The journey of chocolates begins from a tree!
The piece of chocolate treat that quietly lies wrapped in the shelves of a candy store carries with it stories of people in the African continent who grow these magical tropical trees. As we remove the wrapper, we uncover the cocoa seed, at the same time we connect with the ancient people who grew them to the most modern of the human race who use it as a symbol of love or as an icon to celebrate happiness. Nowadays, chocolates have become an everyday luxury. Chocolates are readily available in shops as well as online. Today, just takes a few clicks of the computer mouse to gift a Cadbury hamper in UK to your loved ones who stay there.
The story of these wrapped chocolates is very amusing. It starts from the trees goes on to the farmer’s hands and ends up with you consuming it. A chocolate treat that is appreciated worldwide has a very modest beginning. A cocoa bean starts its journey from inside the fruit known as a pod. These pods grow on trees found in West Africa, South America and parts of South-East Asia.
Cocoa trees are delicate and covered with flowers that need a lot of tending. They grow in tropical forests in a mixed farming mode with cash crops such as rubber and bananas. Cocoa is normally grown by small farmers and they leave the farm handpicked and then transported in carts.
When the cocoa reaches the factory, it is ground and powdered after roasting. Once that is done, they are reduced to a paste, which is known as chocolate liquor. This is followed by a series of pressing, rolling, adding sugars and sequential heating and cooling. Once all this is done, it leads to the formation of chocolate syrup.
Human race has adopted the use of chocolates since the medieval times. And it began in South America. After that, people all over the world have used chocolates from curing diseases, to pleasing gods, for love, for holidays, to survive fasts, to ward off poisonous insects and scorpions and to gift their loved ones.
Cocoa industry today is very big and about 50 million people are employed here. These include all sorts of people from farmers to workers to chefs and bakers.
The chocolate bar is divine to taste because of the way it tastes and then swirls and melts in your mouth. Chocolate blends with more than two thousand flavours from lemon to vanilla to oranges and with currants. So that provides a wide canvas for various recipes.
A bar of chocolates’ soft feel and its buttery after taste also makes it a thing to desire for again and again. If you enjoy chocolate, you would enjoy a lot of other ice creams and deserts that have it as their main ingredient.
When tasting a bar of chocolate that gives a divine feeling when it goes down your throat, it is hard to believe that all that began from a tree.