The History Of Chocolat!

Once upon a time, there was an Aztec king named Quetzatlcoatl, half-man half-god who taught to his people to cultivate the cocoa tree and love chocolate.

This is the legend of the history of chocolate of the prehistoric Central America.

In truth, however, it seems that it was first the Mayas who learned how to use the cocoa beans. They were first using the milky liquid found in the pod. Later they introduced there discovery to their neighbors of old Mexico, who started to cultivate this "miracle tree" whose fruit contained a seed where a nectar could be extracted to give a nourishing juice with a great taste.

Few centuries later, in 1519 when Hermando Cortez arrived in Mexico, the Emperor Moctezuma offered him a sumptuous drink called "cacahualt" (hot chocolate). Hot chocolate became then the national drink made from cocoa past mixed with spices and honey. This drink was also famous for its aphrodisiac properties, so much so, that Cortez sent loads of cocoa beans to Spain.

Whilst cocoa culture expended in Spain and all through Europe, chocolate met with its best mate, the sugar. From their union was born a hot drink enjoyed by gourmet aristocrats.

After Cortes introduced the chocolate to the Spanish court, in time the drink was introduced to the upper echelons of European society.

European were enamored with the taste of chocolate. Chocolate became so popular that in 1763 brewers of British beer and ale felt so threatened by the its soaring popularity that they called for a legislation to restrict its manufacture.

The industrial mechanization changed the all process of chocolate. When the steam engine began to be used to power chocolate mills, chocolate went from being hand-ground to machine-ground.

In 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten found out that we could separate the cocoa powder from the cocoa butter. This was a revolution in the life of chocolate as we could now produce "hard chocolate" as we know it today.

Later on in the 1800's, the Swiss developed a process that further refined chocolate. This process is called "conching" Which is processing the chocolate past between porcelain disks for many hours, creating a silky highly fine chocolate.

Swiss chocolate is to this day the finest of chocolate.

The cocoa tree (Theobroma cocoa) meaning the tree of the gods in Greek, is a very delicate tree that grows only in the tropical climates such as Africa and Central America.

The cocoa tree grows best in humid climate when protected by bigger trees from the wind and sun. The tree's fruit, a melonlike pod, grows all through the year. the pods grow directly from the trunk and lower branches. Each pod contain between 20 and 50 beans soaking in a milky bittersweet pulp.

At harvesting, the beans are scooped out of the husk by hand. The beans are then covered and left for several days. It is during this stage that the pulp ferments and a chemical reaction turns the cocoa bean chocolate brown.

Then the beans are dried in the hot sun or using hot air blowers. When dry, the cocoa beans are ready to be shipped to chocolate manufacturers around the world to be processed into cocoa powder, coco past, cocoa butter and finally chocolate.

Upon arrival at he factory, the cocoa beans are cleaned and sorted. In much the same way as coffee beans are roasted to bring out their best flavor, the cocoa beans are roasted as well to bring out the full chocolate aroma. Then the beans are cracked open and ground to produce a thick dark past, called chocolate liquor. The liquor is then subjected to high pressure - the process that Van Houten invented - and cocoa butter is extracted, leaving a residue of cocoa powder.

When cocoa butter is mixed with chocolate liquor, the blend forms the eating chocolate that we are familiar with. Conching and other type of refining process work together to produce different types of chocolate.

Chocolate bars are a mixture of cocoa past, cocoa butter, and sugar. To this mixture we can incorporate milk, dry fruits, nuts, coffee, and liquors. This results in the different delicious chocolate bars that you find in your favorite chocolate store.

Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate contains at least 25% of dry cocoa and 25% of fat matter cocoa. Milk chocolate is the favorite chocolate of many, but it is rarely used for chocolate pastry as its consistence doesn't allow for as good results as dark chocolate.

The quality of chocolate depends essentially on the choice of cocoa beans and the way they are processed. The softness and richness of the chocolate depends on the work on the past and its percentage of cocoa butter. The more cocoa butter, the tender the chocolate. On the other hand a chocolate poor in cocoa butter is rather dry. Its sweetness depends on its sugar. Less sugar give more of the aroma of cocoa.

One chocolate, two beans

There are basically two cocoa beans. The Forastero and the Criollo.

The Forastero is the standard base bean, which makes up the greater part of the chocolate world's production. The Forastero is cultivated in West Africa, Brazil and even Southeast Asia.

The Criollo is the flavor bean, which gives a nutty or floral nuance to chocolate. It is cultivated on a much smaller scale in Central America, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

The chocolate goes through different stages of fabrication which includes:


1) Mixture of sugar, cocoa past and cocoa butter

2) Refining of cocoa past through grounding machines

3) "Conching", the stirring of the chocolate which can last as much as 72 hours for super fine chocolat.

Chocolate may be qualify as:

"Superior"
"Surfin"
"Extra-fin"
"bitter"

Bitter chocolate in general contains over 50% of cocoa.

For 6 mugs:

3 table spoons of cocoa
3 cups of milk
3 cups of strong tea

Mix the cocoa with 1/2 cup of cold milk.
warm up the rest of the milk in a pot. When hot, poor the cocoa cold milk mixture and mix well.

Prepare some strong tea.

Mix the tea and the chocolate preparation.

Add sugar to your taste.

Can be served hot or cold

For 4 People

4 cups of milk
4 table spoons of sweet cocoa
1 coffee spoon of instant coffee
2 table spoons of sugar
wiped cream
Iced cubes

Mixed the cocoa with a bit of the milk.
Add the sugar and coffee.
Add the rest of the milk.

Serve in tall glasses with iced cubes. Add wiped cream. sparkle a bit of the cocoa powder on the top of the wiped cream.

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of butter
4 cups of milk
5 eggs
4 1/2 oz of chocolate
1 cup of sugar

Melt the chocolate with a bit of the milk very slowly while stirring.
When the chocolate is totally melted add the rest of the milk and mix well together.

Melt the butter very slowly in another pot, add the flour and stir the mixture for few minutes with a wooden spoon. When the mixture is smooth add the chocolated milk little by little while stirring. Then add the sugar and leave on the side for a few minutes.

brake the eggs and separate the york from the white. Drop one york at the time to your mixture while stirring vividly.

Whip the whites until firm and incorporate it to your mixture.

Pour the preparation into a greased round soufflé mole.

Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350-390 degrees.