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If the Aztecs with all their Montezumas and Quetzalcoatls knew how far their chocolate-making endeavor would go! As modern scholars suspect, it was the ancient Indians of Central America who first came up with the idea of using cacao tree seeds - thick green cucumbers with thirty green beans inside - as food. They say it happened at least 3,100 years ago! Back then, chocolate was not eaten but exclusively drunk. Moreover, the drink was slightly intoxicating, like beer, and was consumed at the most formal dinners - for example, at the marriage ceremonies of tribal leaders. The drink was called "chocolatl," and here scholars' opinions differ: some say it means "sweet water," others - "bitter water."
But that doesn't matter! What matters is that, eventually, Spanish conquistadors brought the magical beans to Europe, figured out how to prepare them, tasted them, and fell in love. They figured it out, it must be said, not immediately: at first, the Spaniards tried boiling cacao beans in wine, baking them, and eating them raw. And they just couldn't understand why the Indians valued this stuff so much that they even used it as money! About 10 years later, someone dried the beans, ground them, and brewed them. Well, they simply discovered America!
For 300 years, chocolate was only drunk in Europe. It was extremely expensive and considered exclusively a men's drink. In 1828, Dutchman Conrad van Houten patented a hydraulic press that could extract oil from cacao beans. And in 1874, the English company "Fry and Sons" mixed this oil with cacao powder and sugar, and by Christmas the public received a delightful gift - the first chocolate bars in human history.
Since then, the best minds in the world have been improving chocolate. First, milk chocolate was invented, then they learned to make figures from it, and then various fillings.
Chocolate Making
Probably the main question that worries sweet-tooths is why chocolate is so different? Where do its quality and price come from? In the noble business of chocolate-making, there are many subtleties. For example, cacao beans - the main raw material for chocolate production. They come from America, Africa, and Asia. And most importantly, they can be noble (varietal) and consumer (ordinary). The first have a delicate taste and a pleasant subtle aroma with many shades, the second have a bitter and tart sour taste and a strong aroma. The best beans come, for example, from Java and Trinidad. Consumer beans - from Bahia or Pará.
Just like vineyards, cacao plantations grow in strictly defined territories and have limited production areas. The best variety is considered to be criollo - delicate, aromatic, and slightly bitter. Forastero has an ordinary taste. Their crossing produced the amazing trinitario.
On plantations, the fruits are fermented and dried. Very few top-quality cacao beans are collected, and they cost exorbitantly. Therefore, chocolate made from them cannot be cheap.
Depending on the preparation method, the chocolate mass also differs - dessert and ordinary. Dessert is more aromatic, and its sugar content is no more than 55%. In ordinary chocolate mass, there is less aroma and more sugar - up to 63%. Chocolate is also divided into chocolate without additives, with additives, with filling, diabetic, and white.
Aerated chocolate is mainly made from dessert mass, which is poured into molds, then placed in vacuum boilers, and when taken out, the air bubbles expand. Chocolate without additives is made from cacao liquor, powdered sugar, and cacao butter. This chocolate has specific properties inherent to cacao beans. By changing the ratio between powdered sugar and cacao, you can model the taste of chocolate from bitter to sweet. The more cacao liquor in the chocolate, the more bitter taste and brighter aroma it has, and the more it is valued.
Chocolate with additives - everyone understands that! You can't fool us with chaff - if something is added to chocolate, it means it's with additives. Many things are added: powdered milk and dry cream, nuts, coffee, waffles, candied fruits, alcohol, cognac, rum, liqueur, vanillin, jasmine oil, puffed rice and corn, honey, nougat, marzipan, caramelized coffee and cacao crumbs, green tea extract, ginseng, and seaweed. The latest trend is chocolate with chili pepper. By the way, it was with chili that Montezuma and his friends drank their chocolatl.
White chocolate is made from cacao butter, sugar, powdered milk, and vanillin without adding cacao mass. That's why it's almost white. It does not contain theobromine, which is so valued in dark chocolate.
Chocomania and Chocoholism
Judging by everything, the comrades scientists are big sweet-tooths. They tirelessly study chocolate and its properties. Americans, Brits, and employees of the Nigerian Cocoa Research Institute are especially diligent.
The properties of chocolate are determined precisely by the composition of cacao beans. They contain, for example, the alkaloids theobromine and caffeine. Theobromine relieves spasms of the heart and brain vessels, and also treats cough. Caffeine, of course, stimulates the central nervous and cardiovascular systems. Flavonoids contained in cacao lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels, and increase the body's ability to absorb sugar, i.e., they even have an anti-diabetic effect. No wonder chocolate improves well-being! At least, it sometimes helps with headaches and coughs. And it always lifts the mood. Like any sweet product, it stimulates the production of endorphins - hormones of happiness and pleasure. It is especially beneficial for women to eat chocolate before their "critical days": tearfulness can be overcome thanks to the magnesium content in chocolate, the lack of which increases premenstrual tension.
Moreover, chocolates contain phenol antioxidants, which fight aging. They are similar to those found in grapes and red wine, and are very beneficial for blood vessels and the heart. In this sense, half a bar of milk chocolate equals a glass of red wine. And dark chocolate has even more phenols!
True, chocolate is much more caloric than wine and grapes, so excessive consumption may not help the heart but harm it. Immoderate consumption can even cause addiction akin to narcotic addiction! It is known that drugs form unusual mediators in the brain. This also applies to chocolate: each new piece of the treat sends impulses to mediators, and they make us love chocolate more and more. Under the 'high' from chocolate, the heart beats twice as often, and all parts of the brain experience stimulation. Recently, meticulous British scientists found that chocolate stimulates the heart and brain even more than kisses.
Holiday chocolate
Everyone loves unusual gifts, especially sweet ones. Therefore, confectioners especially try to please humanity before holidays. Most chocolate gifts are produced for New Year, Valentine's Day, and Easter. For New Year, these are 'advent calendars' with windows, figurines, and sets in unusual boxes. For Valentine's Day, chocolate hearts, and for Easter, eggs. Confectioners from different countries try their best! Even if their products require chocolate filling to buy, it is not a problem (for example, on the website tastecom.ru).
For example, the Belgians produced chocolate eggs for Easter decorated with small gold leaves. The chocolate was made from three varieties of cocoa, specially brought from Venezuela, with added spices but no milk. Each egg cost €90.
In the La Maison du Chocolat store in central London, on Piccadilly, last year a chocolate Easter egg was displayed with a height of 65 cm and a cost of more than 50,000 pounds sterling ($87,000). It was called 'Stella's Diamond Egg' and was decorated with 100 diamonds of 0.5 carats each. This masterpiece was made by Parisian chocolatier Christophe Lorenz. Inside the egg were hidden peach and apricot chocolates and praline. The most expensive chocolate egg in the world even had to be guarded.