The
story of chocolate, as far back as we know
it, begins with the discovery of America. Until 1492, the
Old World knew nothing at all about the delicious and stimulating
flavor that was to become the favorite of millions.
The Court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella got its first
look at the principal ingredient of chocolate when Columbus
returned in triumph from America and laid before the Spanish
throne a treasure trove of many strange and wonderful things.
Among these were a few dark brown beans that looked like almonds
and seemed most unpromising. There were cocoa beans, today's
source of all our chocolate and cocoa.
The King and Queen never dreamed how important cocoa beans
could be, and it remained for Hernando Cortez, the great Spanish
explorer, to grasp the commercial possibilities of the New
World offerings.
Food of the Gods
During his conquest of Mexico, Cortez found the Aztec Indians
using cocoa beans in the preparation of the royal drink of
the realm, "chocolatl", meaning warm liquid. In
1519, Emperor Montezuma, who reportedly drank 50 or more portions
daily, served chocolatl to his Spanish guests in great golden
goblets, treating it like a food for the gods.
For all its regal importance, however, Montezuma's chocolatl
was very bitter, and the Spaniards did not find it to their
taste. To make the concoction more agreeable to Europeans,
Cortez and his countrymen conceived of the idea of sweetening
it with cane sugar.
While they took chocolatl back to Spain, the idea found favor
and the drink underwent several more changes with newly discovered
spices, such as cinnamon and vanilla. Ultimately, someone
decided the drink would taste better if served hot.
The new drink won friends, especially among the Spanish aristocracy.
Spain wisely proceeded to plant cocoa in its overseas colonies,
which gave birth to a very profitable business. Remarkably
enough, the Spanish succeeded in keeping the art of the cocoa
industry a secret from the rest of Europe for nearly a hundred
years.
Chocolate Spreads to
Europe
Spanish monks, who had been consigned to process the cocoa
beans, finally let the secret out. It did not take long before
chocolate was acclaimed throughout Europe as a delicious,
health-giving food. For a while it reigned as the drink at
the fashionable Court of France. Chocolate drinking spread
across the Channel to Great Britain, and in 1657 the first
of many famous English Chocolate Houses appeared.
The hand methods of manufacture used by small shops gave way
in time to the mass production of chocolate. The transition
was hastened by the advent of a perfected steam engine which
mechanized the cocoa grinding process. By 1730, chocolate
had dropped in price from three dollars or more per pound
to within the financial reach of all. The invention of the
cocoa press in 1828 reduced the prices even further and helped
to improve the the quality of the beverage by squeezing out
part of the cocoa butter, the fat that occurs naturally in
cocoa beans. From then on, drinking chocolate had more of
the smooth consistency and the pleasing flavor it has today.
The 19th Century marked two more revolutionary developments
in the history of chocolate. In 1847, an English company introduced
solid "eating chocolate" through the development
of fondant chocolate, a smooth and velvety variety that has
almost completely replaced the old coarse grained chocolate
which formerly dominated the world market. The second development
occurred in 1876 in Vevey, Switzerland, when Daniel Peter
devised a way of adding milk to the chocolate, creating the
product we enjoy today known as milk chocolate.
Chocolate Comes To
America
In the United States of America, the production of chocolate
proceeded at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world.
It was in the pre-revolutionary New England -- 1765, to be
exact -- that the first chocolate factory was established.
Chocolate has gained so much importance since that time, that
any interruption in its supply would be keenly felt.
During World War II, the U.S. government recognized chocolate's
role in the nourishment and group spirit of the Allied Armed
Forces, so much so that it allocated valuable shipping space
for the importation of cocoa beans. Many soldiers were thankful
for the pocket chocolate bars which gave them the strength
to carry on until more food rations could be obtained. Today,
the U.S. ARmy D-rations include three 4-ounce chocolate bars.
Chocolate has even been taken into space as part of the diet
of U.S. astronauts.
Growing the Cocoa Bean
Cocoa beans are the product of the cacao tree. The origin
of the cacao tree is in dispute. Some say it originated in
the Amazon basin of Brazil, others place it in the Orinoco
Valley of Venezuela, while still others contend that it is
native to Central America.
Wherever its first home, we know the cacoa tree is strictly
a tropical plant thriving only in hot, rainy climates. Thus,
its cultivation is confined to the lands not more than 20
degrees north of south of the equator.
