Info about Chocolates
Chocolate
Spanish explorers first took the chocolate back to Europe where it was served as a drink. Chili pepper was soon replaced with sugar. However, the sweet chocolate beverage was a luxury and only a few could afford to buy it. The drink became common with the European nobility by the seventeenth century. There were many new coffee and chocolate houses in London where people could buy the drink.
Other countries started to challenge Spain’s cacao monopoly and chocolate was more readily available. The English, Dutch, and French started growing chocolate in their Caribbean colonies, and later other places all over the world. More production brought about lower prices. It was not long until everyone in the Americas and in Europe was drinking chocolate. There was a drawback in the New World, because to many the higher production of cacao brought about slavery and mistreatment. Producing cacao on was very dependent on forced work of the Native Americans along with African slaves that were imported.
People started to experiment with other ways of using cacao as it became easier to get. It started turning up in cakes, pastries, pies, etc. Modern chocolate started in 1828. when a Dutch maker of chocolate created an inexpensive way of taking the roasted fat from cacao beans. The center of the bean is called the nib and had about 54% cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is the natural fat. The machine took about half the cocoa butter. It made cakes that were mashed into powder. The powder was then treated with alkaline salts so it would easier mix the cocoa with water. This process is called Dutching today because Dutch chocolate was the end result. It has a dark chocolate color but a very mild taste.
The cocoa powder made it much easier to make drinks but it also mixed sugar with chocolate and cocoa butter was remixed with it to make a solid. Other people began to create new chocolate products by experimenting with the process. The world’s first chocolate that was made to be eaten was made by Joseph Storrs in 1849.
The Swiss are famous for their chocolate today because during the nineteenth century, they created many processes that led to the creation of chocolate candy. There were two major developments in 1879. First of all, Daniel Peter, who was a Swiss chocolate manufacturer came up with ideas to use powdered milk and making chocolate milk. This improved chocolate was called milk chocolate.. Next a process that was called conching was developed. It made great improvements in chocolate candy because it made it easier to blend.
Chocolate has come a long way since it was first discovered. Almost every household has something inside it that is made from chocolate. It is a common treat not only for people in the United States, but it is a household item world wide. Who can even imagine a world without the delight of chocolate? It is very common place in almost everyone’s diet today.