World of Chocolate and Beverages

Good and bad about caffeine

2011-11-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

Caffeine is a chemical alkaloid with central nervous system stimulant properties. It is a colorless, somewhat bitter substance that is found in coffee, tea, chocolate and cola. It is also in many over- the-counter medicines and in many diet/weight loss supplements. It is considered a psychoactive drug.

It has benefits and it has side effects. It helps keep us alert. It stimulates the central nervous system. Some say it improves physical and mental performance. It has diuretic activity.

Moreover, caffeine produces a feeling of well being, increased energy, increase attention, concentration, desire to socialize and motivation for work.

Some studies list is as a mood elevator, and a pain reliever. Because of the increased alertness levels of those who consume caffeine, there has been improved performance in activities such as test-taking, driving, flying and problem solving.

These characteristic include both caffeine’s ability to improve people’s moods, self-confidence and energy and what researchers call ability to act as a reinforce.

There are side effects of caffeine though. Those are insomnia, nervousness, increased tension and anxiety-panic attacks, just from drinking the amount of 300 mg. The amount that causes these side effects vary from individual to individual, however, children seem to have a lower tolerance of it because of their lower body weight.

The Food and Drug Administration advises pregnant women to avoid it altogether. Mother of premature babies and babies with cardiac problems should limit caffeine intake and should report what they do consume to baby’s pediatric care provider.

There was a report on a series of patients presenting a variety of symptoms he attributed to the use of coffee, or tea , concluding that eliminating caffeine from the diets could be beneficial.

However, it was recommended that who terminated the caffeine use abruptly were at risk for developing a severe headache, fatigue, sleepiness, mood disturbance or impaired concentration. Coffee consumption should be reduce gradually over a week or more.

Caffeine is found un coffee beans, tea leaves, and cacao among other plants.
Good and bad about caffeine

Consumption of Cocoa Powder

2011-11-14T21:11:00.000-08:00

Consumption has increased more than tenfold since the turn of the twentieth century, commercial cacao cultivation having spread around the world in a belt within twenty degrees of the equator and the varieties of chocolate flavored confections having proliferated worldly.

The cocoa powder is made into a drink and can be added to milk, cakes and ice cream. The beans contain the stimulant alkaloid, theobromine (about 2.5 percent) and about 0.8 percent caffeine, but these quantities are reduced after processing.

Confections such as nougats, pastes and pralines often use coca as a flavoring material.

Cocoa differs from the other common beverages (coffee and tea) in that it has a marked nutritional composition, for example cocoa powder contains about 25 percent fat (saturated), 16 percent protein and 12 percent carbohydrate (about half are sugars).

Natural cocoa powder also known as non-alkalized cocoa powder is the classics American cocoa used of making chocolate cakes and brownies.
Consumption of Cocoa Powder

The Health Effects of Chocolate

2011-11-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

In its New World beginning, chocolate was favored as a food that relieved the effects of fatigue.

The real chocolate consist of largely fermented, roasted chocolate beans that are packed with nutrients. The word chocolate comes from Aztecs of Mexico who called it ‘bitter water’.

The emperor Montezuma, for example, could drink up to fifty goblets of xocoatl per day, which may seem enormous, but was probably the amount he needed for support in the day’s tasks (he kept a harem of six hundred concubines).

According to the research, chocolate is one of the best natural sources of arginine, an amino acid. Arginine acts in a similar way to Viagra in that it increase blood flow to the penis and amplifies sexual drive. More study have shown that the mere scent of chocolate cause a slight increase in penile blood flow. Why or how is unknown.

Over the course of history, chocolate has been regarded as not only a food pleasant to the taste, but also as a remedy for different ailments, especially angina and circulatory problems.

The positive associations of chocolate and health lasted until the end of the nineteenth century.

Nearly all chocolate was consumed as a beverage until the mid-19th century. It has been noted that establishment that served drinking chocolate were rare and only the well to do could afford to consume it at home.