The Need For Shelter
The cacao tree is very delicate and sensitive. It needs protection
from the wind and requires a fair amount of shade under most
conditions. This is true especially in its first two to four
years of growth.
A newly planted cacao seedling is often sheltered by a different
type of tree. It is normal to plant food crops for shade such
as banana, plantain, coconuts or cocoyams. Rubber trees and
forest trees are also used for shade. Once established, however,
cacao trees can grow in full sun light, provided there are
fertile soil conditions and intensive husbandry. Cacao plantations
(trees under cultivation), and estates, usually in valleys
or coastal plains, must have evenly distributed rainfall and
rich, well drained soil.
As a general rule, cacao trees get their start in a nursery
bed where seeds from high yielding trees are planted in fiber
baskets or plastic bags. The seedlings grow so fast that in
a few months they are ready for transplanting, container and
all.
The First Fruit
With pruning and careful cultivation, the trees of most strains
will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year. With extreme care,
some strains can be induced to yield good crops in the third
and fourth years.
Everything about the tree is just as colorful as its history.
An evergreen, the cacao tree has large glossy leaves that
are red when young and green when mature. Overlays of clinging
moss and colorful lichens are often found on the bark of the
trunk, and in some areas beautiful small orchids grow on its
branches. The tree sprouts thousands of tiny waxy pink or
white five-pedaled blossoms that cluster together on the trunk
and older branches. But, only three to 10 percent will go
on to mature into full fruit.
The fruit, which will eventually be converted into the world's
chocolate and cocoa, has green or sometimes maroon colored
pods on the trunk of the tree and its main branches. Shaped
somewhat like an elongated melon tapered at both ends, these
pods often ripen into a golden color or sometimes take on
a scarlet hue with multicolored flecks.
At its maturity, the cultivated tree measures from 15 to 25
feet tall, though the tree in its wild state may reach 60
feet or more.
The potential age of a tree is open to speculation. There
are individual trees known to be over 200 years of age, but
no one has determined the real life span of the species. However,
in 25 years the economic usefulness of a tree may be considered
at an end, and it often becomes desirable to replant with
younger trees.
Varieties of Cacao
While the cacao tree bears fruit (or pods) all year round,
harvesting is generally seasonal. The pods come in a variety
of types since cacao trees cross-pollinate freely. These types
can be reduced to three classifications: Criollo, the prince
of cacaos, is a soft thin-skinned pod, with a light color
and a unique, pleasant aroma. Forastero, a more plentiful
type, is easier to cultivate and has a thick-walled pod and
a pungent aroma. Trinitario, which is believed to be a natural
cross from strains of the other two types, has a great variety
of characteristics but generally possesses good, aromatic
flavor; and these trees are particularly suitable for cultivation.
In the Western Hemisphere, strange as it may seem, plantations
composed of just one species of cocoa beans are uncommon.
Even single trees with all the characteristics of a specific
type are rare. Uniformity exists only where cacao plantations
have been developed from the rooted branch cuttings of single
mother trees.
In recent years, cacao growers have turned increasingly to
hybridization as a means of improving the quality of the bean
and making it more disease resistant. Scientists using state-of-the-art
biotechnology techniques are also trying to improve the quality
of cacao and its resistance to disease.
Handling the Harvest
The job of picking ripe cacao pods is not an easy one. The
tree is so frail and its roots are so shallow that workmen
cannot risk injuring it by climbing to reach the pods on the
higher branches.
The planter sends his tumbadores, or pickers, into the fields
with long handled, mitten-shaped steel knives that can reach
the highest pods and snip them without wounding the soft bark
of the tree. Machetes are used for the pods growing within
reach on the lower trunk.
Where Experience Counts
It requires training and experience to know by appearance
which fruit is ripe and ready to be cut. Ripe pods are found
on trees at all times since the growing season in the tropics,
with its evenly distributed rainfall, is continuous.
For most localities there is a main harvest lasting several
months and a mid-crop harvest lasting several more months.
Climatic differences cause wide variations in harvest times
with frequent fluctuations from year to year even within the
same location.
What Happens after
Picking
Gathers follow the harvesters who have removed the ripe pods
from the trees. The pods are collected in baskets and transported
to the edge of a field where the pod breaking operation begins.
One or two lengthwise blows from a well-wielded machete is
usually enough to split open the woody shells. A good breaker
can open 500 pods an hour.
