Little about chocolate ;)

'The legend has it that in the heart of rain forest that lay between the Orinoco and the Amazon, there grew a tree with a silvery-grey bark. When it was mature, buds. flowers and large orange brown fruits grew directly from its trunk and branches. The monkey and parrots living in the forest would pick the ripest fruits, crack their shells and eat their pulpy contents. One day an Indian out looking for food saw that as well as the pulp it contains large seeds. At first he did not know what to do with the seeds, until one day, he saw that they had begun to dry out, having been left in the sun all day, As an experiment he tried one, and although it was quite bitter, he nonetheless found that he liked the taste. So begun humans' love affair with the chocolate.'

From cocoa to chocolate

Raw cocoa beans arrive at the chocolate factory in jute sacks. They are cleaned to eliminate all extraneous matter and then roasted. As they lose moisture they acquire their chocolate colour and develop their aroma. Once cooled they are crushed into small pieces. A hydraulic press then transformes the cocoa into cocoa mass, by heating and compressing the ground cocoa nibs, allowing the fat, or cocoa butter to run off. When the compression chamber is opened the resulting cakes are released and then pulverized into raw cocoa powder ready for dutching.

British Chocolate
Chocolate is a basic part of the British diet. The reason? Its sweetness and melt-in-the mouth qualities make it a major comfort food.

The British are extremely fond of chocolate and rank fifth in the world consumption tables, consuming 8.65kg (19lbs) per person per year. They remain faithful to the tried and tested products from the major manufacturers, such as Kit Kat and Milky Way. Milk chocolate is British favorite.

The different forms of chocolate
Block Chocolate Plain -
Cocoa butter, cocoa (less then 50 per cent for mass-market products, or more then 50 per cent for bitter and extra bitter, 100 per cent pure, 'cru' and organic varieties) and sugar

Milk -
Cocoa, cocoa butter, milk, sugar.

White -
Cocoa butter, milk, sugar.

Chocolate blended with other ingredients -
Plain, milk or white chocolate to which have been added haselnuts, crisped rice, honey, raisins or nougat, etc.,