It was only with the industrialization of chocolate production and the manufacture of the sugar filled candies containing very little cacao (and fewer polyphenols) that chocolate began to be perceived as a substance harmful to health.

Up until now, researchers have studied mostly the potential impact of chocolate on cardiovascular disease in populations that consume large quantities of cacao.

Cacao’s beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system may be related to its antioxidant activity. Antioxidants are very important of their extraordinary health enhancing properties. Chocolate has one of the highest levels of antioxidants per gram of any food measured to date.

Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants – early 8 times the number found in strawberries.

The ingestion of moderate quantities of cacao causes the blood’s antioxidant capacity to rise, thus diminishing the oxidant of proteins responsible for the formation of atheromatous plaques (plaques that protrude into blood vessels and black blood flow).

However, that this effect disappears when chocolate is eaten together with the milk, because of a dramatic change in polyphenols absorption.

One of the polyphenols compound are tannins which contribute to the color and flavor of the chocolate. This tannins have been found to have and anti-bacterial and anti-enzymatic activity. This decreases plaque growth and inhibits acid formation.

Another effect of chocolate that certainly contributes to its beneficial for the cardiovascular system is the reduction of harmful blood platelet activity which reduces the risk of clot formation.

The similarity of the phytochemical content in cacao and that of other foods suspected of playing a role in cancer prevention allows us to imagine that cacao may also exhibit anti-cancer properties.

Chocolate contains 35-41 percent oleic acid. Oleic acid is considered a healthy fat because it actually helps lower cholesterol levels.
The Health Effects of Chocolate

Salmonella napoli outbreak in chocolate

2011-10-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

The most common manifestations of a salmonella infection are a moderate diarrhea together with some vomiting and an associated abdominal pain.

Chocolate has been implicated as a vector of infection with Salmonella napoli.

The largest outbreak occurred in 1982. There were about 245 people in United Kingdom suffered from food poisoning due to particular strain of Salmonella napoli.

Chocolate is thought to exert a protective effect upon the bacteria as they pass through the acid environment within the stomach.

The infection was traced to two types of chocolate bars, Tommy Junior and Ricky Junior, both made in Italy.

Thos were major and dangerous epidemic of food posing and a detailed examination of the records revealed that the majority were children and that over 20 percent had been admitted to hospital.

There were about 2.5 million chocolate bars withdrawing from the market due to this cases.

Contamination food at source is, however, the initial event in any food-borne Salmonella incident, and control of the initial contamination is as important as food hygiene is in long term.
Salmonella napoli outbreak in chocolate

Hot Chocolate

2011-09-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

Chocolate has been drunks for thousands of years. Mayan developing savory chocolate drinks. Residue taken from broad range of ancient Maya vessels reveal that all Maya regularly drank a spicy, foamy, chocolatyl brew perhaps as far back as 2600 years ago.

In the 1500s the Aztecs introduced a little sweetness of the mixture in the form of honey.

The chocolate drink famous today became a fashionable drink in Europe in the seventeenth century.

In 1657, the first chocolate shop opened in London, England. Chocolate houses, where wealthy men paid an entrance fee to drink hot chocolate, gamble, play cards, eat and socialize.

There is a new reason to enjoy hot cocoa on a cold winter's night in front of a cozy fire. Consider it a health drink.

Beyond the froth, cocoa teems with antioxidants that prevent cancer, food scientists say.

Today in Europe, hot chocolate is a favorite breakfast drink and is considered healthy for children.

Especially for Spanish, they drink hot chocolate for breakfast instead of coffee.

There are many ways of preparing hot chocolate. The only common denominator is that it should be thick and foamy.
Hot Chocolate

Health Benefits of Chocolate Drinks

2011-09-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

There is a new reason to enjoy hot cocoa on a cold winter's night in front of a cozy fire. Consider it a health drink. Despite its relatively high sugar and saturated fat content chocolate is a rich source of antioxidants.

Other than reduce oxidization of LDL they also prevent cancer, food scientists say.

The reason that cocoa leads the other drinks is its high content of compounds called phenolic phytochemicals, or flavonoids, indicating the presence of known antioxidants that can stave off cancer, cardiovascular disease and other ailments.

