Chocolate grows in a fairly narrow band close to the equator . This is the ideal climate for the cacao trees to grow . Africa plays a big part in chocolate production ; European companies tend to get their supplies from places like the Ivory Coast .
Cocao trees are about as big as apple trees and they bear fruit within 4 years of planting . They like it moist and warm , but need shade , so are often planted alongside taller banana or coconut trees . The crop from the trees is the cacao pods which contain beans . The year ’ s crop from one tree is only enough for around 500g of chocolate , so you can imagine the scale of harvest needed to satisfy our chocolate cravings !
Harvesting the pods is very labour intensive so whole families take part in the process which is mainly completed by hand , rather than using machinery . The beans are removed from the pods and placed in boxes wrapped with banana leaves ; this starts a fermentation process .
The beans are dried , sometimes in a natural way , sometimes with open fires . Once dried the nib , or inner seed , is extracted from the shell and it ’ s this nib that is used to make chocolate .
The nibs are roasted at 110C and then ground down to make a buttery mass . It is at this point that it changes from cacao to cocoa and solidifies when cooled . This heating removes lots of good things from the raw material , but makes it easier
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Easter is just around the corner and for many of us that means a chance to feast on chocolate !
When you unwrap your Easter egg , or chocolate treat , do you ever think about the journey made by the product you are about to enjoy ?
to work with and more palatable to modern tastes . The solid block of cocoa can be ground to make many different chocolates .
So , which products sell the best ?
Snickers is the world ’ s best-selling chocolate bar , toblerone is second and dairy milk is third . Others in the top 10 that you may recognise are Hershey bars and Mars bars .
Chocolate is said to originate from Mexico and was first discovered somewhere between the Olmec and the Maya people . It was originally used as currency , with 4 beans buying you a rabbit and 100 buying you a human slave .
The Aztec emperor Montezuma kept 960 million beans ! The beans were crushed and added to hot water and spices such as chilli or vanilla . It was a very bitter drink , but it was found to have great powers of giving energy and alertness . Today if you want to experience the drink , try crushing some cacao from a block and add hot water and chilli ; it takes some getting used to !
When the Europeans arrived in Mexico in 1502 it took them a while to realise the potential of chocolate . Columbus ignored it and it was left to Hernan Cortes in 1519 to send it back to Spain with
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