Chocolate Flavor and Aroma

Chocolate Flavor and Aroma
The essential role played by correct fermentation and drying of the cacao beans in developing the ultimate flavor of the chocolate has been emphasized.

The true chocolate flavor is finally developed by the roasting process.

Early attempts in 1912 to isolate chocolate “aroma” used the process of steam distillation of roasted cacao followed by hexane extraction.

Linalool was identified as a major component of the extract together with variety of acids and esters. Later it was identified to be more compounds.

In 1958, researcher applied the relatively new gas chromatography technique and added to the list.

The fundamental stages in the formation of chocolate aroma begin with the production of flavor precursors during the tropical fermentation, and these are change at the bean roasting stage into compounds typical; of the true chocolate flavor.

It noted that in 1937 that cocoa butter from well-fermented beans produced no chocolate flavor on roasting – the precursor were therefore not in the fat phase.

It is also found that the precursors were soluble in methanol, and both of these facts formed a very useful basis for later experimental work.

However despite the observation on cocoa butter, this fat does contribute certain flavor characteristics to chocolate, particularly milk chocolate, and the nature of the flavor depends on the method of extraction, the degree of roast and whether it is obtained from alkalized or unalkalized nibs.

For milk chocolate, deodorized or partly deodorized cocoa butter is often used.

Later research work on the precursors produced evidence that amino acids and sugars are concerned in the formation of finals “aroma” compounds and in the roasting process it has been shown that degrading of both free amino acids and reducing sugars occurs.
Chocolate Flavor and Aroma

History of Eating Chocolate

History of Eating Chocolate
Having used the presses to remove some of the cocoa butter, the coco powder producers were left trying to find a market for this fat.

This was solved by confectioners finding that eating chocolate could be produced by adding it to a milled mixture of sugar and cocoa nibs.

Only the sugar and cocoa nibs were milled and mixed together they would produce a hard crumbly material.

Adding the extra at enabled all the solid particles to be coated with fat and thus form the hard uniform bar that we know today which will melt smoothly in the mouth.

Almost twenty years after the invention of the press, in 1847, the first British factory to produce a plain eating chocolate was established in Bristol in the UK by Joseph Fry.

With the development of eating chocolate the demand for cocoa greatly increased. Initially much of the cocoa came from the Americas.

The first cocoa plantation in Bahia in Brazil was established in 1746.

The chocolate made by Fry was initially a plain block and it was only in 1876 that the first milk chocolate was made by Daniel Pater in Switzerland.

Chocolate can not contain much moisture, because water reacts with the sugar and turns melted chocolate into a paste rather than a smoothly flowing liquid.

He was helped in this by the recent development of a condensed milk formula by Henri Nestlé. This meant that he had much less water to evaporate.

Also he was able to remove the remaining moisture using relatively cheap water powered machines.

In 1880 Rodolphe Lindt, in his factory in Berne in Switzerland, invented a machine which produced a smoother, better tasting chocolate.

This was known as a conche, because its shape was similar to that of the shell with that name. It consisted of a granite trough, with a roller, normally constructed of the same material, which push the warm liquid chocolate backwards and forwards for several days.

This broke up the agglomerates and some of the larger particles and coated them all with fat.

At the same time moisture and some acidic chemicals were evaporated into the air, producing a smoother, less astringent tasting chocolate.
History of Eating Chocolate