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Facts of the Matter Richard Brill |
Chocolate: Nobody knows
the truffles I’ve seen
"All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!"-- Lucy Van Pelt in "Peanuts"
Chocolate! Just the thought of it can cause a craving for that sweet, smooth, delectable substance that is a delightful treat to most, downright addictive to some, disliked by a scant few.
RICHARD BRILL
Cacao trees produce pods that look like a cross between a pumpkin and a chili pepper.
Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, "theobroma cacao" the name derived from Greek, "food of the gods." The origin of the word chocolate is not known for sure, but it no doubt comes from Mesoamerica. The Mayan verb "chokola'j" translates roughly as "drink with friends the liquid that comes from the cacao tree" although other origins have been suggested as well.
To the Aztecs it was considered truly food for the gods, often served in a concoction with chili peppers, cornmeal, and anise seed. It was served cold and unsweetened, bearing little resemblance to modern chocolate. The beverage was reserved for the elite, served in golden goblets at the end of banquets. Montezuma, the great Aztec leader, is said to have consumed upwards of 50 portions daily.
Chocolate was introduced to Europe by Columbus, but its allure was lost on his Spanish patrons Ferdinand and Isabella. They dismissed it as a bizarre, native drink. The few dark beans Columbus brought back looked like almonds, tasted bitter, were unexciting and without much promise. It was Cortez, the notorious explorer, plunderer and ravager of the New World who recognized the potential of the odd-tasting beans.
The drink won many converts among the Spanish aristocracy after Cortez created a profitable business by planting cacao in the Caribbean colonies. Eventually the Spanish conceived the idea of sweetening the bitter bean with sugar and spices such as cinnamon and vanilla, added the revelation of serving it as a hot beverage, then somehow managed to keep it a secret from the rest of Europe for almost a century.
Chocolate came to France around 1660 when Maria Theresa of Spain married Louis XIV and took with her a maid specifically to make chocolate. Within a few short years chocolate had spread to French high society. By 1692 French wine merchants were complaining that chocolate was cutting into their business.
The first of the renowned English Chocolate Houses opened around the same time at Bishopsgate in London. Five years later, Dr. Henry Stubbe, Royal Physician to Charles II, wrote a book about it, "The Indian Nectar," in which he extolled its desirable qualities, among them: "Chocolate encourages all sorts of physical prowess. The mighty lover, Casanova, found the drink as useful a lubrication to seduction as champagne."
Around the same time, across the Atlantic in Martinique, chocolate had become part of the culture the way tea would become ingrained in England: arriving at "chocolate" was to arrive at 8 p.m.
Technology ushered in the mass production of chocolate early in the industrial revolution. The introduction of a steam-powered grinder put prices within the reach of the not-so-wealthy in the early 1700s. The first chocolate factory opened in the United States in 1765, where the production grew faster than anywhere else in the world. In 1828 the cocoa press entered the picture.
Three more developments completed the transformation of chocolate production into its modern form. In 1847 solid "eating chocolate" that was smooth and velvety, compared to old-style coarse and grainy chocolate, was introduced in England. In 1876 a Swiss candy maker added milk to the chocolate, creating the creamy variety we know as "milk chocolate." In the late 1880s, a Dutch manufacturer treated the chocolate with alkali, which intensifies its flavor.
The world production of chocolate today is around 3 million tons, two-thirds of it coming from Africa, and more than half of that from the Ivory Coast. Minuscule amounts of gourmet chocolate are currently grown and produced in the Hawaiian Islands, but efforts are afoot to stimulate and grow the industry. Hawaii is on the edge of the region where the cacao will grow, but the chocolate produced is of high quality.
The cacao tree is very picky about where it lives, generally between 20 degrees north and south latitude. It needs high temperatures, lots of rain, shade, and high humidity. A cacao tree can produce fruit for 75 to 100 years, although 40 years is a typical lifetime.
