Types
Main article: Types of chocolate
Chocolate is commonly used as a coating for various fruits such as cherries and/or fillings, such as liqueurs.
Disk of chocolate (about 4cm in diameter), as sold in Central America, for making hot cocoa. Note that the chocolate pictured here is soft, can easily be crumbled by hand, and already has sugar added.
Several types of chocolate can be distinguished. Pure, unsweetened chocolate, often called "baking chocolate", contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, which combines chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that also contains milk powder or condensed milk. In the U.K. and Ireland, milk chocolate must contain a minimum of 20% total dry cocoa solids; in the rest of the European Union, the minimum is 25%.[30] "White chocolate" contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids. Chocolate contains alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine, which may have physiological effects in humans, but the presence of theobromine renders it toxic to some animals, such as dogs and cats.[31] Dark chocolate has been promoted for unproven health benefits.[32]
White chocolate, although similar in texture to that of milk and dark chocolate, does not contain any cocoa solids. Because of this, many countries do not consider white chocolate as chocolate at all.[33] Because it does not contain any cocoa solids, white chocolate does not contain any theobromine, so it can be consumed by animals.
Dark chocolate is produced by adding fat and sugar to the cacao mixture. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration calls this "sweet chocolate", and requires a 15% concentration of chocolate liquor. European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids.[30] Semisweet chocolate is a dark chocolate with a low sugar content. Bittersweet chocolate is chocolate liquor to which some sugar (typically a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla, and sometimes lecithin have been added. It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate, but the two are interchangeable in baking.
Unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor, also known as bitter or baking chocolate. It is unadulterated chocolate: the pure, ground, roasted chocolate beans impart a strong, deep chocolate flavor. It is typically used in baking or other products to which sugar and other ingredients are added. Raw chocolate, often referred to as raw cacao, is always dark and a minimum of 75% cacao.
Chocolate may have whitish spots on the dark chocolate part, called chocolate bloom; it is an indication that sugar and/or fat has separated due to poor storage. It is not toxic and can be safely consumed.
Production
See also: Children in cocoa production and Cocoa production in Ivory Coast
Chocolate is created from the cocoa bean. A cacao tree with fruit pods in various stages of ripening
Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, with 43% sourced from Ivory Coast,[34] where child labor is a common practice to obtain the product.[35][36][37] According to the World Cocoa Foundation, some 50 million people around the world depend on cocoa as a source of livelihood.[38] In the UK, most chocolatiers purchase their chocolate from them, to melt, mold and package to their own design.[39] According to the WCF's 2012 report, the Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa in the world.[40]
Production costs can be decreased by reducing cocoa solids content or by substituting cocoa butter with another fat. Cocoa growers object to allowing the resulting food to be called "chocolate", due to the risk of lower demand for their crops.[38] The sequencing in 2010 of the genome of the cacao tree may allow yields to be improved.[41]
The two main jobs associated with creating chocolate candy are chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Chocolate makers use harvested cacao beans and other ingredients to produce couverture chocolate (covering). Chocolatiers use the finished couverture to make chocolate candies (bars, truffles, etc.).[42]
Cacao varieties
Toasted cacao beans at a chocolate workshop at the La Chonita Hacienda in Tabasco
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, the dried and partially fermented seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a small (4– to 8-m-tall (15– to 26-ft-tall) evergreen tree native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. Recent genetic studies suggest the most common genotype of the plant originated in the Amazon basin and was gradually transported by humans throughout South and Central America. Early forms of another genotype have also been found in what is now Venezuela. The scientific name, Theobroma, means "food of the deities".[43] The fruit, called a cacao pod, is ovoid, 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3–4 in) wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighing about 500 g (1.1 lb) when ripe.
Cacao trees are small, understory trees that need rich, well-drained soils. They naturally grow within 20° of either side of the equator because they need about 2000 mm of rainfall a year, and temperatures in the range of 21 to 32 °C (70 to 90 °F). Cacao trees cannot tolerate a temperature lower than 15 °C (59 °F).[44]
The three main varieties of cacao beans used in chocolate are criollo, forastero, and trinitario.
Criollo
Representing only 5% of all cocoa beans grown,[45] criollo is the rarest and most expensive cocoa on the market, and is native to Central America, the Caribbean islands and the northern tier of South American states.[46] The genetic purity of cocoas sold today as criollo is disputed, as most populations have been exposed to the genetic influence of other varieties
