subject: A Brief History Of Chocolate, And Its Health Benefits. [print this page] The word chocolate is derived from the language of the Aztecs and Mayan civilizations. The Native South Americans
called it Chokolatl which literally means Hot Cocoa Water. Chocolate was an unknown food type to the rest of the world until the 15th century. The Spanish conquistadors, the first Europeans to visit South America started shipping these cocoa beans back to Europe in the late 15th century. Chocolate was served in liquid form and still tasted bitter until the Spanish started adding sugarcane juice to sweeten the drink. It was much later that the Spanish learned to process the liquid chocolate into solid from and called it Chocolate.
Today chocolate comes in various types and is used for many things. Some popular types of chocolate today are dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, cooking chocolate and raw chocolate. Dark chocolate contains 55% cocoa in its processed form and is very dark in color. The milk and sugar content in dark chocolate is very less to retain the color and the natural bitterness of the cocoa bean. White chocolate is made by adding milk to cocoa butter and sugar the lack of cocoa solids which gives chocolate its natural color, white chocolate gets its color form milk. The normal milk chocolate has an equal proportion of milk, sugar and cocoa solids added to get the sweetness and texture of chocolate.
Raw Chocolate is used for cooking purposes and is used for coating cakes, cookies, ice-cream and candy. The cocoa tree is a native of the Amazonian botanical species. These trees require tropical and warm climatic conditions to grow. Cocoa trees generally grow up to 20 feet and the cocoa bean pods start to develop only after five years. It takes another ten years for the tree to give full harvest. The cocoa pods grow as big as an American football and has the same shape. Inside these pods there is a white liquid like substance which is used to make native medicines and the beans is collected to make chocolate. Today 75% of the worlds chocolate is got from cocoa plantations from Africa.
The production of chocolate in its edible form has to run through various levels of manufacturing. The ripe cocoa pods are collected from the trees and the beans removed from the pods, are stored in large bins and are left for fermentation for a week. This fermentation process brings out the natural flavors in the beans. The beans are then sun dried for seven days. The dried beans are then sent to factories for roasting and removing the outer shell from the roasted beans. The Nib is extracted from the split beans and is collected in a huge heating vat. The nibs are ground to fine powder and heated at a constant temperature until the nibs melt and liquefy. This is the purest form of chocolate.
Few health benefits you get from eating chocolates are it prevents certain heart diseases and stroke, regular intake of chocolate prevents Colon Cancer, It prolongs human life. Chocolate contain healthy fats and natural sugars that protects from Diabetes and improves brain and other body functions. Improves vision and gives hyperactive energy.
You can learn more about chocolate, on the Food Network Channel, which is a basic channel on all cable TV services and to get great deals on cable TV you can have it bundled with Home phone Services.
