Chocolate History Essay

All coffee berry starts with a seed called a cocoa bean that is grown on a small tree. Many countries in profound and South America produce cocoa beans. The history of coffee starts in Latin America, where the cocoa bean was first discovered about 2,000 old age ago on a tropical tree. The first people recognized to have used these beans to make any kind of coffee berry were the Mayas. They called it the kakawa bean, which is where the origin of the serviceman coffee tree began. They most often used the bean to make a spicy, foamy drink.Later, the Aztecs discovered the cocoa bean. Eventually this was introduced in Europe after the Spaniards came to Central America. When the Spaniards began experimenting with the bean, they began to add other spices to it, such as cinnamon and sugar, to give the chocolate a sweeter taste. Soon, the rest of Europe started drinking it and it became a popular drink that just the rich could afford. In the 1600s the first chocolate house was opened and this flavor was able to reach the mouths of many other people. In the early 1800s, unscathed chocolate was created.It became more affordable to everyone and throughout time more recipes were experimented with, creating many different types of chocolate. There are many different types of chocolate such as White, Dark (bittersweet), milk, Semi-Sweet and even Baking Chocolate (unsweetened). White chocolate isnt really considered chocolate because it has no cocoa solids in it, it is made of the fat from the cocoa beans known as cocoa butter. White chocolate has a creamy consistency and taste. It lacks flavor because it tames no chocolate liquor which gives chocolate the bitter good chocolate flavor.White chocolate is not normally used in cooking unless it is a replacement for dark or milk chocolate. It is used generally for decorating. Dark chocolate is the healthiest type of chocolate. This chocolate contains a large amount of disease-fighting flavonoids, anti-oxidants also fo und in red wine and lots of different output and vegetables. Its anti-oxidants disregard significantly improve blood pressure, prevent blood clots, slow the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol making it less likely to stick to artery walls and also reduce inflammation.Eating dark chocolate can also lower insulin resistance, the main problem behind diabetes. Milk chocolate does not contain as much chocolate liquor as dark chocolate, which gives it a softer chocolate flavor. This chocolate is much sweeter than any other. It is the most popular type of chocolate. Milk chocolate is more difficult to temper properly and more prone to overheating which would make it thick and lumpy if it comes into contact with water. Milk chocolate can be used in pretty much anything you want to be sweet.The difference between regular chocolate and baking chocolate is baking chocolate has less sugar and no fat and its bitter while regular chocolate is sweet and sugary. Tempering me ans improving the consistency, durability or harshness of a substance by heating and cooling it. Tempering is make by melting solid chocolate to a temperature high enough that the crystals in the cocoa butter break down. Once the chocolate is fully melted, it must be cooled to about 82F, a temperature at which crystals will start to form once more so that the chocolate can eventually re-solidify.The chocolates temperature is then raised back to about 90F, where it is very smooth and can be poured into chocolate molds and used for other things. White, milk and dark chocolate can be tempered. Tempered chocolate is very glossy, has a firm finish and melts smoothly at around body temperature. Chocolate that has not been tempered or that has been improperly tempered will look flat or discolored. Tempering can be done in 2 ways by hand, or through a process called seeding. Tempering by hand can be done by tabliering where melted chocolate is poured onto a cool marble surface and worked w ith spatulas until it has cooled down sufficiently.More melted chocolate is added back and incorporated in to the tabliered chocolate to bring it back to the final working temperature. Through the process of seeding, chocolate is melted and a small amount of finely chopped solid chocolate is added into the melted chocolate and stirred in. Adding solid chocolate will lower the temperature of the melted chocolate and it will start to temper the melted chocolate. When it comes to baking, chocolate does not need to be tempered because it is being incorporated into another form. Tempering chocolate is good for dipping foods, for a more clean finish.