Chocolate is a

Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste,
either on its own or as a flavoring in other foods. The cacao tree has been used as a source of food for
at least 5,300 years, starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador.
Later, Mesoamerican civilizations consumed cacao beverages, of which one, chocolate, was introduced
to Europe in the 16th century.
The seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to
develop the flavor. After fermentation, the seeds are dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed
to produce nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, unadulterated chocolate in rough form. Once
the cocoa mass is liquefied by heating, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor may also be cooled and
processed into its two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Baking chocolate, also called bitter
chocolate, contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions without any added sugar.
Powdered baking cocoa, which contains more fiber than cocoa butter, can be processed with alkali to
produce Dutch cocoa. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a
combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and added vegetable oils and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet
chocolate that additionally contains milk powder. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and
milk, but no cocoa solids.
Chocolate is one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and many foodstuffs
involving chocolate exist, particularly desserts, including cakes, pudding, mousse, brownies,
and chocolate chip cookies. Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened
chocolate. Chocolate bars, either made of solid chocolate or other ingredients coated in chocolate, are
eaten as snacks. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes (such as eggs, hearts, and coins) are
traditional on certain Western holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and Hanukkah.
Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, such as chocolate milk and hot chocolate, and in
some alcoholic drinks, such as crème de cacao.
Although cocoa originated in the Americas, West African countries, particularly Ivory Coast and Ghana,
are the leading producers of cocoa in the 21st century, accounting for some 60% of the world cocoa
supply. A 2020 report estimated that more than 1.5 million children are involved in the farming of
cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.[1] Child slavery and trafficking associated with the cocoa trade
remain major concerns. A 2018 report argued that international attempts to improve conditions for
children were doomed to failure because of persistent poverty, the absence of schools, increasing
world cocoa demand, more intensive farming of cocoa, and continued exploitation of child labor.
Etymology
Maya glyph for cacao

Cocoa is a variant of cacao, likely arising from a confusion with the word coco.[2] Through cacao, it is
ultimately derived from kakaw(a), but whether that word originates in Nahuatl or a Mixe-
Zoquean language is the subject of substantial linguistic debate. [2][3] Chocolate is a Spanish loanword,
first recorded in English in 1604,[4] and first recorded in Spanish in 1579.[5] The word for chocolate
drink in early Nahuatl texts is cacahuatl meaning "cacao water", which chocolate does not
immediately derive from.[6]
Despite theories that chocolate is derived from xocoatl meaning "bitter drink" or chocolatl meaning
"hot water"[7][8] and uncertainty around the Nahuatl origin, there is a consensus that it likely derives
from chicolatl.[9] Whether chicolatl means "cacao beater", however, is contested, due to difficulty
knowing what chico means.[10]
The term "chocolatier", for a chocolate confection maker, is recorded from 1859. [11]
History
Main article: History of chocolate
Mexica. Man Carrying a Cacao Pod, 1440–
1521
Evidence for the domestication of the cacao tree exists as early as 5300 BP in South America, before it
was introduced to Mesoamerica.[12] It is unknown when chocolate was first consumed as opposed to
other cacao-based drinks, and there is evidence the Olmecs, the earliest known major Mesoamerican
civilization, fermented the sweet pulp surrounding the cacao beans into an alcoholic beverage.[13]
[14] Chocolate was extremely important to several Mesoamerican societies, [15] and cacao was
considered a gift from the gods by the Mayans and the Aztecs.[16][17] The cocoa bean was used as
a currency across civilizations and was used in ceremonies, as a tribute to leaders and gods and as a
medicine.[18][19][20][21][22][23] Chocolate in Mesoamerica was a bitter drink, flavored with additives such
as vanilla, earflower and chili, and was capped with a dark brown foam created by pouring the liquid
from a height between containers.[24][25][26]
While Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter chocolate
when he observed it in the court of Moctezuma II in 1520,[27][28] it proved to be an acquired taste,[29]
[30] and it took until 1585 for the first official recording of a shipment of cocoa beans to
Europe. [31] Chocolate was believed to be an aphrodisiac and medicine, and spread across Europe in
the 17th century, sweetened, served warm and flavored with familiar spices. [32][33][34] It was initially
primarily consumed by the elite, with expensive cocoa supplied by colonial plantations in the
Americas.[32] In the 18th century, it was considered southern European, aristocratic and Catholic and
was still produced in a similar way to the way it had been produced by the Aztecs. [35]
One of the first mass-produced

chocolate bars, Fry's Chocolate Cream, was produced by Fry's in
1866.[36][37]
Starting in the 18th century, chocolate production was improved. In the 19th century, engine-
powered milling was developed,[38][39] and in 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten received a patent
for a process making Dutch cocoa. This removed cocoa butter from chocolate liquor (the product of
milling), and permitted large scale production of chocolate. [40] Other developments in the 19th
century, including the melanger (a mixing machine), modern milk chocolate, the conching process to
make chocolate smoother and change the flavor meant a worker in 1890 could produce fifty times
more chocolate with the same labor than they could before the Industrial Revolution, and chocolate
became a food to be eaten rather than drunk.[41] As production moved from the Americas to Asia and
Africa, mass markets in Western nations for chocolate opened up. [42]

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Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste,

Maya glyph for cacao

One of the first mass-produced

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