|
Important
inventions
Dutchman
Casparus Van
Houten patented hydraulic cocoa press in 1828. Cocoa for drinking
contained over 50% fat, and it was difficult to
digest. Van
Houten could to separate cocoa butter from cocoa liquor with his press
and produce low-fat cocoa powder. Thanks to this invention it was
possible to make chocolate bars we know today.
Van Houten is
not independent company for long time but the brand (owned by
manufacturer of industrial chocolate Barry Callebaut) is still used,
especially for cocoa powder.
First chocolate
bars were probably produced by english company Fry´s from Bristol in
1847. Milk chocolate Five Boys (introduced in 1902) used to most famous
milk chocolate brands but it was discontinued in 1970´s.
Swiss Daniel
Peter married daughter of F. L. Cailler (founder of the first swiss
chocolate factory) in 1863. Inspired by his friend Henri Nestlé whose
factory produced milky flour for childern, Peter tried to mix cocoa
mass and milk. After many unsuccessful attempts Peter invented milk chocolate in 1875 and called his
product Gala Peter.
Chocolate brand
Gala Peter was produced in Nestlé factories worldwide, but it was
discontinued in 1980´s.
Swiss Rodolphe Lindt invented the conching process in 1879. Thus one
could produce fine chocolate, which melts on the tongue.
Chocolate
factory Séchaud Fils from Montreaux in Switzerland produced first
filled
chocolate called Cremor in 1913. Séchaud Fils produced chocolates until
1960´s. Later chocolate Cremor was made by Chocolat Tobler
and than
discontinued.
First white
chocolate was manufactured by swiss company Nestlé in 1930´s. It was
called
Galak. |
chocolate
Van Houten
|
chocolate Five
boys by english company Fry from year 1927 |
first milk
chocolate Gala Peter
|
first filled
chocolate bar Cremor
|
white chocolate
Galak
|
|
Kinds of
chocolate
Dark (or
bitter) chocolate
Cocoa mass,
cocoa butter, sugar, (lecithin, vanillin or vanilla). Other vegatable
fats than cocoa butter are sometimes used by the cheapest
chocolate brands.
Good chocolate
should
contain at least 50% of cocoa solids (cocoa mass + cocoa butter). If it
is less it is wrong and too
sweet. Cocoa content varies between 35 - 99%.
In the last twenty years chocolate with high cocoa content of 70% or
more become very
popular.
French and Russians are
lovers
of dark chocolate.
Milk chocolate
Cocoa mass,
cocoa butter, sugar, dried or condensed milk, (lecithin, vanillin or
vanilla). Other vegatable fats than cocoa butter are
sometimes used by the cheapest chocolate brands.
Cocoa content varies between 18 - 70 %.
Good
chocolate
should contain at least 30% cocoa solids, usualy between 14 -25% milk
solids.
Mass-produced milk chocolate contains usually only 25% cocoa solids,
in case of some English companies even only 20%.
Most popular in english speaking countries (famous
brands
as Hershey milk chocolate and Cadbury Dairy milk) also in many european
countries.
Some
companies manufacture milk chocolate with high cocoa content (and a
lower proportion of sugar), in extreme cases up to 70% cocoa.
Austrian confectioner Georg Hochleitner developed the first sheep's
milk chocolate Choco-Lina in 2002.
Chocolate with goat milk Choco-Lisa is also produced now.
Chocolate with mare (Zotter) and camel (Al
Nassma) milk are also produced now!
White chocolate
Cocoa butter,
sugar, dried or condensed milk, (lecithin, vanillin or vanilla ).
Cocoa solids varies between 18 -33% most often.
White chocolate
contains
only cocoa butter and usually much more milk solids than milk
chocolate.
White chocolate doesn´t
contain cocoa mass and in some countries it cannot be called chocolate
but white confectionery.
Blond chocolate
Blond
chocolate was introduced by french chocolate maker Valrhona in 2012. In
fact blond chocolate is caramelized white chocolate.