A great deal of patience is required to complete harvesting.
Anywhere from 20 to 50 cream-colored beans are scooped from
a typical pod and the husk and inner membrane are discarded.
Dried beans from an average pod weigh less than two ounces,
and approximately 400 beans are required to make one pound
of chocolate.
The beans are still many steps away from the familiar finished
product. Exposure to air quickly changes the cream-colored
beans to a lavender or purple. They do not look like the finished
chocolate nor do they have the well-known fragrance of chocolate
at this time.
Preparing the Crop
for Shipment
The cocoa beans or seeds that are removed from the pods are
put into boxes or thrown on heaps and covered. Around the
beans is a layer of pulp that starts to heat up and ferment.
Fermentation lasts from three to nine days and serves to remove
the raw bitter taste of cocoa and to develop precursors and
components that are characteristic of chocolate flavor.
Fermenting is a simple "yeasting" process in which
the sugars contained in the beans are converted to acid, primarily
lactic acid and acetic acid.
The process generates temperatures as high as 125 degrees
Fahrenheit, which kill the germ of the bean and activate existing
enzymes in the beans to form compounds that produce the chocolate
flavor when the beans are roasted. The result is a fully developed
bean with a rich brown color, a sign that the cocoa is now
ready for drying.
Drying is Important
Like any moisture-filled fruit, the beans must be dried if
they are to keep. In some countries, drying is accomplished
simply by laying the beans on trays or bamboo matting and
leaving them to bask in the sun. When moist climate conditions
interfere with sun-drying, artificial methods are used. For
example, the beans can be carried indoors and dried by hot-air
pipes.
With favorable weather the drying process usually takes several
days. In this interval, farmers turn the beans frequently
and use the opportunity to pick them over for foreign matter
and flat, broken or germinated beans. During drying, beans
lose nearly all their moisture and more than half their weight.
When the beans are dried, they are prepared for shipping in
130 to 200 pound sacks. They are seldom stored except at shipping
centers, where they await inspection by buyers.
Marketing for export
Buyers sample the quality of a crop by cutting open a number
of beans to see that they are properly fermented. Purple centers
indicate incomplete fermentation.
If the prevailing crop is found satisfactory, the grower is
paid at the current market price. The market price depends
not only on the abundance of the worldwide crop and the quality
of farmers' crops in a number of countries, but on a number
of economic conditions throughout the world. The industry
has set up Cocoa Exchanges, similar to stock exchanges, in
principle cities such as New York, London, Hamburg and Amsterdam.
From the Bean to Chocolate
We now come to the remarkable art of chocolate making, a process
that is comparable with the skill and finesse of the world's
greatest chefs. The manufacturing process requires much time
and painstaking care. Just to make an individual-size chocolate
bar, for instance, takes from two to four days or more.
Manufacturing methods will differ in detail from plant to
plant, but there is a general processing pattern which prevails
everywhere. It is this pattern that makes the chocolate industry
distinctive from every other industry.
For example, all manufacturers carefully catalogue each shipment
according to its particular type and origin. This is very
important, because it enables them later to maintain exact
control over the flavor blending of beans for roasting.
Prior to Roasting
While awaiting the blending process, the beans are carefully
stored. The storage area must be isolated from the rest of
the building so the sensitive cocoa does not come into contact
with strong odors which it may absorb as an off-flavor. Every
step of the way so far reflects the close regulation of conditions
which is needed to ensure the production of uniformly high
quality chocolate.
The first step to actual manufacturing is cleaning. This is
done by passing the cocoa beans through a cleaning machine
that removes dried cacao pulp, pieces of pod and other extraneous
material that had not been removed earlier.
When thoroughly cleaned, the beans are carefully weighed and
blended according to a company's particular specifications.
These formulas are based on experience and desirability. In
the science of chocolate making, much depends upon the ability
to achieve the right formula for the desired end product through
the proper selection of beans available.
To bring out the characteristic chocolate aroma, the beans
are roasted in large rotary cylinders. Depending upon the
variety of the beans and the desired end result, the roasting
lasts from 30 minutes to two hours at temperatures of 250
degrees Fahrenheit and higher. As the beans turn over and
over, their moisture content drops, their color changes to
a rich brown, and the characteristic aroma of chocolate becomes
evident.
