Best Chocolate Gifts in Borehamwood, all you need to know
What is chocolate?
Chocolate, made from the seeds formed in the oval fruit pods from the cacao tree. Each pod contains 30-50 seeds. The trees, Theobroma cacao, grow near the equator. Cacao is the pod and raw seed, cocoa is the processed seeds or bean. The raw bean is very bitter and needs to go through a 6-7 stepped process before it becomes the chocolate we know and love. Best Chocolate Gifts in Borehamwood at www.walnut.gifts.
How do you make it?
Firstly, During the rainy seasons in November or April the seed is harvested.
Secondly, the raw beans stay out in the heat and moisture for approximately a week. This enables the natural yeast and bacteria present in the cacao bean to ferment. This fermentation helps to develop the flavour.
Finally, after cleaning the beans are dry roasted and the nib is ground into a powder. This contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The cocoa butter liquifies from the frictional heat, known as cocoa liquor. Poured into moulds, cooled and sold in big blocks of unsweetened or bakers’ blocks.
Alternatively, cocoa liquor can be separated into cocoa powder and cocoa butter, which is added to an endless number of cocoa-based products.
How many types of are there?
- Dark: the essential ingredients are cacao beans, sugar and an emulsifier like soy lecithin to preserve texture.
- White: the raw elements are cocoa butter, sugar, milk but no cocoa solids. So, it’s not technically chocolate, but it does have an emulsifier like soy lecithin to preserve texture.
- Ruby: Its distinct pink hue doesn’t come from any added ingredients. It comes
from the ruby cocoa bean—an under-fermented cacao beans grown in Ecuador, Brazil and the Ivory Coast.
A quick history of chocolate
1) 1900BC, the Mexican fermented the cocoa bean for alcoholic drinks
2) 460AD, in addition to everyday life, people used it for ceremonial purposes.
3) 15th Century The G-d Quetzalcoatl was cast away by the other gods for sharing chocolate with humans
4) The Maya cultures liked their cocoa warm, and the Aztecs drank it cold.
5) The Aztecs used the cocoa bean as a currency with one turkey cost 100 cocoa beans and an avocado worth three beans.
6) The Spanish conquistador Herman Cortes may have been the first European to encounter it, as the frothy drink was part of the after-dinner routine of Montezuma
7) 18th Century, the Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten introduced alkaline salts, they reduced its bitterness. He also developed a press that removed about half the natural fat (cocoa butter or cacao butter) from chocolate liquor, making it cheaper to produce and more consistent in quality.
8) In 1875, Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate by mixing a powdered milk developed by Henri Nestlé with the liquor
9) In 1879, Rudolph Lindt invented the conching machine, which improved the texture and taste.
10) In 1866, Bristol-based Joseph Fry started the mass production of chocolate bars. Competitors, Rowntree’s of York and Cadburys of Birmingham set up soon after.
Walnut Tree has an extensive range of chocolate covered products; from ginger and orange enrobed in chocolate, brazil nuts covered in milk, white or dark chocolate, chocolate spoons, chocolate bark, the list is endless. So treat yourself and your family.
Read more about us, our story, the Great Taste Awards we’ve won and why we have a passion for superior tasting gifts and snacks.
We’ve been working in partnership with high-quality retailers since 1995.
We’re the only company with Great Taste Awards for marron glacé, glacé fruit, dark chocolate ginger and pate de fruit. So you’re never more than a click away from some delicious delicacies.
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