Who Like Chocolate too much

Chocolate is the most popular sweet treat in the world. People around the world (but mostly in Europe and the United States) consume more than 3 million tons of cocoa beans a year, according to the World Cocoa Foundation. And, not only does eating chocolate make you feel good, it may also be good for your heart and your brain.

Chocolate, food product made from cocoa beans, consumed as candy and used to make beverages and to flavor or coat various confections and bakery products. Rich in carbohydrates, it is an excellent source of quick energy, and it also contains minute amounts of the stimulating alkaloids theobromine and caffeine.

What is chocolate?

Chocolate is prepared from the fruit of the Theobroma cacao, a tropical tree whose name means “food of the gods” in Greek, according to “Chocolate: Food of the Gods,” an online exhibit by the Cornell University Library.

Theobroma cacao trees are native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America. The trees are widely distributed from southeastern Mexico to the Amazon River. They thrive in hot, humid areas within about 20 degrees of the equator, according to Cornell.

As the popularity of chocolate spread, growers established plantations in other regions, such as West Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Today, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Indonesia and Brazil account for 79 percent of the world’s cacao production.

Cacao seeds are harvested by hand because machines could injure the trees, according to Cornell. Workers remove the pods, which are orange when they are ripe, and open them with a machete. The seeds are placed in large fermentation trays that are stacked and covered in banana leaves, where they are left for two to seven days. Fermentation produces the chocolate flavor and aroma. It also destroys the seed’s embryo, preventing unwanted germination, and causes the white pulp to fall away from the seeds.

After fermenting, the beans dry out on sunny platforms. Workers turn them several times a day for three to five days to complete drying. The beans can dry faster in rotary driers but sun-dried beans taste the best, according to Cornell.

Next, the beans are taken to the chocolate factory, where they are cleaned and debris is removed. The beans are roasted in large, rotating ovens. The roasting draws out flavor and removes the beans from their hulls. Roasted beans go into a winnowing machine, which cracks the beans and removes hulls. The remaining part of the bean is called the nib. Nibs become chocolate.

If you are the Chocolate lover , should know how many type have a chocolate

There are three main types of chocolate — white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate. Everyone has their favorite, go-to flavor. But, how much do you actually know about the different kinds of chocolate?

Do you know what differentiates semisweet from bittersweet? Or why white chocolate is softer than milk chocolate? It all comes down to how the chocolate is made and what ingredients are used to make it. Read on to learn about the varying flavors, compositions, and characteristics of each kind of chocolate.

• Chocolate Liquor
• White Chocolate
• Milk Chocolate
• Dark Chocolate
• Bittersweet Chocolate
• Cocoa Powder
• Ruby Chocolate ( In 2017, a fourth type of chocolate )

White Chocolate : White chocolate is easy to identify because of its cream or ivory color. It is made by combining sugar, cocoa butter, milk, vanilla, and lecithin (an emulsifier that helps the ingredients blend together).

These ingredients give white chocolate its sweet vanilla aroma. White chocolate often has a flavor profile that can be described as predominately sweet, with bold notes of sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Good quality white chocolate will have a rich, soft, and creamy texture — a characteristic that comes from its cocoa butter base and high sugar and milk content.

White chocolate, when stored properly, has a shelf life of about four months. While it is delicious to eat, white chocolate is also great for cooking, baking, and decorating. The dairy-forward flavor profile adds subtle richness to any dish, while still letting other flavors shine through.

White chocolate’s color lends itself well to decorating cookies, cakes, and confections. If it’s your first time cooking with white chocolate, try this white chocolate and coconut ganache.

Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate is considered to be a good middle of the road chocolate.  It is characteristically sweeter, with a softer texture than dark chocolate, but not quite as sweet and soft as white chocolate. When properly stored, milk chocolate has a self-life of about 16 months. Milk chocolate is a great choice for when you want a chocolate treat or gift everyone will enjoy. It can be used in baking when your recipe requires a milder chocolate flavor, we suggest trying it in these chocolate waffles.

Dark Chocolate

The flavor profile of dark chocolate can vary widely based on the cocoa content of the chocolate. It is often slightly-sweet and chocolatey, with notes of baked brownie, red fruit, and brown spice (think cinnamon or allspice). Due to its chocolate-forward flavor profile, dark chocolate is great for baking when your recipe needs a rich, chocolatey flavor. We recommend trying these classic brownies or this decadent chocolate bourbon maple pecan pie. Dark chocolate’s widely-acclaimed health benefits make it a favorite snack among health-conscious consumers. When properly stored, it has a shelf-life of about 20 months.

Bittersweet Chocolate

Bittersweet chocolate has gained a lot of traction recently as people started to learn more about cacao and cocoa percentages. This kind of chocolate, sometimes referred to as extra-dark chocolate, rose to popularity when people began claiming that you should eat dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70% or more, in order to get the most health benefits. The recent rise in bean-to-bar chocolate makers and craft chocolate has also lead to an increase in awareness and popularity of higher cocoa content dark chocolate.

Like its name indicates, bittersweet chocolate is often a little more bitter than semisweet dark chocolate. The chocolate’s flavor profile can vary greatly, depending on where the cacao is grown – some can be fruit-forward or have a deep earthy flavor, while others can have flavor notes of baked brownies. Bittersweet and semisweet are interchangeable when baking, depending on the recipe and personal taste preferences. Substituting bittersweet chocolate will give your recipe a deeper, less sweet chocolate flavor. We recommend trying it in chocolate chip cookies or molten chocolate cakes. Extra-dark chocolate, when properly stored, has a shelf-life of about 20 months.

Cocoa Powder

Cocoa powder is created when chocolate liquor is separated under high pressure, and the resulting cocoa solids are crushed into a powder. Unsweetened cocoa powder is essentially 100% cocoa.

Unsweetened cocoa, especially dutch cocoa is great for baking. When added to a recipe, like this ultimate chocolate cake, it can create a delicious, deep chocolate flavor. Unsweetened cocoa can be added to spice rubs and moles to give the dish a richer, more complex flavor. Dutch-processed cocoa is often used when making hot chocolate, because the extra process allows the powder to easily blend with liquids. When stored properly, unsweetened cocoa can have a shelf-life of about 18 months.

Ruby Chocolate

In 2017, a fourth type of chocolate, ruby chocolate was discovered by Belgian chocolate maker, Barry Callebaut.  With its red-pink hue, this distinctive chocolate is noticeably different than its other chocolate counterparts.  It is not colored white chocolate, but rather a color derived from a specific type of cacao — the ruby cocoa bean (a bean typically grown in Ecuador, Brazil, and the Ivory Coast.) Because this is a relatively new discovery (and the exact cacao making process developed by Barry Callebaut is proprietary), there is no standard FDA definition.

Made from 47.5% cacao content and 26.3% milk, ruby cacao has flavors of intense fruitiness and fresh sour notes. This trendy new type of cacao is great for creating bold, fruit-forward chocolate treats and colorful Instagram-worthy chocolate confections. When stored properly, ruby cacao can have a shelf-life of about 12 months.

Interested in learning more? Put your tastebuds to the test with a chocolate tasting or tie on an apron and get busy in the kitchen with one of our extraordinary chocolate recipes!

Source :

livescience.com

lakechamplainchocolates.com