What Follows Roasting
Proper roasting is one of the keys to good flavor, but there
are still several more steps to follow. After roasting, the
beans are quickly cooled and their thin shells, made brittle
by roasting, are removed. In most factories, this is done
by a "cracker and fanner," a giant winnowing machine
that passes the beans between serrated cones so they are cracked
rather than crushed. In the process, a series of mechanical
sieves separate the broken pieces into large and small grains
while fans blow away the thin, light shell from the meat or
"nibs."
The nibs, which contain about 53 percent cocoa butter, are
next conveyed to mills, where they are crushed between large
grinding stones or heavy steel discs. The process generates
enough frictional heat to liquefy the cocoa butter and form
what is commercially know as chocolate liquor. The term liquor
does not refer to alcohol, it simply means liquid. When the
liquid is poured into molds and allowed to solidify, the resulting
cakes are unsweetened or bitter chocolate.
Up to this point, the manufacturing of cocoa and chocolate
is identical. The process now diverges, but there is an important
interconnection to be noted. The by-product of cocoa shortly
becomes an essential component of chocolate. That component
is the unique vegetable fat, cocoa butter, which forms about
25 percent of the weight of most chocolate bars.
How to Make Cocoa Powder
The chocolate liquor, destined to become a cup of cocoa, is
pumped into giant hydraulic presses weighing up to 25 tons,
where pressure is applied to remove the desired cocoa butter.
The fat drains away through metallic screens as a yellow liquid.
It is then collected for use in chocolate manufacturing.
Cocoa butter has such importance for the chocolate industry
that it deserves more than a passing mention. It is unique
among vegetable fats because it is a solid at normal room
temperature and melts at 89 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, which
is just below body temperature. Its success in resisting oxidation
and rancidity makes it very practical. Under normal storage
conditions, cocoa butter can be kept for years without spoiling.
The pressed cake that is left after the removal of cocoa butter
can be cooled, pulverized and sifted into cocoa powder. Cocoa
that is packaged for sale to grocery stores or put into bulk
for use as a flavor by dairies, bakeries, and confectionery
manufacturers, may have 10 percent or more cocoa butter content.
"Breakfast cocoa," a less common type, must contain
at least 22 percent cocoa butter.
In the so-called "Dutch" process, the manufacturer
treats the cocoa with an alkali to develop a slightly different
flavor and give the cocoa a darker appearance characteristic
of the Dutch type. The alkali acts as a processing agent rather
than as a flavor ingredient.
How to Make Eating
Chocolate
While cocoa is made by removing some of the cocoa butter,
eating chocolate is made by adding it. This holds true of
all eating chocolate, whether it is dark, bittersweet, or
milk chocolate. Besides enhancing the flavor, the added cocoa
butter serves to make the chocolate more fluid.
One example of eating chocolate is sweet chocolate, a combination
of unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter and perhaps
a little vanilla. Making it entails melting and combining
the ingredients in a large mixing machine until the mass has
the consistency of dough.
Milk chocolate, the most common form of eating chocolate,
goes through essentially the same mixing process-except that
it involves using less unsweetened chocolate and adding milk.
Whatever ingredients are used, the mixture then travels through
a series of heavy rollers set one atop the other. Under the
grinding that takes place here, the mixture is refined to
a smooth paste ready for "conching."
What is Conching?
Conching is a flavor development process which puts the chocolate
through a "kneading" action and takes its name from
the shell-like shape of the containers originally employed.
The "conches," as the machines are called, are equipped
with heavy rollers that plow back and forth through the chocolate
mass anywhere from a few hours to several days. Under regulated
speeds, these rollers can produce different degrees of agitation
and aeration in developing and modifying the chocolate flavors.
In some manufacturing setups, there is an emulsifying operation
that either takes the place of conching or else supplements
it. This operation is carried out by a machine that works
like an eggbeater to break up sugar crystals and other particles
in the chocolate mixture to give it a fine, velvety smoothness.
After the emulsifying or conching machines, the mixture goes
through a tempering interval-heating, cooling and reheating-and
then at last into molds to be formed into the shape of the
complete product. The molds take a variety of shapes and sizes,
from the popular individual-size bars available to consumers
to a ten-pound block used by confectionery manufacturers.
Ready for Shipment
When the molded chocolate reaches the cooling chamber, cooling
proceeds at a fixed rate that keeps hard-earned flavor intact.
The bars are then removed from the molds and passed along
to wrapping machines to be packed for shipment to distributors,
confectioners and others throughout the country.