Cocoa contains the flavonoids epicatechin and catechins as well as the larger oligomeric flavanols procyanadins.

Apart from cocoa and chocolate, flavanols are also found in a number of other foods and drinks such as apricots, apples, tea and red wines.

Comparing the chemical anti-cancer activity in beverages known to contain antioxidants, they have found that cocoa has nearly twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times those found in green tea.

The scientists discovered 611 milligrams of the phenolic compound gallic acid equivalents (GAE) and 564 milligrams of the flavonoid epicatechin equivalents (ECE) in a single serving of cocoa. Examining a glass of red wine, the researchers found 340 milligrams of GAE and 163 milligrams of ECE.

In a cup of green tea, they found 165 milligrams of GAE and 47 milligrams of ECE. When the scientist compared one serving of each beverage, the cocoa turned out to be the highest in antioxidant activity.

Phenols in milk chocolate are also higher than that in black and green tea.

A cup of hot chocolate can contain approximately 150 mg of phenolic compounds. And a piece of milk chocolate bar provides almost 200 mg.

Phenolic compounds protect plants against insects and pathogens, and they remain active even after food processing.

Some other nutrients in chocolate include magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese.

The Aztec and Mayans believed that their cocoa drink had a positive health benefit and there have been many documented uses of cocoa as a medicine over the centuries.

Chocolate was a popular as a drink before it was eaten as candy. In the mid 1600s - chocolate was a fashionable English beverage. Drinking chocolate was touted as being wholesome for body and mind, and it was often consumed for medicinal purposes.
Health Benefits of Chocolate Drinks

Cereals in chocolate confectionary

2011-08-21T01:51:00.000-07:00

Apart from the indirect incorporation of cereals via cookies and wafers and the like, it is possible to use cereals directly in chocolate confectionary products.

Whatever is used to the customer the chocolate bar must bring the ultimate in eating pleasure, by giving the expected flavor, smoothness and melting profile.

The original hard and crunchy cereals confectionary snack consist of the mixture compacted together bound with a wash of fat, sugar and cocoa powder for flavoring.

Wheat, corn, oats, rice, barley, rye and sorghum can all form the bases for confectionary snack products.

Certain cereal components are useful sources of vitamins as well as protein. Defatted wheat germ is used for the fortification of breakfast cereals, which, in turn are popular ingredients of chocolate bars.

Extrusion cooking and simultaneous forming of cereals has potential in chocolate confectionary because of the wide range of textures and shapes that are possible.

Moreover, extrusion cooking appears to modify the textural properties of the cereal in such a way that crispness is retained at higher moisture levels than would be the case for conventional processed cereals.

Chocolate confectionary with cereals are a particular category of countlines and are classified marketing terms into their own sector. They are presented in the conventional countlines format and size and are characterized by consisting predominantly of cereals, nuts and fruit.

The most solid eating chocolate is still milk chocolate, with added cereals, or nuts or fruits.
Cereals in chocolate confectionary

Cocoa beans infestation

2011-07-02T21:02:00.001-07:00

Once they have been dried, cocoa beans are quite stable and will not deteriorate for several years, provided they are kept under good conditions. These should include an absence of the various insect pests that feed on cocoa beans.

Cocoa beans may be infested with insects which have not penetrated the beans and whose presence is not revealed by the cut test which is employed for grading purposes.

Such insects may subsequently enter beans or they may be involved in cross infestation of other shipments.

Cocoa beans have to be fumigated more than once to control insects: irradiation could be applied at the terminal end before shipment.

Care should be taken to avoid cocoa beans becoming infested in ships and stores from other commodities or with insects remaining from previous shipments.

Properly prepared cocoa stored in clean, pest free areas will not become infested. Control measures need to be applied as required to the structure of the tore or ship.

In store infestation can be minimized by good hygiene measures and when necessary the application of pest control.

