The Science of Chocolate 2nd Edition
By Stephen T Beckett
The Royal Society of Chemistry
Copyright © 2008 Stephen T Beckett
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-85404-970-7
Contents
Chapter 1 The History of Chocolate,
Chapter 2 Chocolate Ingredients,
Chapter 3 Cocoa Bean Processing,
Chapter 4 Liquid Chocolate Making,
Chapter 5 Controlling the Flow Properties of Liquid Chocolate,
Chapter 6 Crystallising the Fat in Chocolate,
Chapter 7 Manufacturing Chocolate Products,
Chapter 8 Analytical Techniques,
Chapter 9 Different Chocolate Products,
Chapter 10 Legislation, Shelf Life and Packaging,
Chapter 11 Nutrition and Health,
Chapter 12 Experiments with Chocolate and Chocolate Products,
Glossary,
Subject Index,
CHAPTER 1
The History of Chocolate
Chocolate is almost unique as a food in that it is solid at normal room temperatures yet melts easily within the mouth. This is because the main fat in it, which is called cocoa butter, is essentially solid at temperatures below 25 °C when it holds all the solid sugar and cocoa particles together. This fat is, however, almost entirely liquid at body temperature, enabling the particles to flow past one another, so the chocolate becomes a smooth liquid when it is heated in the mouth. Chocolate also has a sweet taste that is attractive to most people.
Strangely chocolate began as a rather astringent, fatty and unpleasant tasting drink and the fact that it was developed at all, is one of the mysteries of history.
1.1 CHOCOLATE AS A DRINK
The first known cocoa plantations were established by the Maya in the lowlands of south Yucatan about 600 AD. Cocoa trees were being grown by the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru when the Europeans discovered central America. The beans were highly prized and used as money as well as to produce a drink known as chocolatl. The beans were roasted in earthenware pots and crushed between stones, sometimes using decorated heated tables and mill stones, similar to those illustrated in Figure 1.1. They could then be kneaded into cakes, which could be added to cold water to make a drink. Vanilla, spices or honey were often added and the drink whipped to make it frothy. The Aztec Emperor Montezeuma was said to have drunk 50 jars of this beverage per day.
Christopher Columbus bought back some cocoa beans to Europe as a curiosity, but it was only after the Spaniards conquered Mexico that Don Cortez introduced the drink to Spain in the 1520s. Here sugar was added to overcome some of the bitter, astringent flavours, but the drink remained virtually unknown in the rest of Europe for almost a hundred years, coming to Italy in 1606 and France in 1657. It was very expensive and, being a drink for the aristocracy, its spread was often through connections between powerful families. For example, the Spanish princess Anna of Austria introduced it to her husband King Louis XIII of France and the French court in about 1615. Here Cardinal Richelieu enjoyed it both as a drink and to aid his digestion. Its flavour was not liked by everyone and one Pope in fact declared that it could be drunk during a fast, because its taste was so bad.
The first chocolate drinking was established in London in 1657 and it was mentioned in Pepys' Diary of 1664 where he wrote that "jocolatte" was "very good". In 1727 milk was being added to the drink. This invention is generally attributed to Nicholas Sanders. During the eighteenth century, White's Chocolate House became the fashionable place for young Londoners, while politicians of the day went to the Cocoa Tree C
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