For convenience, chocolate is frequently shipped in a liquid
state when intended for use by other food manufacturers. Whether
solid or liquid, it provides candy, cookie, and ice cream
manufacturers with the most popular flavor for their products.
Additionally, a portion of the United State's total chocolate
output goes into coatings, powders and flavorings that add
zest to our foods in a thousand different ways.
Inside a Chocolate
Factory
In touring a chocolate factory, one is particularly impressed
by the close controls maintained throughout operations. Work
is carried out in an atmosphere of scientific exactness and
nothing is left to chance.
Precision instruments regulate temperatures, stabilize the
moisture content of the air, and control the time intervals
of manufacturing operations and other items necessary to achieve
quality results.
The equipment of a factory is heavy, massive and complex.
Often representing an investment of many millions of dollars,
there are literally tons of equipment that the cocoa beans
must pass through on their way to becoming chocolate.
Automation Does the
Job
Besides the equipment already described, the industry employs
a number of fascinating machines to do the work of shaping
and packaging chocolate into the familiar forms that we see
every day on store counters. Some of the shaping machines
perform at amazing speeds, squirting out jets of chocolate
that solidify into special shapes at a rate of several hundred
a minute.* Other machines do a complete job of wrapping and
packaging at speeds that human hands would find impossible.
* Separate from the chocolate industry but of interest nonetheless,
is the enrober-a machine employed by many candy manufactures
in the creation of assorted chocolates. The enrober receives
lines of assorted centers (nuts, nougats, fruit or whatever
desired filling) and showers them with a waterfall of liquid
chocolate. This generally covers and surrounds each center
with a blanket of chocolate. Yet other confectionery machines
create a hallow-molded shell of chocolate which is then filled
with a soft or liquid center before the bottom is sealed with
chocolate.
The mechanized nature of the entire chocolate-making process
contributes greatly to the industry's high standards of hygiene
and sanitation. To keep check on these standards, chocolate
factories constantly run quality tests, which show whether
the process is proceeding within the strict limitations designed
for each product. These tests cover an amazing range-there
are tests for the viscosity of chocolate, for the cocoa butter
content, for acidity, for the fineness of a product and, of
course, tests for purity and taste of the desired finished
product.
All chocolate manufacturers, it is important to note, must
meet the standards as set forth in the rules and regulations
of The Food and Drug Administration. These govern manufacturing
formulas, even to the extent of specifying the minimum content
of the chocolate liquor and milk used. They also impose strict
rules regarding the flavorings and other ingredients that
may be used.
Reasons for Secrecy
Where methods of manufacturing are concerned; however, manufacturers
have a completely free hand and have developed individual
variations from the "pattern." Each manufacturer
seeks to protect his own methods by conducting certain operations
under an atmosphere of secrecy. Modern technology, in this
respect, is reminiscent of the day of the Spanish monopoly.
Today's "secrets," unlike those of old, include
many small but important details which center around key manufacturing
operations. No chef guards his favorite recipes more zealously
than the chocolate manufacturer guards his formulas for blending
beans or the time intervals he gives to his conching. Time
intervals, temperatures and proportions of ingredients are
three critical factors that no company wants to divulge.
A Sanitary Atmosphere
A visit to a chocolate factory certainly will not reveal any
secrets; however, the visitor will be impressed by the gleaming
appearance that such a place has. Chocolate manufacturers
conduct all operations under sanitary, laboratory-like conditions
in keeping with the purity of the products they make. They
follow a daily regimen of machine maintenance and general
housekeeping that is not exceeded in the food industry.
Cleanliness is, indeed, the universal byword of the chocolate
industry. Chocolate factories not only have careful programs
for industrial sanitation and for the personal hygiene of
their employees, but they are continually striving to improve
their programs.
A Plant Within a Plant
Technicians use laboratories to analyze every phase of chocolate
preparation-from raw materials to finished products. They
test samples for the market as well as experimental products
produced in a company's pilot plants.
These pilot plants consist of miniature equipment which duplicates
a company's entire chocolate making process and those of some
of their customers, as well as providing sample quantities
of any product desired. Chocolate manufacturers are making
increasing use of pilot plants in conjunction with their laboratory
research programs to develop interesting new products and
find new ways of making the old ones.
Remember
- Enjoy life!
Enjoy Chocolate - in moderation is good.
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The
History of Chocolate