The Elaborate Production of Chocolate
The most important ingredient for chocolate is cocoa beans. While dried cocoa beans can also be eaten as they are, the taste is too bitter for most people. Therefore, cocoa mass and cocoa butter are used. In the consuming countries, the imported cocoa beans are first cleaned and roasted. Roasting brings the typical chocolate color and cocoa aroma with it. After removal of the shells, the cocoa beans end up in a cocoa mill, which produces the thick cocoa mass. Now oil and cocoa butter can be extracted. In addition, cocoa dry mass in the form of hard pellets is produced, which can be ground into cocoa powder. For the production of milk-free chocolate, cocoa mass, sugar, and cocoa butter are mixed together. Otherwise, milk is added as an additional ingredient. The so-called conching is the next step. In special containers, the conches, the chocolate mass is heated and moved for several hours. This leads to a smooth mass and a pleasant chocolate taste. Finally, the mass only needs to be filled into molds. After cooling down, the finished chocolate bar is in your hands.
Chocolate as a Luxury Good
The original home of cocoa is Central America. The Aztecs and Mayas already knew cocoa beans in the 4th century. They made a drink called "Xocolatl" from ground cocoa, vanilla, honey, and chili, and cocoa butter was used as cosmetics or medicine. Apart from that, cocoa beans were also used as a means of payment and were considered very valuable. In 1528, conqueror Hermán Cortes brought cocoa to Spain. In 1544, drinking chocolate was known and appreciated at the Spanish court. About a hundred years later, chocolate spread throughout Europe. In the early 19th century, the Dutchman Van Houten succeeded in separating cocoa butter from cocoa mass. This led to the founding of the first chocolate factories. Edible chocolate has been around since 1847, and Swiss Daniel Peter created milk chocolate in 1875. The industrial production of chocolate made it affordable for simpler sectors of the population. Nowadays, chocolate is one of the most popular sweets. You can find an enormous number of plain and filled chocolate articles.
If you are one of those who do not appreciate the taste of dark or milk chocolate, you should definitely try white chocolate. The combination of cocoa butter, sugar, and milk delivers only 10 more kilocalories than milk chocolate (540 compared to 530 kilocalories). The best score for dark chocolate is 480 kilocalories per 100 grams.
Chocolate and Its Positive Effects
It is certain that consuming chocolate does not help to lose weight – it simply contains too many calories. However, cocoa powder contains special ingredients that have a positive effect on the heart and blood pressure. This effect is even greater, the higher the cocoa content of the chocolate is. Accordingly, it is actually better to consume bitter chocolate rather than milk chocolate. Scientists believe that those who regularly eat small amounts of bitter chocolate have a lower risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack.
Chocolate Bars – the Snack for In-Between
Hardly less popular than chocolate in bar form are chocolate bars. Chocolate bars can contain cookies, caramel, and/or nuts, for example. Like the invention of the praline, the invention of the chocolate bar is probably due to Belgian chocolatiers. The industrial production of chocolate bars, however, goes back to the American company Hershey's Chocolate Company. From 1894, it produced various filled chocolate bars and pralines. During the two world wars, chocolate bars also became known in Germany.
In the meantime, you can choose not only from traditional chocolate bars but also from so-called praline bars, which are a mixture of chocolate bars and pralines. Although fresh fruit is more often chosen as a snack than a chocolate bar, many people also like to snack on the latter from time to time. It should be clear that a chocolate bar cannot replace a complete meal. However, you can consume a chocolate bar, for example, as a dessert without feeling guilty.
Mouth-Sized Chocolate Articles: Pralines
As already mentioned, probably Belgian chocolatiers produce the first pralines. At first, mainly nuts and candied fruits were dipped in liquid chocolate. From 1912, the method developed by Jean Neuhaus was also used: Small metal molds were filled with chocolate, filled with dried fruit and chopped nuts, and closed with chocolate. In Germany, each praline must contain at least 25 percent chocolate, otherwise, the correct designation of the "bite-sized" candy is confectionery.
In some patisseries and chocolate factories, particular attention is paid to the use of particularly high-quality ingredients, which are processed by hand into pralines. Most praline manufacturers are still located in Switzerland and Belgium. In this online shop, you can choose from a large number of pralines and confectionery. The range includes chocolate-nut specialties, mini chocolate bars, and praline mixtures with and without alcohol.
Schokobons & Co.
The subcategory Schokobons & Co. offers a candy that is extremely popular, not least at children's birthday parties. Whether Smarties, Toffifee or Schokobons: these mostly even smaller sweets than pralines taste good and are gone with one bite.
Smarties came from Great Britain to West Germany at the beginning of the 1960s. For a long time, artificial food coloring was used for the typical colorful sugar shell of Smarties. Since the end of 2006, these are no longer allowed to be used. Apart from the original version, milk chocolate plus sugar shell, the competition product M&M's is also available with peanuts or crispy rice balls.
Toffifee is favored by all those who appreciate the combination of chocolate, caramel, nougat, and nuts. The August Storck KG introduced this candy for the first time in Germany in 1973. However, if you prefer soft fillings, rum balls or truffles are the better choice. A truffle mix is undoubtedly also perfectly suitable for offering your guests a delicious candy. The best thing is to simply take a look at what this shop has to offer in the chocolate category and then make your choice.