On the arrival at the factory, the beans are usually put through large fumigation chambers and treated with methyl bromide to ensure that no infested beans arrive in the production areas.
Cocoa beans infestation

Cocoa Powder Properties

2011-05-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

The word cacao comes from the word kakawa from language of the Olmecs people and was already used around 1000 BC.

Cacao is deliciously rich and bitter. Raw cacao beans can be ground and used in lieu of cocoa powder or chocolate.

Cocoa powder is a valuable flavoring material in baked goods and desserts as well as the basis of hot chocolate drinks. It is made from fermented , roasted and ground cacao beans.

Like chocolate, cocoa powder is made from cocoa beans that have processed into a paste known as chocolate liquor. Using a hydraulic press, produces remove between 50 and 75 percent of the cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor and then pulverize the remaining solids to make cocoa.

The commercial powder varies in color and flavor, dependent upon the quality the beans used, the degree of roasting and precise method.

The good quality cocoa powder has the following characteristics:
*PH: 5.6 to 7,.1 dependent upon whether or not the cocoa beans were processed with alkali.
*Fat: about 24% and not less than 22%
*Moisture: 3-4%

After preliminary treatments such as fermentation process described and drying, beans ready for further processing are composed of 87% cotyledon containing only 4-5% water, 12% shell containing 8-10% water and 1 % germ.
Cocoa Powder Properties

Chocolate cookies and wafer

2011-05-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

In the first half nineteenth century, sugar confectionary was industrialized and cheap sugar sweet became commonplace.

The luxury end of the market was occupied by the development of chocolate as a confection.

The term wafer usually refer to a thin crisp type of biscuit. The American products called wafers which are baked from batters enriched with eggs, and fat and sugar.

Most cookie and wafer formulations are suitable as components of chocolate confectionary and a wide range of textures, ranging from hard semisweet to shortcake or digestive can be used.

Because of their low moisture content and flow water activity, they need to be protected from moisture pick-up, which can lead to softening of the structure and the development of stake off flavors.

In chocolate confectionary, the chocolate itself acts as an effective, but not perfect, moisture barrier to the external.

Dark chocolate, with its higher proportion of solid-phase fat is more effective as a barrier than milk chocolate.

Sandwiched wafers are rich in filling with the filling being around 70% by weight as compared with 30% or less in sandwiched cream biscuits.

When filling wafers are chocolate enrobed or form part of a chocolate molded bar, the wafer component becomes even more subsidiary in term of composition.

Chocolate cookies are much easier to make using enrobing technology. Product based on shortcake or wafer laminated with fat creams chocolate are popular products. Very often the cookie is combined with a layer of caramel.
Chocolate cookies and wafer

Chocolate in Caffé Mocha

2011-03-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

This is a chocolate variation of the caffé latte.

It a cup of pure indulgence. It’s like a latte, the café mocha, is one third espresso, two third of milk, but with coca powder or chocolate syrup.

Either cocoa powder or chocolate syrup is added at the beginning of preparing the drink, and the chocolate is mixed or frothed with hot milked until thoroughly blended, before the espresso is added. It then served topped with whipped cream.

Even before taste it, the delicious aroma fills the air. Once settle back, feel the warmth and start take a sip.

Café Mocha takes its name form the Red Sea coastal town of Mocha, Yemen. This Yemenese port famous for its coffee.

Chocolate in Caffé Mocha

Curing and Fermentation of Cocoa

2010-12-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

Curing and Fermentation of Cocoa
Harvested pos are usually collected in one or more convenient places in the field where the cutting of pods to obtain cocoa beans takes place. Sometimes mature fruits are collected in gunny sacks and are ripened for 2 days.

After ripening, the fruits are cut into two section in order to collect the beans (seeds).

Pods can also be opened by the using bamboo sacks to hit the pods until they split into two pieces. The beans are then collected and pile on plastic sheets or places in wooden baskets. The skin of the pods may be buried in the soil or used as animal feed.

The practice of providing an interval of 3 to 4 days between harvesting and opening is recommended for the benefit of fermentation.

