Dark Secrets of Chocolate

Brought to you by Cadbury and Tony Van.

Chocolate has been cultivated for at least 3 millennia in Mexico, Central and South America.
This means it is safe to say that it is these
areas where chocolate originates from.
To this day, the Mesoamerican people
(people living in and around Central
America. E.g. Mexico, refer to the picture
on the left) have been drinking and
making chocolate beverages from the
seeds of the cacao tree.

The Aztecs and the Mayas made a

beverage known as ‘xocolāti’, a Nahuatl
word meaning “bitter water”.

For this certain tree to grow, it needs to

be in a tropical rainforest near the
equator. It is there in the rainforest where the plant is given the right amount of rain, shade,
humidity, wind and nutrients to grow. Also a feature of the
Cacao tree is that they like to grow in the understory of the
rainforest where there is shade, this also means that the
reproduction of the plant can be easier with animals eating
the seeds and scattering them around the forest as they
move around. Some may also prefer to be at high ground,
such as at an altitude of 1,300 to 2,300ft.

In the wild, cacao trees grow to about 30 feet tall (just over 9
meters). They always grow beneath the much taller
rainforest canopy. Cacao trees finally begin to mature and
start to flower and produce pods when they are about 5
years old. Such a long time for chocolate, I can’t wait that
long!! It is obvious when the cacao bean is ready for
harvest when the pods turn from a green colour to orange to a hot red colour. Most cacao
trees are no longer productive after the age of 25, though they can live much longer.

On farms, most growers tend to prune back the trees to about

15feet (about 4.5 meters), this makes it easier to harvest and
improves their yield. With intensive care, these trees can
sometimes be coaxed (to be persuaded gently) to blossom
(bloom or to bear fruit) in the third years which means faster
income for the farmers. Sometimes to give it a better boost,
farmers grow the tree in full sunlight to increase output
temporarily, but some cacao trees grown in this way may not
produce pods for as long as the wild trees. Also another interest
fact is that when there is no shade for the tree, the whole plant is
more susceptible to diseases.
Cacao is referring to the tree or the pods from the trees and cocoa is
referring to after the harvesting, roasting and it then becomes cocoa.
In other words, ‘cacao is the tree or the seeds or the pods and cocoa
is the same product but it is after been processed. (The picture on the
right is of raw cocoa beans).

Firstly the cacao beans have to be grown, after a period of at

least 5 years (some case 3 years which is farmed) the beans
are then harvested. Since there are no machines to do this,
farmers must do it manually and in some cases may take up to
weeks to complete one harvest.

It is then the pods are opened, one

by one the pods are hacked open with a long knife called a
‘machete’. A skilled and speedy worker can break over 500 pods
in an hour. The workers then scoop out the pulp-covered cacao
seeds and discard the husks.

Then the seeds are placed into boxes covered over with banana
leaves to ferment. The next three to nine days the seeds will
ferment like wine. This means the pulp around the seeds will
heat up and activate enzymes; this will start creating
compounds that give the seeds the chocolate flavor.
Fermentation is done when the seeds turn a rich and deep
brown.

The fermented seeds are then left to dry before they can be
scooped into sacks and sent off to chocolate manufacturers. This
process usually takes about a week and the farmers then end up
with beans half the original weight. Some farmers use equipment
like hot pipes or air dryers to speed the process up.

Finally the dried seeds are scooped and packed into burlap sacks. When
full the sacks can weigh anywhere from 130 to 200 pounds. The sacks
are then transported to shipping centers, where they will await the
inspection of buyers. Since the cacao is perishable, sacks of seeds
usually aren’t left sitting for a long time before they are sent to their final
destinations – chocolate and cocoa-making companies.

The first British factory to produce a plain chocolate block was established
in Bristol by Joseph Fry around 1867. With the development of eating chocolate, the demand
for cocoa increased. After Fry, there was Daniel Pater in Switzerland who was the first to
develop milk chocolate in 1876. Chocolate cannot contain much moisture, because water
reacts with the sugar and turns melted chocolate into a paste rather than a smoothly flowing
liquid. Pater was then helped with the development of condensed milk by Henri Nestlé. This
meant that he had much less water to evaporate.

In 1880 Rudolph Lindt, in his factory in Berne Switzerland, invented a machine which
produced much smoother, better tasting chocolate. This machine was known as conche, it
consisted a granite trough and a roller, which pushed the liquid chocolate backwards and
forwards for several days. This action broke up larger particles and coated them all with fat.

At the same time moisture and some acidic chemicals were evaporated into the air,
producing a much smoother, less astringent tasting chocolate.

The importance of cocoa mass in eating chocolate is very high. The higher the cocoa mass,
the better. Its helps with improving blood vessel function, reducing the risk of developing
heart disease, as well as offering some anti-aging benefits. The compounds in chocolate can
also reduce risk in blood clots that can result in stroke and heart attacks. Chocolate,
especially dark chocolate can decrease the body’s inflammatory immune responses. These
benefits can only occur from eating little doses of dark chocolate. At least 70% is enough to
be beneficial.

There is enough reasons to eat chocolate..

By Tony Van