Chocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree.
Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC.
in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water".
After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs.
The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor.
The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
Chocolate is a range of products derived from cocoa (cacao), mixed with fat (i.e. cocoa butter and/or plant oils) and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confection.
Chocolate is a popular ingredient and available in many types. Different forms and flavors of chocolate are produced by varying the quantities of the different ingredients.
Other flavors can be obtained by varying the time and temperature when roasting the beans.
Unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor, also known as bitter, baking chocolate or cooking chocolate, mixed with some form of fat to produce a solid substance. It is unadulterated chocolate: the pure, ground, roasted chocolate beans impart a strong, deep chocolate flavor.
