Good day, dear Take in Mind readers! Let’s dream a bit… You are miraculously transported to, let’s say, South America. After long, boring, and very wet wanderings through the endless forest of the great Amazon, interrupted by several valiant meetings with jaguars, piranhas, and other anacondas, you finally find… them! The trees with small brownish fruits! Having expelled or agreed (depending on your conscience) with the local Native Americans, you begin to cut the fruits from the chocolate tree carefully (better known as the cocoa tree) and collect them in baskets…
Now the proven for centuries (or maybe, even millennia – the earliest evidence of cocoa consumption dates to the fourth millennium BC) biochemical fun begins! The cocoa fruits are cut into pieces and left in the sun for several days. During this period, the white pulp of the fruit (the one that surrounds the cocoa beans), thanks to the microorganisms living on it, begins to ferment, and this, in turn, leads to chemical changes in the beans themselves. Due to oxidation, the taste, aroma, and even color of the fruits change. After that, the beans are dried, crushed, squeezed, and fried – all in all, they are “tortured” in every possible way, so that we can then drink a delicious drink or indulge in a slice or two (or, someone may enjoy a whole bar) of a very high-calorie (but such a wonderful) thing!
Now, let’s look for a couple of modern deviations from the traditions… First, the Amazon and the Native Americans. The Jeopardy question is: which country is the biggest cocoa producer in the world market? As a hint, neither Brazil, nor Ecuador, and in general, there is no South American country in the top five! Therefore, we leave alone the Native Americans and fly to Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, or Nigeria. The main production of cocoa is in Africa now…
Second, about the alternative approach for “cocoa bean ripening”. Recently (Schlüter et al. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2020, 68, 10336– 10344, and Schlüter et al, J.Agric.Food Chem. 2022, 70, 13, 4057–4065), a microbial-free postharvest treatment for cocoa beans, also known as “moist incubation”, has been described. For this procedure, beans were removed from the fresh cocoa pod, de-pulped, incubated at a heated acidic solution based on lactic acid for 72 hours, re-dried, and… that’s it! The product is ready! Well, how does technological change affect such an important characteristic of the product as its taste? The researchers prepared experimental chocolate bars following this technology and asked volunteers to compare them to traditional chocolate. According to the article’s authors, the volunteers noted “richer” flavors in the moist-incubated chocolate. The parallel analysis by gas chromatography-olfactometry showed that, compared to the traditionally fermented chocolate, wet-incubated chocolate has a low content of pyrazines, which provides a specific roasted flavor.
Third, a few words about the types of chocolate. Three types of chocolate are generally acquired – dark (bitter), milk and white. There has been a professional dispute about white chocolate for almost ninety years (that is, since its creation in the 1930s by the Swiss company Nestlé). Many experts still doubt whether is worth classifying it as real chocolate, since there it doesn’t contain cocoa solids. However, according to generally accepted requirements, it must contain at least 20% cocoa butter, therefore, in terms of this ingredient, white chocolate should be defined as chocolate. And what about… ruby (pink) chocolate? In 2017, the technologists from the Swiss company Barry Callebaut announced that they had discovered a new type of chocolate, creating a delicacy of an unusual color, using, in accordance to their own words, only the native basis (i.e. the cocoa beans) without any additional food coloring. According to the technologists, the original features are in the unique Ruby cocoa variety, which natively has a specific color and flavor range. However, all the hype around ruby chocolate may be nothing but an original marketing trick…
Well, after very serious and even boring facts, we want to share a few curious choco-anecdotes:
According to the most common version, the word “chocolate” comes from the Aztec word xocolātl, which literally means “bitter water”, or čikola:-tl – “whipping drink”. However, both versions must be accepted with great caution, since there is no documentary evidence for them… However, the scientific name of a cocoa genus is Theobroma (“Food of the Gods”).
Some Indian tribes believed that cocoa may be used for spiritual development. How does this relate to the fact that cocoa beans were used as currency and, moreover, were the object of counterfeiting (ancient counterfeiters sculpted pseudo-beans from clay)? Not clear!
Many people know that dark (bitter) chocolate is good for health. It lowers blood pressure due to its high content of antioxidants. However, Saudi scientists have shown that the consumption of 40 grams of dark and milk chocolate daily for a period of two weeks appears to be an effective way to reduce perceived stress in females (Al Sunni and Latif. Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2014 Oct; 8(4): 393-401). This, of course, may be due to the presence of phenamine (which causes a state of “falling in love” in a person) and the psychostimulant theobromine. But the hypothesis that acne in children can pop up from immoderate eating of chocolate on the face has not received any scientific confirmation.
The Irish physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753; by the way, his collection became the founding “stone” of the British Museum) invented the cocoa drink during his stay in Jamaica. The locals grounded the cocoa beans into powder and then mixed them with water. Sloane found the taste of this drink terrible, but he slightly changed the recipe, diluting cocoa with milk… The first chocolate candy bars were produced by the Bristol family company Joseph Fry and Sons in 1847… American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the Toll House Cookie, the first chocolate chip cookie, by accident – she added chocolate instead of butter. Later, Wakefield sold this recipe to Nestle for one dollar and a lifetime supply of Nestlé chocolate!
In 2001, a hundred-year-old chocolate bar belonging to pioneering Antarctica explorers was auctioned for £470. The 10-centimeter (four-inch) chocolate bar was part of a 3,500-pound load of cocoa and chocolate taken by British explorer Captain Robert Scott on his 1901-1904 expedition to the frozen continent. The Snickers chocolate bar was named after a horse: the candy bar was introduced in 1929 by Frank and Ethel Mars, reportedly named after their family’s favorite horse.
Ladies and Gentlemen! Dear chocolate- and cocoa-holics! Indulge in health! By the way, if someone has a desire to post a recipe for their favorite chocolate dessert in the comments, we will be very happy and grateful!
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