What Your Mom DIDN’T Tell You About Chocolate
Nine out of ten people love chocolate – and the other one is lying. I’m one of the ten – and please excuse me while I go and do some *ahem* ‘research’ for this article!
It seems that the Brits, the Swiss and the Belgians are also among the ten. According to results of a survey conducted one by of the world’s leading chocolate makers, Barry Callebaut, almost 50% of people in these countries eat chocolate several times a week. And not only is it simple chocolate from the local store, it is fine, special chocolate – ‘Organic’, ‘Fair trade’, and country specific chocolate.
Why is chocolate so popular?
So why is chocolate so popular? Why has the chocolate trade lasted for around 3 millenia? According to my no-nonsense books, its because I like it. I like it, I buy it, it is imported, it is made…. and so I keep buying!
Right now I’m sipping chocolate in one of its simpler forms – cocoa. The sweet sticky brown lumps that melt in your mouth are actually from the seed of a tropical shrub. This cocoa is not so sweet. Why? Because I’ve only added honey, not sugar, and it has not been through the extensive process that turns a bitter seed into a delectable treat.
The chocolate process
First the beans have to be harvested when fully ripe, then removed from the pod – and then left sitting in piles to ferment for nearly a week. Apparently the fermenting process is what gives chocolate the good taste. After the fermentation, the beans are laid out in the sun and dried. Then begins the process that gives us chocolate as we know it!
The cacao beans are taken to a chocolate manufacturing plant where the beans are cleaned, roasted, and graded. These are done in huge machines and the roasting can take from anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours. After roasting, the beans are cracked, hulled and winnowed. The machines split the beans and toss them so the seeds are salvaged and the husks are removed. What is left is called the nib. These nibs are then crushed in order to produce cocoa butter and chocolate liquor.
The cocoa butter is a fatty yellow substance that is used in all forms of chocolate and even cosmetics!
Chocolate liquor is mixed with cocoa butter, milk and sugar until it reaches a perfect blend. Too little mixing and the product is coarse. Too much and the product is gooey.
Most important in the chocolate making process is the period of conching. Basically the aforementioned mixture is rolled around in huge vessels for up to six days in order to make the chocolate super smooth.
Finally the chocolate is tempered – it is subjected to heating and cooling several times so that the end result is glossy and melts at appropriate temperatures. Upon completion, the chocolate is then poured into molds and packaged.
And we actually eat this stuff?
So in a nutshell, we love a product that pretty much is a pile of fermented, sundried beans that were initially whacked off their tree by a machete or stick! The chocolate you eat probably took over a fortnight to make!
So is it actually good for me?
Well I think its good because it tastes great! Its pretty bad for some animals though – like dogs and horses, etc. Give them some chocolate and they may die! This is because their metabolism can’t handle it and some of their reactions would be horrible to witness. Don’t try it!
I think the conclusion we need to come to is that chocolate is not bad for you. But it is not that good for you either. If we were to grade it, then dark, bittersweet chocolate would be the best for you as it contains a lot less sugar. White chocolate is probably the worst as it contains far less cacao than any other chocolate. In fact it is not considered ‘real’ chocolate because it doesn’t contain chocolate liquor or cocoa solids – only cocoa butter.
A great reason to consume chocolate is because of its high antioxidant properties. The cacao bean has been used for generations for this reason – but again, the processed chocolate we eat today has less antioxidant properties and more sugar.
So – yes it is good for you – in the same way red wine is good for you. But don’t overdose! A piece a day brings some antioxidants your way.
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