The fermentation process is mainly aimed at killing the beams so that changes within the beans can take place, such as changes in color, improvement in aroma and flavor, as well as enhancement of the ‘beans’ keeping quality.

During the fermentation process the temperature of cocoa beans increases to about 40 degree Celsius as a result of the exothermic chemical reactions in the pulp that result from the activity of a succession of microorganism.

The pH of the cotyledons drops from 6 to about 5. At 36 to 72 hours after fermentation starts, the beans are “killed” and thereafter many chemical reactions take place inside the beans.

Good fermentation is achieved if the pH of the cotyledons has reached 4.8, the amount of pulp is reduced to 0.16%, and when the ebonies develop a good aroma.

After fermentation process is completed, the pulp can be cleaned by soaking the beans in running water for about 2 to 3 hours.
Curing and Fermentation of Cocoa

Cocoa Beverage Arrived Europe

2010-11-27T21:35:00.000-08:00

Cocoa Beverage Arrived Europe
All chocolate was prepared in liquid form as beverages until the mid 1830s when it became technically possible to remove coca fat and collect solids.

The original introduction of chocolate to Europe during the 16th century therefore, was only in beverage form.

Chocolate appeared for the first time in Europe in 1544 when introduced to the Spanish court by Mayan nobles who greeted Prince Philip.

The Mayan word cacao entered scientific nomenclature in 1753 when Linnaeus published his taxonomic system and coined the genus and species, Theobroma cacao, terms translated as “food of the gods”.

The Florentine Codex provides recipes on how to prepare cocoa and reports: “When ordinary quantities are drunk, (cacao) gladdens, refreshes, consoles and invigorates”.

During the past 450 years chocolate beverage have been used to treat four consistent medical related conditions,:
1-To restore flesh to emaciated patients especially those suffering from tuberculosis
2-To stimulate the nervous systems of patients identified as feeble, exhausted or apathetic
3-To calm patients identified as overestimated
4-To improve digestion and elimination

Cocoa Beverage Arrived Europe

Cocoa in general

2010-11-03T02:16:00.000-07:00

Cocoa in general
Cocoa was known as chcoclatl the royal beverage of the King Montezuma during the Mayan period. It also has a medicinal effect and was so famous and high prices that it was once used as money and for tax payment in Mexico.

Dried coca beans are usually processed into coca butter, which contains fat between 56% and 58% made up of a mixture of triglycerides.

A typical cocoa butter from West Africa is composed of the following fatty acids; palmitic, 25.3%; stearic, 36.6% oleic, 33.3%; linoleic 2.8% and other fatty acids 2.9%.

Cocoa butter with this composition is good for making chocolate and has favorable hardness and a melting point of body temperature.

Most chocolate manufacturers require that cocoa beans can be processed into good chocolate with good flavor.

Such quality depends very much on the variety of tree and the method of postharvest handling, such as fermentation and drying.

Theobroma cacao originated from jungle of the Amazon in Brazil or the area between 18 degree north and 15 degree south.

Theobroma cacao consists of two sub species: the Cacao, subspecies known as the Criollo, which can be found in Central ad South America and spharocarpum, which is also called the Forastero.

The world producers of cocoa are on the African continent, in Latin America and in Asia.
Cocoa in general

The Cut Test of Cocoa

2010-09-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

The standard method for evaluating the quality of cocoa beans is a cut test on which the interior of a certain number of beans that have been longitudinal cut are visually inspected.

The sample of coca beans shall be thoroughly mixed and then ‘quartered’ down to leave a heap of slightly more than 300 beans.

The first 300 beans shall then be counted off, irrespective of size, shape and condition.

The 300 beans shall be cut lengthwise through the middle and examined.

Separate counts shall be made of the number of beans which are defective in that they are moldy, slaty, insect damaged, germinated or flat.

The beans should be free from the following defects:
*Internal moldiness
*Slaty color, denoting undercuring
*Off flavors, denoting improper fermentation
*Smoky or hammy favor, denoting faulty drying
*Germination
*Breakage or damage by insects
*Shriveling or flatness.

