"On the chocolate trail..."
CHOCOLATE, FOOD of THE GODS!
The perfect domain for giving free rein to the inspiration and creativity
hidden inside all of us.
Anything is possible and chocolate decorations is leading to countless
possibilities...
- Chocolate pioneers
-
Chocolate Encyclopaedia(coming soon)
We know from
ancient documents that candy-making dates back to Egyptians time. Honey was
then one of the main ingredients, and was used to cover spicy beans and fruits. Both the Greeks and Romans were familiar with sugar which, by
1353, had become the privilege of the aristocracy, while honey was the
reserve of the bourgeoisie, according to an edict which was imposed upon
apothecaries. sweet products were more widely eaten from the Middle Ages
onwards, when a drop in prices made them available for popular consumption.
Fashionable 18th Century publications featured advertisements for
Parisian confectionery shops in the rue des Lombards, where they had been
located for many centuries, since they were part of the Corps de
l"Epicerie, which dated as far back as 1311. These confectioner's
shops were a key attraction in the Parisian life, and they soon became a
meeting place for high society and the wealthy middle classes.
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It all started out with a legend: once upon a time, there was a marvelous city, surrounded by a paradise on earth. The cacao tree planted in this heavenly place was brought by a king called Quetzalcoalt from the sacred fields of the sons of the Sun. He himself became the gardener and, worshipped as a God, he passed down his knowledge. Traditional ceremonies inspired by the cacao culture can still be found in certain region of America. The cacao tree originated in prehistoric Central America, mainly in the forest regions. At that time, the pre-Columbians people used only the tender, milky pulp of the fruit and threw away the beans, But then, one day, a young Indian tried roasting them, and the smell of the produced was truly delicious...
The Mayas appear to have been the first evolved civilization to have cultivated cacao trees in a rational manner. According to legend, traders traveling along the banks of the Yucatan as far as Honduras used cocoa beans as currency. For the Aztecs, cocoa was both a food and a currency. The ground roasted beans produced a cocoa paste made into a colored drink with a strong smell, to which were added vanilla, cinnamon...and water. Everyday payments were made in beans. The varieties and colors of the beans corresponded to a range of monetary values, depending on their quality. And swindlers were already using dyes as a mean for falsification... In 1502, Christopher Columbus became the first European to see and touch cocoa beans, although they were of little interest to him, since they were used as currency by the natives.
In 1519, Fernando Cortez reached the American continent. He was received by the sovereign
and was offered a cocoa drink. In 1524, Cortez sent the
first cargoes of beans to Charles Quint and wrote: "When you drink it,
you can travel all day long
without tiring, and without needing to eat". It is said that Monks were the first specialists in
chocolate-making. In 1594, chocolate reached Italy where doctors also
adopted it. In 1657, it arrived in England and was immediately adopted by
the snobs of the time. In 1658, a Nuremberg scientist introduced it
Germany. In
1659, in France, Louis XIV granted a monopoly on chocolate sales to David Chaillou,
one of the Queen's officers. In 1661, Louis XIV married Maria-Theresa of
Austria who was so fond of chocolate than one historian write: ' The
King and the chocolate were the Queen's only loves". The King
developed a taste for it too, and started growing cacao trees in his
territories in the West Indies. Doctors also recommended eating chocolate
but it stayed a privilege of the elite and was not as yet familiar to the masses. When
David Chaillou's monopoly ended in 1693, apothecaries and spice merchants
began producing
it.
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- P. Masson, 1705: wrote the first technical book.
- Dubuisson, 1732: experimented for the first time with a worker standing in front of a table.
- J.B. Lebat, 1772: first detailed study of cacao-tree growing
- Doret, 1778: presented the first hydraulic grinding machine to the medical Faculty. At that time, France was the biggest importer of chocolate in Europe
- Philippe Suchard, 1824: created his manufacture in Neuchatel, Swizterland.
- Antoine Brutus Meunier, 1847: set up the first chocolate-making plant on a industrial scale in Noisiel-sur-Marne, near Paris.
- John Cadburry created also his own in Bournville, England.
- Amedee Kohler, 1828: produced chocolate with hazelnuts.
- Caspar van Houten, 1828: thanks to his new techniques, cocoa powder was born.
- M. Sacher, 1832: gave us the recipe of his famous torte
- Daniel Peter, 1875: added milk powder to chocolate for a savory concoction. Switzerland became the "chocolate country".
- Rodolphe Lindt, 1879: refined the chocolate texture.
-
Milton Hershey, 1879: founded the first American chocolate manufacture.
- Jean Neuhaus, 1912: created the first solid chocolate shell filled with praline, caramel or cream. (Bless this man!)
- John Mars, 1920: and his famous chocolate bar!
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No need to say that this particular tree is my favorite tree of all. Most of us has not seen one yet, but what really matters is that it "makes chocolate"! Let me tell you about this wonderful tree...
Many species of cacao tree exist, but one particular
species -Theobroma cacao L.- is grown for producing the beans used in
making chocolate and extracting cocoa butter.
It is a small tree, measuring between 5 or 7
meters, although it can reach 12 or 15 meters when growing in the wild.
It lives for 25 to 30 years. Its wood is light and pink-colored. Its roots can be as
long as 2 meters. Its fruit takes between 5 and 7
months to develop fully, depending on the variety. The fruit is around 12 cms in size. The combined weight of the
fruit and the bean is between 200 and 1000 grams. depending on the
variety. each fruit contains around 35 beans, divided into 5 longitudinal
rows. These beans are surrounded by a pale colored pulp which is acidic and sweet.
Cocoa
Pod
Most specialists divide cultivated cacao trees into 3 major groups; Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario.
It is harvested twice a year. The maturity of the fruit can
be recognized from he color and the sound produced when it is tapped.. A
skilled picker can collect around 1500 fruit a day. The fruit must be
opened 3 or 4 days at the most after picking. Only the beans are
transported. They are opened manually, and once the beans have been
removed, they are separated from the placenta by hand.
The beans are dried to bring the moisture content of
the fermented beans(60%) to below 8%, so that the cocoa can be preserved in
the right conditions.
The beans are then roasted, a process which , as with coffee, allows the
aroma to develop. The roasted cocoa is then taken to the cracking machine
which separates the best beans, Next comes blending beans of different
origins. In every chocolate company, the choice and amounts of different
types of cocoa used in recipes are manufacturing secrets. The final step is
conching. This process gives chocolate the velvety, shiny a appetizing
appearance which has made it famous across the world.
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Check out our chocolate Encyclopedia for technical enlightenment! (Coming soon)
