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     The word chocolate originated in the Native American Nahuatl language indigenous to central Mexico.

    Chocolate is an Aztec word used to describe a number of raw and processed products that originate from the tropical cacao tree. It is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets, ice creams, cookies, cakes, pies and desserts. It is one of the most popular flavors in the world.

    Chocolate is made from fermented, roasted and ground beans taken from the pod of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, that is native to Central America. The resulting products are known as “chocolate” or in some parts of the world as cocoa. They have an intensely flavored bitter taste.

    The chocolate residue found in a Mayan teapot suggests that Mayans were drinking chocolate 2,600 years ago, the earliest record of cacao use. The Aztecs associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. In the New World, chocolate was consumed in a drink called xocoatl, often seasoned with vanilla, chili pepper, achiote (which we know today as annato) and pimento. Xocoatl was believed to fight fatigue, a belief that is probably attributable to the theobromine content.

    Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and cocoa beans were often used as currency.

    Christopher Columbus brought some cocoa beans to show Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but it remained for Hernando de Soto to introduce chocolate to Europe more broadly.

    The first recorded shipment of chocolate to the Old World for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Seville in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added sugar to counteract the natural bitterness and removed the chili pepper. By the 17th century, chocolate was a luxury item among the European nobility.

    At the end of the 18th century, the first solid chocolate we eat today was created in Turin. This chocolate was sold in large quantities from 1826 by Pierre Paul Caffarel. In 1828, Dutchman Conrad J. van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the so-called Dutch process of treating chocolate with alkali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. It is believed that the Englishman Joseph Fry made the first chocolate for eating in 1847, followed shortly after by the Cadbury brothers.

    Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle maker, joined his father-in-law’s chocolate business. In 1867 he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875.  A neighbor, baby food manufacturer Henri Nestlé, assisted Peter in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing. Rudolph Lindt invented the process called conching, which involves heating and grinding the chocolate solids very finely to ensure that the liquid is evenly blended.

    The bean products are known under different names in different parts of the world.  In the American chocolate industry:

• Cocoa is defined as the solids of the cacao bean;

• Cocoa butter is defined as the fat component; and

• Chocolate is a combination of the solids and the fat.

It is the solid and the fat combination, sweetened with sugar and other ingredients, that is made into chocolate bars that are commonly referred to as chocolate by the public.

    It can also be made into the beverages (called cocoa and hot chocolate) that were the original form used by the Aztecs and the first European consumers.  Even today, in the indigenous cultures of Hispanic countries, chocolate is an important drink. In special family celebrations such as baptisms, birthdays, wedding engagements or to receive special visitors to one’s home, it is a custom to drink hot chocolate along with bread made especially for the occasion.

Health benefits

    Recent studies have shown that cocoa or dark chocolate has potent health benefits. Dark chocolate is full of the flavonoids epicatechin and gallic acid, which are antioxidants that help protect blood vessels, promote cardiac health, and prevent cancer.

    Chocolate also has been effectively demonstrated to counteract mild hypertension. In fact, dark chocolate has more flavonoids than any other antioxidant-rich food including red wine, green and black tea, and blueberries. There has even been a fad weight loss plan named “chocolate diet” that emphasizes eating chocolate and cocoa powder in capsules. However, consuming milk chocolate or white chocolate, or drinking milk with dark chocolate appears to largely negate its health benefits. Chocolate is also a calorie-rich food, with a high content of saturated fat, so daily intake of chocolate also requires reducing caloric intake of other foods.

Source:  Wikipedia

Today’s Lesson:

1)  How chocolate is made?

2)  The Aztecs associated chocolate with ____________, the goddess of _________.

3)  What was the Xocoatl?

4)  The first recorded shipment of chocolate to the Old World for commercial purposes was in a shipment from _________ to ________ in ______.

5)  The first solid chocolate we eat today was created at __________________in _______.

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Answers:

1)  The chocolate is made of fermented, roasted and ground beans taken from the tropical cacao tree Theobroma.     2)  Xochiquetzal. Fertility.     3)  A drink of chocolate, often seasoned with vanilla, chili pepper, achiote (annato) and pimento.     4)  Veracruz.  Seville.  1585.     5)  The end of the 18th century.  Turin.