Ruby chocolate
Company Barry
Callebaut introduced pink coloured ruby chocolate in 2017.
Compound
Chocolate
Cocoa powder,
vegetable fat, sugar, milk, (lecithin, vanillin).
This product does
not
too much to do with chocolate. There is no cocoa butter and usually
very
little of cocoa (1 to 15%) and doesn´t taste nice. Compound chocolate
is common in third world countries and in developing countries with low
chocolate consumption however some compound chocolates are produced
also
in western countries (England, dutch bar Koetjesreep now made in
Belgium).
Flavoured
chocolate
Dark, milk
or white chocolate flavoured by coffee, mint, orange, banana, caramel,
strawberry or rum aroma.
Aerated
chocolate
Dark, milk
or white chocolate with air bubbles. First aerated chocolate bars were
produced in 1930´s. English company Rowntree introduced aerated milk
chocolate
Aero in 1935. Chocolate factory Küfferle from Rohatec produced first
aerated
chocolate bar called Vista in Czechoslovakia also in 1935.
Sugarfree
chocolate
It doesn´t
contain sugar but other sweeteners like aspartam, maltitol or fructose.
They are determinated primarily for people who can not eat sugar,
especially diabetics.
Artificial sweeteners affect the taste of chocolate quite dramatically, and in most cases increased consumption of
sugarfree chocolate has laxative effect.
Organic
chocolate
Chocolate
made by raw
products which are grown according to the rules of organic agriculture.
Only less than one percent (about 30,000 tons per year) of the world's
cocoa crop comes from the organic farming.
Fairtrade
chocolate
Fair trade chocolates are made
from cocoa beans which are bought for a fair price from farmers.
Raw chocolate
Chocolate made
from cocoa beans which were processed in low temperatures up to 46°C.
In fact there is no official definition of raw chocolate...
Chocolate
with additives
Chocolate which
contains also nuts, raisins, cereals,
jelly pieces, dried fruits etc.
Amédée Kohler
was the first who added hazelnuts to chocolate.
Hazelnut and almond chocolates belong to the bestsellers. Chocolates
with crushed nuts are popular as well as chocolates with whole kernels.
Chocolate lovers in Usa or Poland like chocolates with peanuts, cashew
nuts are common in Brazil,
chocolates with pistachios are turkish favorites and I love chocolate
with macadamias.
Filled
chocolate
Fantasy of
chocolate producers is neverending, there are hundreds sorts of
fillings used
for chocolate bars
.
The most
popular are chocolates with nougat and nut fillings.
Very frequented
are chocolate bars with milk, cocoa, yoghurt, fruit or caramel
fillings either liquid or solid.
Chocolates with
fondant (made of
sugar and syrup) fillings
(usually with fruit flavour) were quite popular in the past but it is
hard to find them now.
Germans
favorite is chocolate filled with marzipan,in the
English-speaking countries there are very common chocolates with
caramel or peppermint filling.
Chocolates filled with liquid alcohol
were developed in Switzerland in the 1930´s, initially with filling in
the sugar crust, in 1950´s alcohol filling without sugar crust was
developed.
Austrian company Zotter is a pioneer of filled chocolate
bars with strange fillings, Zotter product range includes about seventy
sorts of filled chocolates, which are continuously changed.
Company Coppeneur succeeded with a similar concept in
Germany.
Cupuaçu chocolate
Chocolate made from fruits of Theobroma grandiflorum which is tropical rainforest tree similar to cacao.
