Cacao: An ancient food that has conquered modern taste

Maria Endah Hulupi The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Smooth and luscious chocolate has long been used to make a wide range of sweets, pastries and cakes, which are often combined with other palatable fillings such as liquor, caramel, nuts and fruits.

Every element of chocolate; the taste, the fancy shapes and aroma, are created to satisfy the senses, making it an elegant gift fit for different occasions.

But that's not all. The delicate taste of good chocolate has made those who eat it crave for more.

Contrary to public belief that it may be bad for your health, chocolate contains antioxidant, which actually help lower the risk of heart disease. It also contains phenylethylamine -- a neurotransmitter that resembles amphetamine, a stimulant of the central nervous system -- which can lift depression; and serotonin and tyramine, which can make you feel good and balance mood swings.

These elements can induce sensations, which you only otherwise experience when you are in love.

Many chocolate eaters may have little knowledge about the origin of chocolate, the shape of the cacao bean or tree, how it is processed and how this ancient ingredient, which formed an important part of the traditional American Indian diet, could make its way to the tables of high societies in European countries and finally captivate the world with its seductive taste.

The cacao tree or theobroma cacao in Latin, literally means food of the gods and grows in Central and South America. Traditional societies gathered cacao beans, cleaned them and dried them in the open air.

The cacao bean, which was then considered a valuable commodity and local currency, was used to make traditional drinks and was combined with other ingredients for sauce. However, unlike today, back then it had only a bitter taste.

The Regent Hotel's top pastry chef, Lal Da Silva, said that the first European to come in contact with cacao was Christopher Columbus on one of his voyages to the Americas. "But it was Cortez the Conqueror who brought cacao beans from Mexico to Europe in 1520."

Cortez introduced the beans to Europe, where roasted cocoa beans were mixed with vanilla and cinnamon to make drinks. "This was not well received by Europeans because it still tasted bitter," he said.

Da Silva said that in a later development, sugar was then added for sweetness, creating a palatable chocolate flavor that pleased European tastebuds.

The first chocolate was produced at the beginning of the 17th century after cacao-processing had been developed. This process involves cleaning the cacao beans, roasting, breaking and grinding them. This transformed the beans into cocoa mass, consisting of 45 percent solid cocoa and 55 percent cocoa butter.

The producer made dark chocolate out of the mass (solid cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin and vanilla), milk chocolate (dark chocolate is combined with milk powder, milk fat and vanilla) and white chocolate (containing only cocoa butter, milk powder, milk fat, sugar and vanilla). People also made cocoa powder from the cocoa mass by removing between 30 percent and 40 percent of the fat content.

"A good chocolate will melt in your mouth. This is because chocolate butter melts at 35 degrees Celsius, slightly lower than body temperature," he added.

"If you eat a chocolate bar but have to chew on it, its cocoa butter content must has been removed and substituted with vegetable fat," he explained.

According to Da Silva, cocoa butter is substituted to reduce the price. But high quality ones, in which the content of cocoa butter is still retained, are quite expensive.

The first chocolate, he said, was produced at the beginning of the 17th century. Chocolate was very much a luxury article at first and it was only made available to a small section of society. "This was mainly due to the limited scale of production," he added.

The first factory was set up in Switzerland in 1819, where milk chocolate was created for the first time. It didn't take a long time for the chocolate industry to blossom in other European countries, like Belgium, Germany and England. The processing techniques have been gradually refined to make smoother and better tasting chocolate.

Da Silva explained that chocolate is a delicate item, which needs careful treatment.

"When it is used in cooking, chocolate has to be handled carefully because it can be easily ruined. Improper handling or cooking techniques can make it lose its glossy shine," he said, while pointing out that melting a chocolate block should only be done by using a clean and dry pan and warming it on hot water, without direct exposure to intense heat or water droplets, which could spoil it.

Chocolate doesn't go bad over time, he explained, but it may lose it's color and flavor.

As for proper storage, Da Silva advised to keep chocolate in a cool, dry place away from sunlight, preferably at 20 degrees Celsius.

"Storing it in a room with a higher temperature would cause it to melt, while a colder area can make sugar crystals appear on the surface of the chocolate, giving it whitish spots," he said.