hOw iS cHocoLate maDe...
Hey chocolate lovers!!
Have you ever wondered how is chocolate made?
It's interesting to know isn't it?
Let's pick up with the arrival of the cacao beans at the factory. At the factory, the cacao beans are first sifted for foreign objects- you know, rocks, machetes, whatever got left in the bag. The cacao is weighed and sorted by type so that the manufacturer knows exactly what type of cacao is going into the chocolate. Some manufacturers use up to twelve types of cacao in their recipes, and they must carefully measure so that the flavor is consistent time after time.
Next, the cacao beans are roasted in large, rotating ovens, at temperatures of about 210-290F. Roasting lasts from half an hour up to two hours. The heat brings out more flavor and aroma, and it dries and darkens the beans.
Then the cacao beans are cracked and winnowed, that is, their outer shells are cracked and blow
n away, leaving the crushed and broken pieces of cacao beans, called "nibs." At this point, we have something edible and really chocolatey, but they're also really bitter. You might try some cacao nibs on a salad. Mmm..
But how is chocolate made? We've gone through all these steps and we still don't have a chocolate bar! Be patient, it can take up to a week!
The cacao nibs must now be crushed and ground into a thick paste called chocolate liquor (there is no alcohol in it). What happens next, though, depends on what type of chocolate we're making.
Let's pretend that in addition to knowing, "how is chocolate made?" you also want to know how cocoa is made. Say the manufacturer divides our chocolate liquor in two. We'll make cocoa with half, and use the other half to make some chocolate bars.
To make cocoa, the powdery stuff you mix up into hot chocolate, the cocoa liquor is slammed by a giant hydraulic press. This removes much of the fat, or cocoa butter. The cocoa butter will be used in making chocolate, but it is also used in cosmetics and medicines. What's left of the slammed chocolate liquor is very dry and can be ground into cocoa.
Now, on to the chocolate, which we'll make with the other half of our chocolate liquor. Cho
colate liquor by itself is bitter and not very smooth and creamy. To sweeten it up and improve the texture, the manufacturer will add things like sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla, and milk.
You could eat this now, and it would taste pretty good, but it wouldn't have the texture you associate with a chocolate bar, and you still wouldn't be able to answer the question, "how is chocolate made?" The cacao and the sugar are still pretty grainy at this point, so the manufacturer runs the mixture through a series of steel rollers to refine the texture.
To further refine the texture, and to really bring out the flavor, the mixture is then "conched." That is, it's run through a machine (a conch - so named because the first such machine looked kind of like a conch shell) that mixes and mashes and swirls and aerates the chocolate. At this point we will probably add some more cocoa butter and maybe some soy lecithin - these will give the chocolate its silky smooth texture. Conching can last a few hours for cheaper chocolates, and up to six days for the expensive stuff!
The chocolate is t
hen tempered by stirring it, letting it cool, heating it back up slowly, and repeating the process several times. This will give our chocolate that nice glossy look, and it will help it melt properly.
Finally, we have chocolate! Some people might use the liquid chocolate in candies or cookies or ice cream, but let's pour our lovely mixture into a mold (how about in the shape of a bunny rabbit?), let it harden, then chomp its ears off!
Mmmm! You are now a chocolate smarty-pants. When all your friends ask, "How is chocolate made?" you can tell them all about it.
hmmm...but is it good for my health?
for the health cautious out there..
here are some great information for us to share..
Is chocolate good for you? Yes! The health benefits of chocolate are many... assuming we're talking ab
out the same thing, that is. I'm talking about chocolate in its purest form - as close to the bean as you can get. If you want me to tell you a Milky Way bar is good for you, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.
That doesn't mean, however, that there aren't any chocolate bars that are good for you. The key is to find a bar with high cocoa content. The higher the cocoa content, the less room there is for cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin, vanilla, milk, and other stuff that makes chocolate less of a vegetable and more of a candy.
Some of you may be thinking that a dark chocolate bar is bitter or yucky. If you aren't a fan of dark chocolate, you've probably never had the good stuff.
So just what are the amazing health benefits of chocolate? Most notably, chocolate is a champion antioxidant. Antioxidants help rid the body of free radicals, nasty little molecules running amok in your body which cause aging and disease. Antioxidants bond to free radicals and whisk them from your body via digestion and other means.
Quick. Think of the best antioxidants you've ever heard of. Red wine? Green tea? Pomegranate? Blueberries? Dark chocolate leaves them all in the dust. The USDA published a chart of antioxidant foods measured in ORACs (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity Units). For every 100 grams, dark chocolate has 13,120 ORACs, 
and blueberries have only 2,400.
Antioxidant-rich diets have been linked to a lowered risk of heart attacks, stroke, cardiovascular disease, cancer, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, arthritis, asthma, Alzheimer's and more. So it stands to reason that if chocolate is chock full of antioxidants, it's actually good for you.
Naysayers will point out that chocolate is loaded with fat, sugar, and caffeine. It's true that cocoa butter, the main source of fat (besides milk) in chocolate, is composed of both saturated and unsaturated fats, but most of this, about 75%, is in the form of oleic and stearic acids. Diets rich in these acids have been shown to lower cholesterol levels. While 25% of the fat in chocolate is "the bad kind," the amount of good fat in chocolate seems to counteract the bad fat. And, as with all chocolates, the darker they are the less room there is for things like cocoa butter, and the more room for that healthy antioxidant-packed cocoa
What about the sugar? Well, that is bad. Nothing good about it, really. But keep in mind that a strong dark chocolate bar might have ten to fifteen grams of sugar, which is still less than the 22 grams in your glass of orange juice, the 29 grams in your cup of yogurt, and the 34 grams in your glass of cran-grape juice, all of which are considered "good" for you. Keep your eye on the labels, too. Some of the specialty chocolate manufacturers are choosing healthier alternatives to refined white sugar, such as evaporated cane juice and molasses.
And the caffeine in chocolate? An average bar contains about 27 mg, about half what you'd find in a cola and a third what you'd find in a cup of coffee. Besides which, studies have shown that having some, but less than 200 mg of caffeine a day, might actually be good for you.
The bottom line is that indulging in a small amount of dark chocolate might be the perfect dessert - satisfying your sweet tooth while treating your body to the many health benefits of chocolate. So next time you're craving dessert, reach for the dark chocolate, and hold the guilt.
p/s: nyum..nyum.. & healthy too!! :P
