The Ending

Thats all for now! Thank you for reading :-)

Video - How Chocolate Shapes are made.

Credits to: www.video.google.com

Chocolate Brands Today

Today, chocolate is eaten worldwide.

It is amongest one of the greatest loved foods worldwide.
There are some brands or chocolate which are more commonly found in certain areas of the world.


Such as:



Cadbury's: United Kingdom and Ireland


Nestle: United Kingom and Ireland





Hershey's: America



Kinder: Ireland and United Kingdom


Lindt: Swizterland and Ireland





Green & Blacks: Ireland


Credits to: www.google.com/images/chocolatebrands

The Journey Chocolate

Step One: Get the Cocoa: Three main types;
Forastero: This is grown in West Africa and Brazil.
Criollo: This is grown in Central and South American and Indonesia.
Trinitario: This is grown in Cameroon and Papua New Guinea.

Step Two: Process the Beans: Sacks of beans are emptied out on to a conveyor belt and before anything else happens they’re cleaned to get rid of any dust, stones and dirt they may have picked during their travels to the necessary countries. Next the beans are roasted in a big revolving drum called a continuous roaster. Hot air goes into it as the beans pass along it, and it’s during this process that you’ll really begin to smell that gorgeous taste of chocolate!

Step Three: 'Kibbled and Winnowed': The roasted beans are ‘kibbled’ (broken in to small pieces), then ‘winnowed’ – the brittle shells are blown away, leaving just the ‘nibs’, the centres of the beans. The nibs are ground between steel rollers until they become a chocolate-coloured liquid, rather like thick cream, over half of which is cocoa butter. The liquid is called ‘mass’ or ‘cocoa liquor’ and this is the basic ingredient for all cocoa and chocolate products. Mass contains ‘cocoa butter’ and about half of is pressed out. You’re left with a solid block that can then be ground into cocoa powder.

Credits to: www.cadbury.co.uk

Chocolate Spreads to Europe

.....The conquistador Hernan Cortés, was the first European to realise cocoa beans were valuable – but someone had brought them back before him. Christopher Columbus stole some cocoa beans from a Mayan trader and brought them over to Europe between 1502-1504. He knew they were worth something, but didn’t understand what they were or what to do with them.
Cortés knew better then Columbus though, and brought them to Spain in 1528. Because cocoa beans were in short supply.

Chocolate was top secret in Spain for 100 years and the only people allowed to process cocoa beans were monks. They added cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. They left out the chilli that the Aztecs liked and soon realised it was nicer served warm.
The rest of Europe still had no idea about cocoa beans or therefore, chocolate. English and Dutch sailors found cocoa beans in captured Spanish ‘treasure’ ships when they were coming back from the New World, but they didn’t know what they were and threw them overboard, angry that they’d wasted their time! Some of the sailors thought they were sheep’s droppings!

But eventually word spread. An Italian traveller, Francesco Carletti, visited Central America and saw the drink being made and by 1606, Chocolate was in Italy. It reached France in 1615.
The French Court loved the new drink of chocolate, believing it was exotic, nourishing and good for your health. Cocoa plantations were set up in Cuba and Haiti in 1684, so in France it became much easier to get your hands on cocoa beans.

Next it was the Dutch, who captured Curacao, an island off Venezuela, in 1634 and brought cocoa beans back to Holland. Chocolate probably reached Germany in 1646, brought back by visitors to Italy. And then finally it reached England in the 1650.

Credits to: www.cadbury.co.uk

Where Does Chocolate Start?

Well, you wouldn't think so, but chocolate does, in fact, grow on trees! It is grow on a tree called the Theobroma Cacao tree. More commonly known as just the "Cacao" tree. 70% of these trees are grown in Africa. A cacao tree can produce up to to two thousand pods per year. The pods, grow throughout the year to produce a sticky white pulp and about 30 - 40 seeds. The pulp is sweet; it is eaten and used in making drinks. The seeds are incredibly bitter once taken out of the pod. Not like the chocolate that comes from them.

The picture shown is the "Cacao" Tree.

Introduction

Hi my name is Lee Roberts and I am in Transition Year in Wesley College. For one my classes, Enviromental Studies, I have to write a blog of the 'Geography' of a topice that interests me and that I think. I have chosen.. Chocolate!