Chocolate Research Paper

What is the very first thing that comes to mind when I say the word Chocolate? Hershey Kisses, ice cream, cake, how about Love? This is the story of the cocoa bean, or known to all of us in its sweet form as Chocolate. In the following research paper on chocolate, we will examine this passionate treat's discovery in the New World by Columbus and Cortes, its succeeding obsession that swept Europe in the sixteenth century, and finally how the cocoa bean is processed into the many pleasures that we all enjoy today. Archeologists strongly believe that the Mayan Indians of Central America cultivated cocoa trees as early as the 7th century. It was not until Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage to America in 1502 that he became the first European to drink chocolate. He was not impressed with the bitter taste. Columbus was probably more interested in discovering gold or a new route to India than shipping an awful-tasting beverage. 

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Little did he know! Instead, it was Hernan Cortes who introduced the Europeans to what the Aztec Indians of Mexico called Chocolatl. It was not because chocolate tasted any better. The chocolatl given to Cortes was just as strong and bitter as the one Columbus tried, however Cortes was fascinated with the golden goblets used to serve the drink. The Aztecs believed chocolate was a divine drink that was from the Garden of Life for them to enjoy. The chocolate Cortes and other Spanish explorers took home to Spain was still a rather potent brew. Spanish nobility quickly learned to sweeten it with honey and vanilla. For more than one hundred years the Spanish nobility kept their recipe to themselves. By the 1660 houses or cafes selling chocolate had sprung up throughout Europe. The Aztecs made chocolatl by roasting cocoa beans in clay pots. Then on a stone called metate, they grounded the beans with another stone, called mano, producing a paste they formed into cakes. They added corn meal to their chocolate to give it a more mellow taste. Later on, the English stirred in potato starch to improve the flavor. When the Aztecs wanted some chocolatl, they broke off a piece of the cake, dissolved it in hot water and whipped the mixture into a frothy drink with a stirrer called molinillo. Hot chocolate is still made like that in Mexico. Cocoa trees grow close to the equator where the climate is warm all year round. Cocoa trees are so delicate that are unable to stand direct sunlight. On most plantations they are planted in the shade of banana trees. The Cocoa pods, which house 15-25 beans, are what chocolate makers desire. Cocoa pods do not grow like cherries or peaches, sprouting from stems at the ends of branches. Instead, cocoa pods pop out right from the trunk and thick main branches. As soon as the ivory-colored beans are scooped from their shells, they react with oxygen and begin to change color. The beans are then heaped on the ground in large piles to ferment. Cocoa beans ferment when the yeast and bacteria in the air act upon the sugar in the pulp, producing heat and acid, modifying the membranes of the beans. This chemical reaction inside the beans changes them so that their full flavor may be developed when the beans are roasted. In order to stop the fermentation the beans must be dried. After the cocoa beans are dried, they are cleaned, sorted, roasted and cracked. The resulting small nibs of cocoa are ground under high pressure to form chocolate liquor, a dark brown, fine paste (which is 54% fat or other wise know as cocoa butter). This liquor, solidified in blocks, becomes the most basic baking product for the kitchen: bitter, unsweetened chocolate. Further refined through repeated milling, and mixed with varying proportions of sugar and additional cocoa butter, the chocolate grows smoother and gradually lighter in color, becoming bittersweet, semisweet and sweet. The addition of milk solids to sweetened chocolate creates creamy milk chocolate. Cocoa butter alone, filtered free of the chocolate liquor's dark solids under hydraulic pressure and then enhanced with milk, sugar, and sometimes vanilla, produces the white chocolate. The chocolate solids minus the cocoa butter, ground to a fine powder, become the cocoa powder. When love is in the air (and even when it isn't), thoughts often turn to chocolate. There's no other food that symbolizes affection like chocolate candy. Chocolate and love have been linked together for centuries. Chocolate was considered by many to be an aphrodisiac, a potent stimulant of love.

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