Chocolate is a
raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao
tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central
America and Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100
BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including
the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as a Nahuatl word meaning
"bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter
taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
After
fermentation, the beans are dried, then cleaned, and then roasted, and the
shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass,
pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then
molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The
liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa
butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily
cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate
consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa
butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that
additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains
cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.
Cocoa solids
contain alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine, which have
physiological effects on the body. It has been linked to serotonin levels in
the brain. Some research found that chocolate, eaten in moderation, can lower
blood pressure.[1] The presence of theobromine renders chocolate toxic to some
animals, especially dogs and cats.
Chocolate has
become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Chocolate
chip cookies have become very common, and very popular, in most parts of Europe
and North America. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become
traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot
beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate.
Cocoa mass was
used originally in Mesoamerica both as a beverage and as an ingredient in
foods. Chocolate played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and
religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the deities and
served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. All of the areas that were
conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a
tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a "tribute".
The Europeans
sweetened and fattened it by adding refined sugar and milk, two ingredients
unknown to the Mexicans. By contrast, the Europeans never infused it into their
general diet, but have compartmentalized its use to sweets and desserts. In the
19th century, Briton John Cadbury developed an emulsification process to make
solid chocolate, creating the modern chocolate bar. Although cocoa is
originally from the Americas, today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds
of the world's cocoa, with Côte d'Ivoire growing almost half of it.
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