|
dark chocolate
Zora (early 1990´s)
|
dark chocolate
Excellence with 70% cocoa solids made by french Lindt from 1989
|
milk chocolate
Milka
|
milk chocolate
Maracaibo with 55,5% cocoa solids made by german Hachez
|
chocolate with
sheep milk Choco-Lina made by austrian H & H
Chocoladenmanufactur
|
white chocolate Die Weisse from Nestlé
|
blond chocolate by swiss Frey
|
ruby
chocolate KitKat from Nestlé
|
compound
chocolate Africana from Hungary
|
milk chocolate
with banana flavour made by english Van Houten
|
aerated
milk chocolate Aero made by Rowntree from 1960´s
|
milk chocolate
with maltitol made by czech Altis Kolín
|
organic
mik chocolate Vivani
|
fairtrade
chocolate Gepa
|
raw chocolate Lifefood
|
milk chocolate
with peanuts, raisins and jellies Studentská pečeť
|
chocolate
with orange filling La Corona from Mexico
|
|
milk chocolate
with tomato-olive filling made by austrian Zotter |
cupuaçu chocolate made by russian craft chocolate maker Amazing Cacao
|
|
Quality of
chocolate
There
are different food standards in almost every country.
Since 1999 there are new
united standards for chocolate in EU. Chocolate in EU may contain up to
5% of vegetable fats. Chocolate producers must state on label the
percentage
of cocoa solids in chocolate.
Milk chocolate must contain
at least 25% cocoa solids. However some products as Cadbury Dairy milk
doesn´t match with this rule so they must be called family
chocolate.
Dark chocolate must contain
at least 35% cocoa solids.
In Switzerland dark chocolate
must contain at least 35% of cocoa solids and milk chocolate at least
25%
cocoa solids and at least 14% of milk solids.
In United States milk chocolate must
contain at least 10% of cocoa mass (in USA cocoa mass is called
chocolate liquor)
and
12% of milk solids. Chocolate must not contain other vegetable fats
that
cocoa butter.
Sweet chocolate - at least
15% cocoa mass
Bittersweet chocolate -
at least 35% cocoa mass
Chocolates with high content
of cocoa became popular in 1990´s in Europe. Dark chocolates contained
40 - 60% of cocoa solids in past.
German Stollwerck (chocolate
Schwarze Herren) and few other german producers sold chocolates with
60%
cocoa solids.
French chocolate manufacturer
Bonnat was the first who started to make chocolates from single origin
cocoa beans.
Renaissance of high quality
dark chocolate bars started in mid 1980´s in France where company
Valrhona
introduced grand cru dark chocolate Guanaja in 1986.
French Lindt increased cocoa
share in its chocolate Excellence to 70% in 1989. Since mid 90´s
Excellence
chocolate bar is sold as thin flat tablet a became bestseller in Europe.
Michel Cluizel was the first to sell dark chocolate bars with 99% cocoa.
Top-quality bitter
chocolate bars are manily produced by French chocolate makers
-
Valrhona, Chocolat Bonnat, Michel Cluizel, Pralus, also italian
chocolate makers as Domori or Amedei have excellent reputation.
First
bean to bar chocolate was made in Czech republic by Jordi´s chocolate
in 2012.
There
are now at least twenty four bean to bar craft chocolate makers
in Czech republic - Jordi´s chocolate, František Bačík - Čokoládovna
Troubelice, Ajala, Chocolaterie Willy & Pauli, Amali
Manufaktura,
Čokoládovna Lana, Chocolate Hill, Xocolatl, Herufek, Míšina
čokoláda, Aztec man, Merrow, Ciao Cacao, Lílá chocolate,
Lidka, První brněnská čokoládovna, Moon Chocolate, Pražírna
Drahonice and Manu čoko. Five chocolate makers produces bean to bar
chocolates
among other chocolate products - Pražská
čokoláda, Muzeum
čokolády Tábor, Janek,
Jana Šmondrková (JS Chocolate) and Choco Café.
Company Žiži
unfortunately went out of bussiness. |
dark Valrhona
made from cocoa beans of plantation Palmira
|
dark chocolate
Michel Cluizel with 99% cocoa
|
dark chocolate
Bonnat from Hacienda del Rosario (Venezuela) cocoa beans |
dark chocolate
Pralus made from indonesian cocoa beans
|
dark chocolate
Amedei made from rare cocoa beans Porcelana |
dark chocolate Jordi´s made from vietnamese cocoa beans |
|
|
Chocolate
wrappers shown here are
scans of real chocolate wrappers from still growing collection of
Martin
Mihál.
|
