Chocolate Day 2023: Valentine’s week has reached its third day, which is celebrated as Chocolate Day. Chocolate Day is celebrated on February 9. On this day we gift chocolates to near and dear ones and offer chocolates to colleagues, friends, etc. Nowadays, chocolates come in various flavors.
The history of chocolate dates back to the ancient Mayans and even earlier to the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico. Did you know that chocolate used to be a bitter drink, not an edible sweet?
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Chocolate’s story
Chocolate has a 4,000-year history that began in ancient Mesoamerica, modern-day Mexico. The first cocoa plants with which chocolate was made were found here. We tell you that in Latin America there was a civilization called Olmec that converted the cocoa plant into chocolate. During rituals they drank chocolate and also used it as medicine.
After centuries, the Mayans praised chocolate as the drink of the gods. Mayan chocolate was not sweet but was composed of roasted ground cocoa beans mixed with chili peppers, water and corn flour. They poured this mixture from one pot to another and created a thick, foamy mixture known as “xocolatl” which is “bitter water.”
In the 15th century, the Aztecs began using cocoa beans as currency. According to them, chocolate was a gift from the god called Quetzalcoatl, and they drank it as a refreshing drink, an aphrodisiac, and even in preparation for war.
There is no record of how chocolate arrived in Spain but it is considered that the Legend Hernán Cortés in 1528 brought chocolate to his homeland. It is believed that Cortés discovered chocolate during an expedition to America. He was searching for gold and instead found a cup of cocoa given to him by the Aztec emperor.
When Cortés returned home, he introduced cocoa beans to the Spanish people. Here, the Spanish mix chocolate drinks with sugar and honey to sweeten the naturally bitter taste. It soon became popular among the rich and wealthy. Even Catholic monks loved chocolate drinks to aid in religious practices.
How did chocolate get to Europe?
The king of France named Louis XIII married Anne of Austria, daughter of the Spanish king Philip III. At the celebration he brought chocolate samples to the royal courts of France. Soon chocolate came to Britain in special “chocolate houses”. The chocolate trend spread in Europe and several nations. Then they began to plant cocoa and their planting increased along the equator.
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chocolate revolution
He remained popular among the European aristocracy. For health benefits, royalty and the upper classes consumed chocolate. At that time, chocolate was produced by hand, which was a slow and laborious process. But with the Industrial Revolution, situations and methods changed.
The invention of the chocolate press revolutionized chocolate making in 1828. This device squeezes cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans and generates fine cocoa powder. This powder was then mixed with liquids and poured into a mold, where it solidified into an edible chocolate bar. Like this, The modern era of chocolate was born.
Chocolate is prepared from the fruit of cocoa trees, native to Central and South America. These fruits are known as pods and each pod contains around 40 cocoa beans. The beans are dried and roasted to form cocoa beans.
Some interesting facts about chocolate
As we know, there are several types of flavors in chocolates that are produced by varying the amounts of the different ingredients.
– Daniel Peter, a Swiss pastry chef, developed the first solid milk chocolate in 1875 using condensed milk, which had been invented by Henri Nestlé.
– In the United Kingdom, Cadbury is the leading milk chocolate brand.
– Dark chocolate is known as “plain chocolate” and is made using a high percentage of cocoa with cocoa butter that contains fat instead of milk. There are also dark milk chocolates and various grades of hybrids.
– Dark chocolate is called semisweet and bittersweet and consists of a certain amount of added sugar and is traditionally used in the United States.
– High quality dark chocolate is known as couverture chocolate. It has a high percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter and is precision tempered. This chocolate is used by professionals for dipping, coating, molding and decorating. In French, “Couverture” means “to cover.” Popular brands of couverture chocolate are Valrhona, Scharffen Berger, Callebaut and Guittard.
– White chocolate is composed of sugar, milk and cocoa butter, without using cocoa solids.
– Barry Callebaut created a type of chocolate known as Ruby chocolate. It is said to have been in development since 2004 and was released to the public in 2017. It is made from Ruby cocoa beans and consists of different red colors and different flavors. It has a “sweet and sour” taste.
– Raw chocolate is unprocessed chocolate that is not heated or mixed with other ingredients.
– Composite chocolate is formed by combining cocoa with other vegetable fats, usually tropical fats or hydrogenated fats, as a substitute for cocoa butter.
– Modeling chocolate is a combination of melted chocolate, corn syrup, glucose syrup or golden syrup. It is used by pastry chefs to decorate cakes and pastries.
– After extracting almost all of the cocoa butter, cocoa powder is formed, which is used to add flavor to baking and the preparation of chocolate drinks.
Now you may already know the origin of chocolate, how it is made and some information related to the types of chocolates.
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Source: ptivs2.edu.vn