Chocolate! It is sold in any store, in any market, in any, even the smallest stall. It is eaten by people of any age category, but children simply cannot live without it. Chocolate can be bitter, milk, white, porous, diabetic. Coffee, cognac, vanillin, fruits and berries, raisins, nuts, waffles, cookies, candied fruits, even pepper are added to it! At the beginning of the 19th century, chocolate was sold in pharmacies as a remedy for strength and vigor, and the reasons for the increase in mood from eating chocolate have not yet been completely explained. Where did this wonderful product come from, and how is it made?
The history of the discovery of cocoa and chocolate
Around the beginning of our era, the Mayan Indians settled on the Yucatan Peninsula. Here they discovered a wild cocoa tree. For centuries, the Indians have been mixing roasted cocoa beans, water and pepper to create a wonderful, slightly bitter, frothy drink that has medicinal properties. He removed fatigue, gave strength, dispersed sadness. The Mayans laid out huge plantations of this plant, idolized it, considering cocoa a gift from the gods.
The first European to taste cocoa was Christopher Columbus. But he did not appreciate the wonderful drink, and cocoa beans remained unclaimed. Only 17 years later, conquistador Hernan Cortez appreciated the drink. After the campaign, which ended in 1528, Hernan Cortez brought several sacks of cocoa beans to Europe, gave it the modern name chocolate, and only then the Europeans appreciated the drink.
In 1828, the Dutchman Konrad van Guten patented a cheaper way to extract cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. This allowed the production of hard chocolate as we know it. The first bar chocolate was produced in 1847 at the English confectionery factory J. S. Fry & Sons.
Making chocolate
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans. They are found in the pulp of the fruit of the cocoa tree, several dozen pieces in one fruit.
The beans are dried, cleaned, sorted and fried to improve taste and aroma. Then it is crushed into cereals and turned into a liquid mass. The fat is 52-56% of the cocoa bean, which is why it is called "cocoa butter". During processing, cocoa liquor is obtained. Cocoa butter is squeezed out of it on a press, after which "cocoa cake" remains.
Chocolate is made from cocoa mass, cocoa butter and powdered sugar, and cocoa powder is made from cocoa cake. Flavoring ingredients (nuts, berries, cognac, etc.) are added to the chocolate mass and sent for shaping.
