Who doesn’t like chocolate, it’s the ‘brown’ gold that makes millions of people happy. When I mention the bitter taste of chocolate you probably think I’m referring to dark, instead of milk chocolate. That is not the case, it’s a dark story that takes away the sweetness of chocolate.
History
Beans to make chocolate come from a tree called Cacao tree or Cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao). The scientific name Theobroma translates to “food of the gods”.
Cacao is widely distributed from southeastern Mexico to the Amazonian area this is where domestication took place. Residues from the preparation of cacao beverages have been found at archaeological sites dating back to 1900–900 BC.
The introduction of cacao to Europe was done by the Spanish in 1544. The beverage made of cacao became popular and the high demand led the French to establish cacao plantations in the Caribbean.
In 1815, Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten introduced alkaline salts to chocolate to reduced its bitterness. It became known as Dutch process cocoa or Dutched cocoa.
Few years later in 1828 he created a press to remove half the natural fat (cocoa butter or cacao butter) from chocolate liquor. This made chocolate cheaper to produce and more consistent in quality. The modern era of chocolate was born.
The first chocolate in solid state was made by the English chocolatier Joseph Fry in 1847. He discovered a way to make chocolate moldable when he mixed the ingredients of cocoa powder and sugar with melted cocoa butter, it got mass-produced as Fry’s Chocolate Cream in 1866.
Production
As demand for cacao grew plantations were started in Africa too. In 2018 the world production of cocoa beans was 5.3 million tons.
Ivory Coast is the biggest producer with 37% of the total, followed by Ghana (18%) and Indonesia (11%) followed by Nigeria, Cameroon, Brasil and Ecuador.
The Bitter taste of chocolate
The chocolate industry is a $50 billion-a-year worldwide business. It’s dominated by a few major manufacturers from the USA, UK, Switzerland and Italy. Companies such as Mars Wrigley, Hershey Co (USA), Cadbury (UK), Nestlé (Switzerland) and Ferrero Group (Italy). They have a significant amount of power, influence and control within the chocolate industry.
The fair trade of cocoa beans is a major issue for all farmers. Cocoa is an very labour intensive and sensitive crop which requires a lot of attention and input. Chocolate manufactures speculate on markets to affect the price of cocoa beans. This allows them to maximise profits and buy from sellers at the lowest possible price. Farmers therefore use cheap child labour (which leads to human trafficking and slavery) to help with the harvest. It’s estimated that over 1 million children are employed in cocoa fields all over Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Ecuador.
The documentary “The Dark-Side of Chocolate” is quite shocking. Will chocolate still be sweet if you know all this?
There is also a documentary Bitter Chocolate from the series Rotten (Netflix)