Chocolate

Chocolate Baking Recipes - Chocolate Cake, Fudges, Ice Cream and more

Chocolate Listeni/ˈtʃɒkᵊlət/ is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Mokaya (Mexico and Guatemala), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BC. In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl Nahuatl pronunciation: [ʃoˈkolaːt͡ɬ], a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavor.

After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to produce cacao nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because the cocoa mass is usually liquefied before being 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. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids.

Cocoa solids are a source of flavonoids[3] and alkaloids, such as theobromine, phenethylamine and caffeine.[4]

Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and a vast number of foodstuffs involving chocolate have been created, particularly desserts including cakes, pudding, mousse, chocolate brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened chocolate, and bars of solid chocolate and candy bars coated in chocolate are eaten as snacks. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes (e.g., eggs, hearts) have become traditional on certain Western holidays, such as Easter and Valentine's Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages such as chocolate milk and hot chocolate and in some alcoholic drinks, such as creme de cacao.

Although cocoa originated in the Americas, in the 2000s, Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world's cocoa, with Ivory Coast growing almost half of it. In 2009, Salvation Army International Development stated that child labor and the human trafficking and slavery of child laborers are used in African cocoa cultivation

Banania

Bicerin

Bournvita

Brownie Chocolate Drink

Chocca Wocca

Magically Chocolate Beverage

Cadbury

Cacolac

Cal-C-Tose

Carnation (brand)

Champurrado

Choc-Ola

Chocolate coconut water

Chocolate liqueur

Chocolate milk

Chocomel

Cocio

Cocodirect

Cola Cao

Egg cream

Espressino

Hot chocolate

Kókómjólk

Marocchino

Milo (drink)

Mocaccino

Nesquik (mix)

Ovaltine

Pinolillo

Pópo

Pozol

Pucko

Stephen's Gourmet

Swiss Miss

Tascalate

Tejate

Theobroma bicolor

Toddy

Vi-Co

Xicolatada

Yoo-hoo

Chocolate liqueurs

Chocolate liqueur

Liqueur Fogg

Ratafia de cacao

Ratafia de chocolat

Sabra liqueur

Vana Tallinn

Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur

Mexican chocolate

Abuelita

Ibarra (chocolate)

Mayordomo

Taza Chocolate