Today's hot cocoa (chocolate) is largely made out of cocoa, nonfat milk, and refined sugar. Other ingredients on the label are usually there to make the flavour more acceptable to your tongue's sweetness sensors, to extend the shelf life of the food, or to make the product more appealing to the consumer's eye. Cocoa, which comes from cacao pods, is at the heart of the drink (found on the cacao tree).
When I'm watching "Polar Express," I can't stop myself from drinking hot cocoa. You'll understand why if you've seen it. When I'm deep in prayer with God, I'll also have a cup. I find that the chocolate relaxes me and allows me to pray without emotion. I recognise that he is my life's guide and that my troubles are unimportant to him. I'm curious if Jesus drinks hot chocolate while listening to me pray for his grace.
Cocoa pods, which are grown on cocoa trees, provide the basis for our chocolate. Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario are the three types of cocoa that are farmed and processed. This is dependent on the location of the trees. These are typically grown in hot, humid climates like as Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa. A cocoa pod is about the size of a ruler and has a deep golden colour. Cocoa beans are covered in a pale pulp and found inside the pod.
Harvesting cocoa pods is a time-consuming procedure that necessitates a lot of effort on the side of the worker. Pods are cut down and plucked from trees when they are ripe and ready, using long machete-like blades. After that, they are split open to reveal the beans inside, which are the most significa
nt component. They're taken out of the pod and sent to a facility where fermentation takes place.
The fermentation procedure varies by country, but the piling technique is the most prevalent, in which the beans are left in the pulp and placed on leaves to ferment in the hot sun for a few days at a time. In some regions, such as the Caribbean, the beans are fermented in boxes with drainage holes.
The beans must be properly dried when this procedure is completed, as the moisture from the pulp is still retained at this point. The dried beans are put in big sacks and shipped to processing sites around the world, where chocolate producers continue the development process.
The beans are washed and removed from their shells in these plants. They are then roasted at high temperatures, which gives them a darker appearance and a chocolate scent. They are then crushed in what is effectively a modern-day mill, which turns the beans into a gooey chocolate-like liquid.
The final step is to press the cocoa powder to produce cocoa butter, which is then utilised to make the finished product.
The cocoa that comes from the beans is an entirely different product from the final creamy bar of chocolate, and it is really quite bitter, which is why the fermentation and processing process is necessary.
