "food of the gods".
Chocolate
as we know it today did not appear until 1828 when a Dutch
chemist, Johannes Van Houten, invented a method of
extracting the bitter tasting fat or "cocoa butter"
from the ground beans which made the resulting 'cocoa' powder
more palatable to our taste. The
first solid chocolate was sold in 1847 by Fry & Sons of
Bristol, England and in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel
Peters, found a way to combine chocolate with milk to produce
the first milk chocolate.
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Producing chocolate is a time consuming
and complicated process.
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The first step is to harvest the
cocoa pods containing the beans and ferment them for about
six days, after which the beans are split from the pods and
dried. The finest chocolate is produced when the drying
process is done naturally by the sun for about 7 days,
accelerated or artificial drying is quicker but produces the
vastly inferior chocolate used in most mass produced
products.
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The next process is shared with
coffee in that the beans are first roasted then graded, and
ground.
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The resulting powder is pressed to
extract the fat known as cocoa butter,
-
The residue is called in the trade,
'cocoa mass or liquor', and can be purchased in shops as
Cocoa powder.
This 'mass' or liquor is blended
back in with the butter at varying percentages to make the
different types of chocolate as follows:
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Plain Chocolate - cocoa
mass/liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and Lethicin.
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Milk Chocolate - cocoa
mass/liquor, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, sugar,
Vanilla, Lethicin.
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White Chocolate - cocoa
butter, whole milk powder, sugar, Vanilla, Lethicin.
The finest plain chocolate contains at
least 70% Cocoa solids. Whereas the best Milk and White
Chocolate contains 33%+ Cocoa solids. Inferior and mass produced
chocolate contains much less cocoa, (as low as 7% in many cases)
and strictly speaking these "Brand Name" milk products
can not be classed as chocolate, because of the very low
or non-existent cocoa solids content.
The
penultimate process is called “conching” A conche is a type
of container filled with the refined and blended chocolate mass,
kept liquid as a result of fractional heat. The
length of time given to the conching process determines the
final smoothness and quality of chocolate. The finest chocolate is
conched for a minimum of a week!
After the process is completed the chocolate mass
is stored in heated tanks at about 45-50°C, ready for final
processing.
The final process is called
Tempering, because cocoa butter exhibits an unstable crystal
formation the blended chocolate must be cooled very carefully to
encourage the crystals to stabilise in the right order, and to
produce the desired properties of i8n the finished chocolate
i.e. a good gloss in the finished product, a snappy bite and a
tender melt in the mouth. All this is achieved by the tempering
process, first the mass is cooled in stages from about 45°C to
about 27°C and then warmed up again to about 37°C followed by
cooling down to it's solid state.
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It's a well established fact
that most people love chocolate, last year chocolate lovers in
the U.K. alone, spent over £3 billion ($4.5 billion) on, and
consumed over half a million metric tons of it! U.S. Consumers
spent more than $7 billion and ate 2.8 billion pounds (1.27
billion kilo's), representing nearly half of the world's entire
chocolate production.
The average U.S. citizen eats
12 lbs (5.45kg) of chocolate annually, second only to the Swiss
who consume a staggering 22lbs (11kg) per person per year'
Unfortunately the bulk of the money spent by the average Briton
and American was wasted on mass produced, low grade high sugar
products. The Swiss however spent their money far more
wisely as anyone who has tasted Swiss chocolate will testify.
But you don't have to go to Switzerland to get good Chocolate!
The principle ingredient of
commercial mass produced chocolate is not chocolate or cocoa,
(the average cocoa content is generally less than 20% by volume
and can be as low as 7%), but sugar, saturated and vegetable
fats, powdered milk and sundry other additives, many of them
artificial. These are the dietary villains responsible for
chocolate's undeserved reputation as being fattening,
tooth-decaying and generally unhealthy.
But all's not doom and gloom,
we are becoming more discerning in our tastes, with
demand for high quality, high cocoa content chocolate products
increasing year on year. Real chocolate, containing at least 60%
cocoa solids and just a fraction of the sugar of the typical
mass produced "brand name" product, is much healthier
by far - see Chocolate - Health Benefits.
Aphrodite chocolates are made
from only the finest quality Couverture:
- 70%+ cocoa solids for plain
chocolate,
- 33%+ for Milk Chocolate
- 30%+ for White Chocolate)
and finest natural ingredients
with the minimum sugar content.
Click Here to Buy Our Hand Made Chocolate online
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