Where a bean is defective in more than one respect, only one defect shall be counted and the defect to be counted shall be the defect which occurs first on the foregoing list of defects.

The examination for this test shall be carried out in good day light or equivalent artificial as a percentage of the 300 beans examined.
The Cut Test of Cocoa

About Cocoa Powder

2010-08-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

About Cocoa Powder
Cocoa powder is a valuable flavoring material in baked goods and desserts as well as the basis of hot chocolate drinks.

Like chocolate, cocoa powder is made from cocoa beans that have processed into a paste known as chocolate liquor. Using a hydraulic press, produces remove between 50 and 75 percent of the cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor and then pulverize the remaining solids to make cocoa.

The commercial powder varies in color and flavor, dependent upon the quality the beans used, the degree of roasting and precise method.

The good quality cocoa powder has the following characteristics:
*PH: 5.6 to 7,.1 dependent upon whether or not the cocoa beans were processed with alkali.
*Fat: about 24% and not less than 22%
*Moisture: 3-4%

The cocoa powder is made into a drink and can be added to milk, cakes and ice cream. The beans contain the stimulant alkaloid, theobromine (about 2.5 percent) and about 0.8 percent caffeine, but these quantities are reduced after processing.

Cocoa differs from the other common beverages (coffee and tea) in that it has a marked nutritional composition, for example cocoa powder contains about 25 percent fat (saturated), 16 percent protein and 12 percent carbohydrate (about half are sugars).

There are two types of coca powder, natural and Dutch processed.

Natural cocoa powder tends to be acidic and in many cases, harsh because inferior quality cocoa beans are often used to produce it.

Adding alkali to natural cocoa powder mellows its flavor and darkens its color. The process adding alkali to cocoa powder was discovered in the early nineteenth century by Coenraad Van Houten, who was Dutch: that’s the reason this type of coca is known as Dutch processed cocoa powder.
About Cocoa Powder

Composition of Cocoa Bean

2010-07-09T07:44:00.001-07:00

Composition of Cocoa Bean
The coca bean is composed chiefly of fat, this ingredient amounting to fully 50 percent and often a larger percentage of the total weight.

The next most important ingredient is the protein or nitrogenous elements, including the theobromine and caffeine, which exist in small quantities in the bean.

Starches and sugars together form from 20 to 25 percent of the weight of the bean.

In round numbers the ash amounts to 4 percent and the theobromine to about 1 percent.

Various analysts, however, give very wide differences in the content of theobromine, some rising to as much as 2.5 percent and others falling to as little as five-tenth of 1 percent.

From the above data it will be seen that chocolate has a real food value.

The chief food value of the cocoa beams resides of course in the fat. Owing to the high caloric power of fat, cocoa furnished a very large amount of heat and energy. The digestible protein and the starch and sugar add no mean value to cocoa as a food.

In as much as the whole mass is mixed with the drink, all of the nutrient portions become available for the sustenance of the body.
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If in the preparation of the beverage milk and sugar are added the food value of course, is increased to that degree.

Theobromine, which is the principal active alkaloid of the cacao bean, is much less objectionable if foods that its first cousin, caffeine.

Theobromine and its isomer, theophyllin, do not exert so powerful a stimulating influence as caffeine, and hence for this reason cocoa is preferable to tea or coffee.
Composition of Cocoa Bean

From South America to Worldwide

2010-06-11T01:47:00.000-07:00

From South America to Worldwide
The term of ‘cocoa’ is a corruption of the world ‘cacao’ that is taken directly from Mayan and Aztec languages. Chocolate is derived form cocoa beans, central to the fruit of cocoa tree.

Theobroma cacao which is indigenous to South America and believed to have originated from the Amazon and Orinoco valleys.

Theobroma (food of the gods) are the family Sterculiaceae with four principal types:
Criollo, about 5% of world cocoa production and the more common Forastero, with smaller, flatter and purple beans; Nacional with fine flavour, grown in Ecuador. The fourth variety Trinitario, a more disease-resistant hybrid of Criollo and Forastero is regarded as a flavour bean.

