Chocolate




The first bar of chocolate was produced in 1847, even though cocoa had been known to the Europeans since 1502. The first chocolate bars were of dark chocolate and consisted mainly of cocoa solids, which made them rather dry and not very pleasant to eat.
All throughout the 1870s, European sales of chocolate were very high. In 1876, a Daniel Peter of Switzerland, invented milk chocolate. He had discovered that adding powdered milk to the chocolate mix made for a wonderfully tasting bar. Until then efforts to add milk in it's liquid form to chocolate, had resulted in the milk going rancid and the consistency of the chocolate not being solid enough. An Englishman called George Page, developed Daniel Peter's work on chocolate even more. However, milk chocolate didn't really become popular until the early 20th century, as people were used to the bitter, intense taste of dark chocolate.
By the 1890s chocolate had become a common purchase and the German, British and American soldiers were supplied with ample bars of it, while on their way to battle. The power of chocolate had arrived!

It is interesting to realise that the perecntage of cocoa solids in chocolate determines not only its taste but also its quality and has become a subject of much debate between chocolate lovers and chocolate snobs. Apparently, the higher the percentage of cocoa solids the more snobby the chocolate becomes (and incidently more bitter too...).
The darkest , most bitter and most coveted by connoiseurs chocolate is the one which contains 70% cocoa solids. I have tried this chocolate and find it disgustingly bitter and the aftertaste it leaves most offensive.
The French, Italian and German chocolate manufacturers claim that any chocolate with a cocoa solids contents of less than 25% is not chocolate. They nearly convinced the EU a few years back, that chocolate from the United Kingdom, which typicaly contains 20% cocoa solids should not be called chocolate by law. They didn't get their way entirely but nevertheless the EU declared that exported U.K. chocolate should be called 'family chocolate'...

White chocolate on the other hand, is characterized by the total absence of cocoa solids and is made with coca butter, milk solids, sugar and vanilla. In US in fact, it is illegal to call it chocolate and manufacturers have to resort to names such as "Chocolate Lover's White Chip" and "Vanilla Chips" in order to sell their product.

Comments

Anonymous said…
70% - ha! Rococo do a "plus noir que noir" chocolate bar at 99% cocoa solids - they politely ask "if you've tried it before" when you buy it. I like it a lot, but can't each much of it at one go. Good thing, too, given chocolate's tendency to expand to thirty times its volume inside my body.

Available from their shop on the King's Road (where you can try before buying) or the Algerian Coffee shop on Old Compton Street.
Sunday, 22 May, 2005
Anna said…
Well, I am not suprised you cannot eat much of it in one go. 99% cocoa solids! That must be so bitter. I don't think it's my kind of thing but I can see that fans of the 70% kind would probably really appreciate that. Very considerate of them to ask customers if they have tried it before. :-)
Sunday, 22 May, 2005
Anonymous said…
A few weeks back I was in Barcelona and made another pilgrimage to Cacao Sampaka (http://www.cacaosampaka.com) - my idea of heaven. There you can get 100% chocolate - as well as interesting taste experiences such as curry chocolate...
Monday, 23 May, 2005
Anna said…
Sounds like my idea of heaven too! I love chocolate! I have just eaten some chocolate ice cream, lol.. :-)))
Monday, 23 May, 2005
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Catherine the Great and her Many Lovers

Image
Catherine the Great was empress of Russia from 1762 until she died in 1796. She was born in 1729 in Poland and in 1744 was taken to Russia to marry the young Grand Duke Peter, heir to the throne and not of a sane mind. For seven years during their marriage Peter spent his time playing with toy soldiers and dogs and showed no interest in sex. In fact he had a physical disability, a very tight foreskin, which may have played an important part in that matter. Finally the empress Elizabeth gave Catherine the permission to take a lover, which she did and was soon pregnant. She convinced Peter it was his own child, as was the plan anyway. In the meantime he had been circumcised so that he could perform the sexual act. Catherine developed a taste for young soldiers. She had a special area built in her bedroom, which was curtained off and where she received her lovers. Gregory Orlov was her on and off lover for around thirteen years. He was said to possess excellent equipment, unbelievable ‘st...
Read more

Emperor Elagabalus; the Teenage Pervert

Image
When the emperor Caracalla was murdered in 217, the fourteen-year-old Elagabalus succeeded him. He only ruled for 4 years, but in that short period of time he commited a variety of grotesque and debauched acts, enough to make Caligula and Commodus seem rather plain. His real name was Bassianus but as he developed an intense interest in worshippng the Syrian god Elagabal, became High Priest of the cult and so had his name changed to Elagabalus. To honor his god, he demanded that hundereds of cattle were slaughtered daily on huge sacrificial altars. He had a temple built on the Palatine Hill and ordered the Romans to worship a statue of a giant phallus, which didn't go down very well at all... Eventually he decided he was the god embodied. He started to wear women's clothes and make-up, implored his surgeons to cut his penis off and make him a vagina and when they said tehy could not do this he settled for circumcision. His body is said to have been very effeminate and he had a m...
Read more

The Smelly Woad Dyers

Image
Woad leaves Before Indigo was imported from the East in the 16th Century, the only source of rich blue dye was Woad, Isatis Tinctoria, a plant which is a member of the cabbage family and which was brought to Britain by the Celts. They called it Glasto, hence Glastonbury, which means ‘a place where woad grows’. The process by which the dye was extracted was lengthy and very smelly indeed, (think combination of raw sewage and rotten cabbage) and the people who did this work, woad dyers, were outcasts of society, since they smelt so much. As a result they were isolated and inbred. There was no way of hiding if you were a woad dyer as even if you washed yourself really well to remove the stench, the blue dye could be seen on your fingers and under your fingernails. Queen Elizabeth I, not being able to stand the stench from their workshops, decreed that woad dyers should be at least 5 miles away from wherever she was staying. As it took 50 kilos of woad in order to produce 5 kilos of pigme...
Read more