definition chocolate?

Answer 1

Chocolate (pronounced /ˈtʃɒklət, -lɪt/ (help·info); see below for etymology) comprises a number of raw and processed foods that originate from the bean of the tropical cacao tree. It is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets such as chocolate bars, ice creams, cookies, cakes, pies, chocolate mousse, and other desserts. It is one of the more popular flavours in the world.

Chocolate was created by the Mesoamerican civilization, from cacao beans, and cultivated by pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Maya and Aztec, who used it as a basic component in a variety of sauces and beverages. The cocoa beans were ground and mixed with water to produce a variety of beverages, both sweet and bitter, which were reserved for only the highest noblemen and clerics of the Mesoamerican world. Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted, and ground beans taken from the pod of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which was native to Central America and Mexico, but is now cultivated throughout the tropics. The beans have an intensely flavoured bitter taste. The resulting products are known as "chocolate" or, in some parts of the world, cocoa.[1]

It is the solid and fat combination, sweetened with sugar and other ingredients, that is made into chocolate bars and which is today commonly referred to as chocolate. It can also be made into beverages (called cocoa and hot chocolate). The first chocolate beverages were made by the Aztecs and the Mayas and later the Europeans. Chocolate is often produced as small molded forms in the shape of animals, people, or inanimate objects to celebrate festivals worldwide. For example, there are moulds of rabbits or eggs for Easter, coins for Hanukkah, Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) for Christmas, and hearts for Valentine's Day.

Answer 2

Tasty.

Answer 3

Sorry - requests for definitions and spellings [of words] are no longer being accepted. Please go to amazon.com and purchase a dictionary.

Answer 4

heavenly happiness!

Answer 5

Chocolate (pronounced /ˈtʃɒklət, -lɪt/ (help·info); see below for etymology) comprises a number of raw and processed foods that originate from the bean of the tropical cacao tree. It is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets such as chocolate bars, ice creams, cookies, cakes, pies, chocolate mousse, and other desserts. It is one of the more popular flavours in the world.

Chocolate was created by the Mesoamerican civilization, from cacao beans, and cultivated by pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Maya and Aztec, who used it as a basic component in a variety of sauces and beverages. The cocoa beans were ground and mixed with water to produce a variety of beverages, both sweet and bitter, which were reserved for only the highest noblemen and clerics of the Mesoamerican world. Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted, and ground beans taken from the pod of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which was native to Central America and Mexico, but is now cultivated throughout the tropics. The beans have an intensely flavoured bitter taste. The resulting products are known as "chocolate" or, in some parts of the world, cocoa.

It is the solid and fat combination, sweetened with sugar and other ingredients, that is made into chocolate bars and which is today commonly referred to as chocolate. It can also be made into beverages (called cocoa and hot chocolate). The first chocolate beverages were made by the Aztecs and the Mayas and later the Europeans. Chocolate is often produced as small molded forms in the shape of animals, people, or inanimate objects to celebrate festivals worldwide. For example, there are moulds of rabbits or eggs for Easter, coins for Hanukkah, Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) for Christmas, and hearts for Valentine's Day.

Chocolate truffles typically have a thin shell of tempered chocolate,a dusting of cocoa powder and a soft creamy center.Chocolate is an extremely popular ingredient and it is available in many types. Different forms and flavours of chocolate are produced by varying the quantities of the different ingredients. Other flavours can be obtained by varying the time and temperature when roasting the beans.

Chocolate is any product based 100% on cocoa solid and/or cocoa fat. Because it is used in a vast number of other foods, any change in the cost of making it has a huge impact on the industry. Adding ingredients is an aspect of the taste. On the other hand, reducing cocoa solid content, or substituting cocoa fat with a non-cocoa fat, reduces the cost of making it. There has been disagreement in the EU about the definition of chocolate.

There are two main jobs associated with creating chocolate candy: chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Chocolate makers are those who physically create couverture chocolate from harvested cacao beans and other ingredients. Chocolatiers take the finished couverture to create chocolate candies (bars, truffles, baked goods, etc.).[2]
History

A mug of modern hot chocolate. The first chocolate was drunk rather than eaten.Main article: History of chocolate
The word "chocolate" comes from the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs of Mexico. The word is derived from the Nahuatl word xocolatl (IPA /ʃo'kola:tɬ/; sho-KO-lattle)[3], which is a combination of the words, xocolli, meaning "bitter", and atl, which is "water". It is associated with the Mayan god of Fertility. Mexican philologist Ignacio Davila Garibi, proposed that "Spaniards had coined the word by taking the Maya word chocol and then replacing the Maya term for water, haa, with the Aztec one, atl."[verification needed] However, it is more likely that the Aztecs themselves coined the term, having long adopted into the Nahuatl the Mayan word for the "cacao" bean; the Spanish had little contact with the Mayans before Cortés's early reports to the Spanish King of the beverage known as xocolatl.

The chocolate residue found in an ancient Maya pot suggests that Mayans were drinking chocolate 2,600 years ago, which is 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 bitter and spicy drink called xocoatl, often seasoned with vanilla, chile pepper, and achiote, (which we know today as annatto). 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. Other chocolate drinks combined it with such edibles as maize starch paste (which acts as an emulsifier and thickener), various fruits, and honey.

Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in Western Africa, with close to half of the total sourced from Côte d'Ivoire. Like many food industry producers, individual cocoa farmers are at the mercy of volatile world markets. The price can vary from £500 ($945) to £3,000 ($5,672) per ton in the space of just a few years. While investors trading in cocoa can dump shares at will, individual cocoa farmers can not increase production or abandon trees at anywhere near that pace. It has been alleged that an estimated 90% of cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire have used some form of slave labor in order to remain viable. When cocoa prices drop, farmers in West Africa sometimes cut costs by resorting to slave labor.


Production

A cacao tree with fruit pods in various stages of ripening
Varieties
The three main varieties of cacao beans used in chocolate are Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario.

Criollo, the variety native to Central America, the Caribbean islands and the northern tier of South American states, is the rarest and most expensive cocoa on the market. There is some dispute about the genetic purity of cocoas sold today as Criollo, since most populations have been exposed to the genetic influence of other varieties. Criollos are difficult to grow, as they are vulnerable to a host of environmental threats and deliver low yields of cocoa per tree. The flavour of Criollo is characterized as delicate but complex, low in classic chocolate flavour, but rich in "secondary" notes of long duration.

Forastero is a large group of wild and cultivated cacaos, probably native to the Amazon basin. The huge African cocoa crop is entirely of the Forastero variety. They are significantly hardier and of higher yield than Criollo. Forastero cocoas are typically big in classic "chocolate" flavour, but this is of short duration and is unsupported by secondary flavours. There are exceptional Forasteros, such as the "Nacional" or "Arriba" variety, which can possess great complexity.

Trinitario, a natural hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, originated in Trinidad after an introduction of (Amelonado) Forastero to the local Criollo crop. These cocoas exhibit a wide range of flavour profiles according to the genetic heritage of each tree.

Nearly all cacao produced over the past five decades is of the Forastero or lower-grade Trinitario varieties. The share of higher quality Criollos and Trinitarios (so-called flavour cacao) is just under 5% per annum.[7]


Harvesting
First, the pods, containing cacao beans, are harvested. The beans, together with their surrounding pulp, are removed from the pod and left in piles or bins to ferment for three to seven days. The beans must then be quickly dried to prevent mold growth; weather permitting, this is done by spreading the beans out in the sun.

The beans are then roasted, graded and ground. Cocoa butter is removed from the resulting chocolate liquor either by being pressed or by the Broma process. The residue is what is known as cocoa powder.


Blending
Chocolate liquor is blended with the butter in varying quantities to make different types of chocolate or couvertures. The basic blends of ingredients, in order of highest quantity of cocoa liquor first, are as follows. (Note that since U.S. chocolates have a lower percentage requirement of cocoa liquor for dark chocolate, some dark chocolate may have sugar as the top ingredient.)

Plain dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and (sometimes) vanilla
Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
Usually, an emulsifying agent such as soya lecithin is added, though a few manufacturers prefer to exclude this ingredient for purity reasons and to remain GMO-free (Soya is a heavily genetically modified crop), sometimes at the cost of a perfectly smooth texture. Some manufacturers are now using PGPR, an artificial emulsifier derived from castor oil that allows them to reduce the amount of cocoa butter while maintaining the same mouthfeel.

The texture is also heavily influenced by processing, specifically conching (see below). The more expensive chocolates tend to be processed longer and thus have a smoother texture and "feel" on the tongue, regardless of whether emulsifying agents are added.

Different manufacturers develop their own "signature" blends based on the above formulas but varying proportions of the different constituents are used.

The finest plain dark chocolate couvertures contain at least 70% cocoa (solids + butter), whereas milk chocolate usually contains up to 50%. High-quality white chocolate couvertures contain only about 33% cocoa. Inferior and mass-produced chocolate contains much less cocoa (as low as 7% in many cases) and fats other than cocoa butter. Some chocolate makers opine that these "brand name" milk chocolate products can not be classed as couvertures, or even as chocolate, because of the low or virtually non-existent cocoa content.


Chocolate, with enough cocoa butter, flows gently over a chocolate fountain to serve fondue.

Conching
The penultimate process is called conching. A conche is a container filled with metal beads, which act as grinders. The refined and blended chocolate mass is kept liquid by frictional heat. The conching process produces cocoa and sugar particles smaller than the tongue can detect, hence the smooth feel in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of the chocolate. High-quality chocolate is conched for about 72 hours, lesser grades about four to six hours. After the process is complete, the chocolate mass is stored in tanks heated to approximately 45–50 °C (113–122 °F) until final processing.


Tempering
The final process is called tempering. Uncontrolled crystallization of cocoa butter typically results in crystals of varying size, some or all large enough to be clearly seen with the naked eye. This causes the surface of the chocolate to appear mottled and matte, and causes the chocolate to crumble rather than snap when broken. The uniform sheen and crisp bite of properly processed chocolate are the result of consistently small cocoa butter crystals produced by the tempering process.

The fats in cocoa butter can crystallize in six different forms (polymorphous crystallization). The primary purpose of tempering is to assure that only the best form is present. The six different crystal forms have different properties.