Theobroma cacao grows between tropics of Cancer and Capricorn with varieties originating in forest areas of South America.

Forastero – a basic cocoa, grows mainly in Brazil and West Africa, whilst flavour cocoas are largely hybrids and are cultivated in Central and South America, via Caribbean islands, and Hernandos Cortex, a Spanish, took cocoa to Spain as a beverage and to Spanish Guinea as a crop.

The Spanish not only took cocoa to Europe but also introduce the crop into Fernando Po in the seventeenth century and thus laid the foundation of the future economics of many West African countries.

Currently West Africa produces around 68% of world cocoa, while the share of the Far East is projected to remain at 18 percent and that of Latin America and the Caribbean at 14 percent.

In 2010 world grindings of cocoa beans, a proxy for world cocoa consumption, would amount to 3.6 million tones, reflecting an average annual increase of 2.1 percent from 2.8 million tones during the base period.
From South America to Worldwide

Components of Chocolate Confectionary

2010-05-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Components of Chocolate Confectionary
There is almost no limit to the range of ingredients that a confectioner will consider when designing a new product. But the most common pallet of components used in combination with chocolate for the manufacture of confectionary products is broadly as follows:

Cookies and wafers

Cereals

Nuts

Fruits

Caramels/fudges

Fondants

Nougatine

It is obvious that combinations of some or all of these components can yield a colossal number of products most of which could fit a snack definition.

What is not so obvious is how to combine them in a way that will lead to a successful multimillion-dollar brand.

One factor that does appear to be important is complexity of eat, reflected in a succession of changing taste and texture as the product is chewed.

But such complexity is not necessary achieved by complicated recipe nor by an intricate manufacturing processes.
Components of Chocolate Confectionary

Grade Standard of Cocoa

2010-04-19T01:42:00.001-07:00

Grade Standard of Cocoa
Cocoa shall be graded in the basis of the count of defective beans in the cut test. Defective beans shall not exceed the following limits:

Defective beans shall not exceed the following limits:
Grade 1
a. Mouldy beans, maximum 3 percent by count
b. Slaty beans, maximum 3 percent by count
c. Insect-damaged, germinated or flat beans total maximum 3 percent by count

Grade 2
a. Moldy beans, maximum 8 percent by count
b. Slaty beans, maximum 8 percent by count
c. Insect damaged, germinated or flat beans total maximum 6 percent by count

When beans is defective in more than one respect, it shall be recorded in one category only, i.e. the most objectionable.

The decreasing order of gravity is as follows:
Moldy beans
Slaty beans
Insect-damaged beans, germinated beans, flat beans
Grade Standard of Cocoa

Cocoa and hot cocoa

2010-03-24T02:11:00.000-07:00

Cocoa and hot cocoa
Cocoa is obtained from the cocoa pod, which is grown in the Caribbean, Africa and South America.

The beans are removed from pods, dried and roasted then made into various processed forms.

Most of the fat is extracted during processing and the remaining cocoa is cooled and ground into powder.

In some islands, farmers who grow cocoa open the pods and spread the seeds (cocoa beans) on a banana leaf to dry in the sun.

The ground cocoa is used to make chocolate sticks and balls, but the fat is not removed.

This home produced chocolate ball is then grated and made into a hot beverage.

Cocoa contains a mild stimulant known as theobromine. In cold countries, a cup of hot cocoa is a favorite during winter days because of its stimulating property.

It is not advisable therefore that children consume large amounts of hot cocoa. Hot milk is very valuable in the diet of young children and convalescents. It can be flavored with cocoa for children who dislike drinking milk.
Cocoa and hot cocoa

About Hot Cocoa

2010-03-17T02:06:00.001-07:00

About Hot Cocoa
Hot cocoa is good for your. Sip a steaming mug of hot cocoa and you’ll get more disease fighting antioxidants per cup than a similar serving of red wine or tea, report the researcher.

