Chocolate story

Chocolate is a kind of sweet food make from cocoa milk and cocoa butter. It not only has a delicate and sweet taste, but also has a strong aroma. Chocolate can be eaten directly, but also can be use to make cakes, ice cream and so on. In the romantic Valentine’s Day, it is the main character of expressing love. Let’s expore the chocolate story.

1. Big MAC

In mid-October 2011, the Thorntons candy factory in Derbyshire, England, produced a piece of chocolate weighing nearly 6 tons, 4 meters long and 4 meters wide, breaking the world record, in order to celebrate the centenary of the factory, Thorntons candy Factory specially produced this super large chocolate bar. It took 50 workers 10 hours to fill the mold with chocolate syrup and three days to wait for the chocolate to cool completely.

2.Fashion show

Paris hosts chocolate salon, models stage chocolate fashion show. The 18th edition of the Paris Chocolate Fair will be hold at the Versailles Exhibition Centre under the theme “The New World of Chocolate”, with the participation of more than 400 exhibitors and more than 200 renow confectioners from all over the world, and will attract around 120,000 chocolate lovers.

3. World record

On September 30, 2015, a chocolate town in Jiashan, Zhejiang Province, China, set the world’s largest record. The world’s largest chocolate sculpture is 4.08 meters long, 2.39 meters wide, 2.02 meters high and weighs 10.187 tons. The sculpture was made of milk chocolate made of high quality pure cocoa butter. After being tempered and shaped in the Gophisson Chocolate factory, it was carefully carved by domestic and foreign masters for ten days.

The key to chocolate fermentation aroma

In Central and South America, cacao trees are planted and harvested by local estates. Each pod has about 20-60 cacao beans. After taking out the cacao beans, they are ferment (5-7 days) and dried (5-7 days), graded and package according to the variety and size of the cacao beans.

Cacao bean fermentation process will produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, alcohol will also become acetic acid, protein components in the seeds are broke down into amino acids, germination ability is lost, tannins solidified, bitter taste reduce. The seed color changes in appearance, producing the characteristic reddish-brown pigment of the cocoa bean, and the kernel shrinks and the seed coat is strip. High quality chocolate smells of natural fragrance, and acidity is the key to affect the aroma of chocolate.

Storage conditions

Chocolate is a very fragile, delicate product, storage conditions are very particular, in addition to avoid sunlight, mold, storage place should not have a strange taste, the most important thing is the control of temperature and humidity. Chocolate, with a melting point of about 36 ° C, is a heat-sensitive food that is not easy to preserve. The storage temperature should be controll between 12-18 ° C and the relative humidity should not be higher than 65%. Improper storage will cause softening deformation, surface speckle, internal sand, odor or aroma reduction and other phenomena.

Matters need attention

Unpacked or unused chocolate must be seale with plastic wrap again and placed in a cool, dry and ventilated place at a constant temperature. The chocolate sauce or filling must be stored in the crisper.

If chocolate is place at too high a temperature, large streaks or spots will appear on the surface. If placed in a wet and cold environment, there may be a pale film, these changes will not have much impact on the aroma and texture of chocolate, can still be use for cooking and baking.

Or if stored properly, pure and bittersweet chocolate can be store for more than one year, milk chocolate and white chocolate should not be store for more than six months. White chocolate stored for too long may taste the same, but it will be less likely to melt.

In general, depending on the contents, the shelf life of chocolate will increase or decrease. In particular, the addition of fresh milk (or milk composition is higher), hazelnut chocolate products. Because the storage period of milk and hazelnut is not long, relatively shortening the storage period of chocolate. Not only should pay attention to the manufacturing date when buying, but also remember to eat as soon as possible when saving at home. If you have a cool room, chocolate does not need to be store in the refrigerator. Chocolate does not have to be store in the refrigerator. But it must be kept in an airtight container that prevents mold growth and should normally be brought to room temperature before being unpack.

If we only eat a little chocolate every day, how can we store all the chocolate we can’t eat?

1. Chocolate should not be refrigerated unless the room temperature is too high. The first thing to keep chocolate is to keep it in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight.

2. Don’t leave chocolate in places with strange smells. Because a lot of odors are from some volatile substances, and these volatile substances are mostly fat soluble. And chocolate happens to contain more fat components, so it is easier to absorb these volatile substances, easy to skewers flavor.

Timing of consumption

The answer to eating chocolate before bed is both good and bad. It’s not a good idea to eat a lot of chocolate right before bed. Because just like coffee and strong tea, chocolate has a stimulant effect that can make it harder for people with poor sleep to fall asleep. Chocolate is easy to release heat food, eating too much before going to bed will make blood sugar rise, and blood sugar can not be consume will be converte into fat storage. However, eating chocolate before bed also has its benefits, due to the sexual stimulation effect of chocolate.

It can not only make people have sexual pleasure, unblock all kinds of blockages, and it contains theobromine and caffeine, which are two important mental stimulants. Chocolate can arouse people’s body senses, improve the mental excitement. It can not only make people energetic like coffee and strong tea, and chocolate will make people more sexy and charming. Chocolate for the relief of sad mood, also has a certain role.