Cacao trees grow as tall as 200 feet in the wild, but cultivated varieties are typically only 25 to 50 feet. They begin to produce fruit that looks like a cross between a pumpkin and a chili pepper, 8 to 14 inches long, at 3 to 5 years of age. The pods, which contain the seeds that will become cocoa beans, can vary in color from yellow or green to red or violet
The intricate pink or whitish flowers grow along the trunk and main branches of the tree, unlike more familiar fruits such as oranges or avocados that grow from stems. The pods ripen in five or six months, at which time they are cut from the trees and opened to reveal 20 or so white beans in a clear, mucous-like fluid. These seeds will become cocoa beans after they are fermented, dried, and roasted.
The raw beans are fermented for several days, during which time they develop flavor, lose some of their bitterness and turn a rich shade of brown. The fermented beans are then spread onto racks or sheets and sun-dried for a few more days, after which they are bagged and shipped.
At the chocolate factory blowers remove all extraneous material, while sieves separate and sort the beans by size. The beans can then be roasted either in the shells or after the shells are removed. Once the beans have been roasted and shelled (or shelled and roasted) they are ground into a paste. During grinding, the heat generated causes cocoa butter in the beans to melt producing "cocoa liquor."
The cocoa bean may be treated with an alkali solution, referred to as "Dutch processing," which reduces the acidity, renders the chocolate liquor darker, gives it a milder and more chocolatey flavor, and allows it to stay in suspension longer in liquids.
In the next phase of processing, hydraulic presses squeeze a measured amount of cocoa butter from the liquor, leaving behind a solid cake of cocoa that can be ground into cocoa powder. The remaining cocoa butter is stored and/or shipped separately. Alkali processing imparts a more pungent and less desirable odor and flavor to the cocoa butter, which must then be deodorized, refined, and blended to maintain a consist flavor, color, and viscosity.
From that point, processing varies, depending on the desired characteristics of the final chocolate product. Cocoa butter can be added to chocolate liquor along with ingredients such as sugar, milk, emulsifying agents, flavoring and cocoa butter substitutes. The proportions of ingredients depend on the type of product being made.
Refining improves the texture as the chocolate is passed through rollers until a smooth paste is formed. This is followed by conching, either kneading or beating in a mixer, which further smoothes it. The speed, duration and temperature of the conching process affects the flavor of the final product.
Following the conching process is tempering, wherein the mixture is repeatedly heated and cooled through a delicately controlled temperature range. This prevents crystallization of the cocoa butter, which could lead to separation of the cocoa butter from the chocolate, leading to white deposits on the solid chocolate. You may have seen this on chocolate bars that have been kept refrigerated for extended periods.
There is no doubt that chocolate has had a significant impact on Western culture and history, as it has long been the subject of myth and misinformation. From 1624 -- when a Viennese monk condemned chocolate as "inflamer of passions" and urged monks not to drink it -- until today, despite numerous studies that conclude otherwise, it is erroneously believed that chocolate is responsible for such ailments as acne, obesity, ADHD, dental caries, migraines, and diabetes.
To the contrary, current research indicates there may actually be health benefits. Cocoa powder and chocolate are rich sources of high quality polyphenol antioxidants that may reduce the risk of developing heart disease and certain cancers, similar to those found in fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. A 1999 analysis of chocolate's polyphenol antioxidant levels found dark chocolate to contain more than twice the antioxidant activity level of prunes, which contain one of the highest levels of fruits and vegetables tested.
But healthy or not, we eat chocolate because it tastes good and it makes us feel good. That is reason enough.
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The terms
Several different varieties of chocolate products are common in today's industry, and specific terms are used to identify each.>> Chocolate: Pure cocoa liquor with nothing added.
>> Cocoa powder: Roasted cocoa bean solids -- cocoa liquor pressed to remove the cocoa butter.
>> Semisweet chocolate: Pure cocoa liquor with extra cocoa butter and some sugar added.
>> Milk chocolate: Cocoa liquor with extra cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids, generally with more milk than chocolate liquor.
>> White chocolate: Cocoa butter with sugar and milk containing no cocoa bean solids.
Richard Brill, a professor at Honolulu Community College, teaches earth and physical science and investigates life and the universe. E-mail questions and comments to rickb@hcc.hawaii.edu
Richard Brill picks up where your high school science teacher left off. He is a professor of science at Honolulu Community College, where he teaches earth and physical science and investigates life and the universe. He can be contacted by e-mail at rickb@hcc.hawaii.edu