Cocoa’s antioxidants are almost two times stronger than red wine, two to three times stronger than green tea and four to five times stronger than black tea.

Antioxidants, vitamin C and E and beta carotene are widely believed to fight cancer, heart disease and aging. They may even help slave off the memory robbing Alzheimer’s disease.

The study is the most extensive comparison yet of the total antioxidant content of coca, wine and tea, arguably the world’s most popular drinks after water.

There’s just one problem with all this: scientists know antioxidants are essential for our good heath and longevity but thy don’t yet know how much we need everyday.

If you want to get antioxidant dose from something sweet, there is nothing better than hot cocoa, And the key word here is “hot.”

There is a saying that hot is better than cold. For some reason, when cocoa is heated, more antioxidants are released than when it’s cold.
About Hot Cocoa

Production of Cocoa

2010-02-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

Production of Cocoa
The small seeds which make cocoa have quite a peculiar manner of growth.

Most fruits and nuts are borne upon the new growth of the tree.

The cocoa seeds grow in large pods and are attached to the older parts of the trunk or the larger limbs of the tree.

The coca tree like coffee requires, in very hot climates a shelter to promote especially its early growth.

This shelter is usually provided by planting it under another tree of larger size.

The tree begins to bear at about the seventh year and it reaches its full growth the tenth year.

The yield of cocoa per tree is very small. The average for trees of 10 years is only about one pound each.

The cocoa tree grows to a height of 20 or 3o feet.

It is an evergreen, and usually the diameter o the trunk near the ground on a full grown tree is from 6 to 12 inches.

It is a continual bearer, though the heavier crop comes in the spring.

The blossom is a very small one, almost white but with a pinkish tint, and looks very much like an artificial petal made of wax.

As already stated, instead of growing on the new wood it grows directly out of the trunk or larger branches of the tree and the fruit is harvested by long poles something like the long handled knives which are used for pruning apple and other fruit trees.

The fruit ripens ion from three to four months or at least grows to such maturity that it can be harvested at that time.

As soon as the fruit is harvested the pods are split open and the seeds are spread out to dry.

It is important that the drying should be as prompt and as complete as possible to prevent the pods from molding.
Production of Cocoa

Definitions of Cocoa

2010-02-14T03:34:00.001-08:00

Definitions of Cocoa
Cocoa is a corruption of the botanical garden name of the plant cacao.

It is applied to the roasted and crushed fruit of the Theobroma from which about one-half of its oil has been expressed.

The term cocoa nibs is applied to the roasted while seeds of the Theobroma.

Chocolate is the name of roasted and crushed nibs before any of the oil has been extracted.

The term chocolate is also applied to the beverage made from the crushed nibs.

Unless the above facts are clearly comprehend much confusion of ideas will ensue.

It s unfortunate that the term, coco was not applied to chocolate and vise versa.

The matter is further complicated by applying the term chocolate to a highly sweetened confection containing chocolate as a base.

The sugar amounts to as much as 60 to 70 percent of the whole mass.

The plain chocolate which has not been manipulated at all is often called “bitter chocolate” in distinction from confection which is celled “sweet chocolate.”
Definitions of Cocoa

Nonvolatile Components of Chocolate Flavor

2010-01-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

Nonvolatile Components of Chocolate Flavor
If the volatile flavors are removed from cocoa liquor by distillation methods and the residue materials made into chocolate, the resultant product still has the main characteristics of chocolate, though perhaps somewhat milder.

The following is a brief description of the detail:

Flavonoids
A number of polyphenols were identified, including various catechins and anthocynins.

Amino acids
Many of these have high taste intensity and can contribute bitter and sweet tastes.

Organic acids, phenolic acids
A large range of these acids has been isolated, and although they are important constituents, their individual and collective influence is uncertain.

Carbohydrates
Glucose and fructose are present, with small amounts of sucrose. Flavoring substance develop for the degradation of sugars on heating. The reaction of sugars with amino acids (Maillard) is well known as a contributing factor in the flavor of foods.
Nonvolatile Components of Chocolate Flavor