Cocoa - A Necessary Ingredient To Make Chocolate Taste So Good

Do you like chocolate? Few people say "no."

Then you must know, What are the ingredients that determine the quality of chocolate?

That's right, Cacao similar to coffee bean, It is anecessary ingredient to make chocolate taste so good.

Cocoa beans are a common name for the seeds of the cacao tree.

Cacao tree fruit

The cacao tree is a tropical plant of the family Sycamore that grows tall and mighty, with flowers and fruits that grow directly on the trunk or main branches. The fruit is large, 15 to 20 cm long, about 7 cm in diameter, dry when ripe, the skin is thick, hard as wood, and it takes some effort to break it open with the help of a knife. When it is broken open, it reveals the well-organized seeds inside, namely "cocoa beans".

After the cocoa beans are fermented, coarsely crushed, peeled and other processes to make cocoa cakes, the cocoa cake is degreased and crushed to form a powder, that is, "cocoa powder". Cocoa powder in hot water is not easy to disperse, easy to precipitate, can first be stirred with a small amount of hot water to make it expand, and then add sugar, dairy products and other heating, it becomes a delicious hunger cocoa drink.

Delicious and hungry cacao drink

The cocoa tree originally lived in the Amazon Plains of South America, in stark contrast to today's widespread distribution in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. At that time, cocoa seeds were extremely precious because they were very rare, and it is said that the locals even used cocoa beans as currency, known as "cocoa call".

By the first half of the 16th century, Coco emigrated to Mexico through Central America, and then wandered to southern Brazil, where the natives immediately fell in love with the plant. They collect wild cacao beans, mash the seeds and process them into a drink called "Choktori" (meaning "bitter water") to savor. Subsequently, the famous explorer Columbus crossed the ocean to the Americas, encountered the plant and its beverage products, and brought them back to Spain. Unfortunately, europeans at that time did not know Tarzan, and they were not interested in this natural delicacy!

It was probably not until 1544 that a delegation to Spain carried a processed cocoa drink with him, and it was only after Prince Philip of Spain tried it that he really became interested, and the new drink began to be popularized throughout the country. At that time, the Spaniards would add sugar, spices and other things that help flavor the bitter drink to make the bitter cocoa drink more palatable. Gradually, cocoa drinks swept throughout Spain and from Spain to the rest of Europe. In the late 16th century, the first cargo ship carrying cocoa beans sailed from Mexico to Spain, indicating that there was already a consumer demand for cocoa in Europe.

Although cocoa beans have long been known and used, it was not until 1753 that the cocoa tree had an official and legal biological name "Theobroma cacao", named by the great biologist Linnaeus. He quoted a Greek word as cocoa's "surname," Theobroma, meaning "food of the gods."

The birth of chocolate

One day, a cocoa drink merchant had a sudden idea when cooking cocoa: this drink has to be boiled every time, it is too much trouble! If it can be made into solid food, take a small piece of water when eating, or directly put it in the mouth to eat, how good!

So, the businessman began to experiment and finally really mashed a solid cocoa drink, named "Chocolate Special", which was the world's first generation of chocolate. In the next three hundred years, chocolate was continuously improved, innovated, and degreased to form the modern version of chocolate that we eat today.