After reading an article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette about how Hawaii is the only place in the world to grow cocoa beans. In fact they are the only place where ingredients for coffee, tea, and cocoa are made because of their ideal climate and location of the island to the equator. I then became interested in how they make this delicious treat called chocolate that we crave so much.
After doing some research I found out that it can take up to several days to get the raw ingredients for chocolate candies. Cocoa beans come from a cocoa tree which can produce large pods (up to 10 inches long) and contain about 40 cocoa beans in each pod. After picking the beans they are fermented, dried in the sun and then roasted. After they are roasted, the “meat” part of the bean is removed and grounded to create liquid called chocolate liquor.
Once the chocolate liquor is cooled it forms a solid, which is what you would find in stores as baking chocolate. The chocolate liquor can be furthered processed by removing the fat and being pressed to make cocoa powder. The fat that is then removed from the liquor is cocoa butter which can be used in a variety of things like chocolate, soaps, cosmetics and tanning.
Once the raw ingredients are made, the process for making chocolate candies begins. The main ingredients in chocolate candies are cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and milk. To get different flavors of chocolate depends on the amount of each ingredient put in. The mixture is then placed in a machine were the ingredients are blended together and smoothed out which can take from several hours to days. The chocolate is then slowly heated and cooled which is called “tempering”. After tempering the chocolate is ready to be devoured.
It’s unbelievable how that little piece of chocolate that will leave your hand in a second takes up to several days to be made.
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