Chocolate Fun
Quotes
Chocolate Vocabulary
Dutch Processing
A method of treating the nib or the liquor with an alkali solution after roasting, which will reduce the acidity by increasing the normal pH factor from about 5.0 up to 8.0. The name honors the homeland of its inventor, C.J. Van Houten.
Trinitario Cocoa Beans
It is a cross between the Criollo and Forastero varieties. Trinitario has a great variety of characteristics but generally possesses good, aromatic flavor. Trinitario trees are particularly suitable for cultivation. A cocoa variety from Trinidad.
Forastero Cocoa Beans
The most common grown and used beans. They are most likely native to the Amazon basin. These beans make up about 80 percent of the world's production and are grown primarily in Africa, Ecuador, and Brazil. This variety grows very quickly and has high productivity and performance.
Criollo Cocoa Beans
A premium variety of cocoa beans grown primarily in South and Central America. Considered the rarest and noblest cacao in the world. A cocoa fruit variety which comes from the Amazon having big size beans. The color is light, the shape is round, and the taste is sweet.
Fermentation
A production phase that consists of spreading cocoa beans in a big plot of land so that they ferment and dry.
FUN FACTS
Who invented hot chocolate?
The Mayans are most often credited with inventing drinking chocolate in 500 B.C., though recent evidence suggests the brew could date back even further (2,500 - 3,000 years!)
Did you know Chocolate has good-for-you fat?
Cocoa butter (main source of fat in chocolate) contains oleic acid, the monounsaturated fat in olive oil, and stearic acid, a type of saturated fat that doesn't raise "bad" LDL cholesterol.
Which candy was invented for American soldiers during World War II?
M&M's - "melts in your mouth, not in your hands!"
Each cacao tree produces approximately 2,500 beans.
Because cacao trees are so delicate, farmers lose, on average, 30 percent of their crop each year.
Ghana produces about 900,000 tons of cocoa every year.
This makes it the world’s second biggest exporter of the cocoa bean, second only to Ivory Coast.