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Chocolate is perceived to be different things at different times, including a sweet treat, a luxury product, a consumer good and a mood enhancer. [166] Its reputation as a mood enhancer is driven in part by marketing. [167] Chocolate is a popular metaphor for the black racial category, [168] and has connotations of sexuality. [169]
Most nibs are ground, using various methods, into a thick, creamy paste, known as chocolate liquor or cocoa paste. This "liquor" is then further processed into chocolate by mixing in (more) cocoa butter and sugar (and sometimes vanilla and lecithin as an emulsifier), and then refined, conched and tempered.
Theobroma cacao (cacao tree or cocoa tree) is a small (6–12 m (20–39 ft) tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. [1] [3] Its seeds - cocoa beans - are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. [4]
The crop is grown in Ivory Coast mostly by smallholder farmers planting on 1 to 3 hectares. [10] The pods containing the beans are harvested when a sufficient number are ripe, opened to separate the seeds and pulp from the outer rind, and the seeds and pulp are usually allowed to ferment somewhere on the farm, before the seeds are dried in a central location.
The most popular way to use this variety of chocolate is in German chocolate cake, also named after the sweet chocolate inventor. LauriPatterson - Getty Images Natural Cocoa Powder
Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop ...
Farms' cocoa crop outputs struggle to match the increasing demand for chocolate. It is estimated that the demand for chocolate will increase twofold by the year 2050. [7] Farmers have shifted towards unsustainable, less environmentally conscious practices to meet these demands. [8] About 90% of cacao grown worldwide is on small family farms. [9]
Scientists around the world are looking for new ways to make cocoa-free chocolate greener, using new techniques and ingredients. ... Why lab-grown cocoa and fermented fava beans could be the ...