| The Chocolate Gourmand Glossary
FRENCH ACADEMY FOR CHOCOLATE AND CONFECTIONERY (Académie Française du Chocolat et de la Confiserie)
This Academy has 50 members who are all professionals in the field of chocolate. Its aim is to promote quality products, to train and inform professionals and individuals and provide as exhaustive a source of information on cocoa products as is possible. As an independent organisation, the Academy is entirely free of any commercial ties, financed exclusively by its members and acts as the representative body for Chocolatiers and Confectioners in France. It only issues impartial opinions once it has carried out extensive research and consulted as wide a range of people as possible.
APHRODISIAC
This is a partially true Aztec legend dating roughly back to the 10th century true because at this time cocoa was in fact mixed with other spices. However, it must be said that cocoa does not actually possess aphrodisiac properties and now that the spices originally used have been replaced by others (vanilla, cinnamon, etc.) this legend is but ancient trivia.
AZTECS
The great cocoa discoverers. They started to cultivate cocoa in the year 400 and their civilisation even used cacao beans as a form of currency. Legend has it that the one of the AZTEC gods QUETZALCOATL bestowed blessings on men in the form of cacao beans which his messenger CACAOTl was responsible for bringing to earth. Cocoa still bears his name today.
BANANIA
First chocolate flour created by Pierre François Lardet in 1914.
BICERIN
An Italian drink containing equal amounts of chocolate, coffee and cream.
COCOA BUTTER
The natural fat found inside cacao beans, in the nib, is obtained by pressing the beans after having roasted them and removed the outer hulls (see winnower). Cocoa butter is also used in the pharmaceutical industry because it is a natural oil which does not oxidise very easily. It is also excellent for protecting the face against humidity and frost. And then of course there is the process created by Van Houten in 1825 which uses the cocoa in a dry, powder form.
COCOA GRANDS CRUS
Coatings made from only one cocoa allow us to savour the individual flavours and colours of each different cocoa. And it was with this in mind that Bonnat presented its single cocoa "Dominos" with their 75% cocoa content to gourmets and connaisseurs as early as 1910.
COCOA POD
Fruit of the cacao tree
COCOA TREE (Theobroma Cacao)
Depending on whether it is wild or cultivated, the tree measures between 4 and 15 metres and grows better in warm and humid climates. The fruit of the tree is the oval-shaped cacao pod which contains about 50 cacao beans. Cacao trees come from South America and the best cocoas come always come from these regions. However these cocoas are sometimes extremely rare and much more expensive than African cocoas. Cacao plantations in Africa date back to the 1820s (they were already well established in Brazil by 1746 and in Martinique in 1661 where they are now heavily industrialised).
CHOCOLATE MIXER
Tool used for beating and whisking chocolate to serve as a drink. This tool, which is generally made out of tin or tinplate, has a pouring spout, a handle and a beater.
COFFEE
Coffee is closely related to chocolate in that it is also produced from beans which need to be roasted. The two go very well together (Italian custom).
CONCHING
This process, which was perfected in 1880 by Rodolphe Lindt, makes it possible to refine the chocolate by removing the acidity thanks to a mixing process. Conching can be performed using either the dry or liquid product, the latter requiring additional elements to be added. To give you an idea as to how long it takes, conching at Bonnat generally lasts about 20 hours, although it can sometimes take up to twice as long depending on the cocoa.
COATING
This is the chocolate which is mainly used for coating and moulding. At Bonnat, the chocolate coating is obtained by blending eight different cocoas which are used to make the cocoa Grands Crus.
Bonnat¹s chocolate coating has been made according to the same recipe since the beginning of the century. We could say that the chocolate coating is in some way the Chocolatier¹s signature. There are only a few handmade chocolate Chocolatiers in France who still produce their own chocolate coating directly from the cacao beans and this obviously limits the number of possible signatures. The European leader in the field of chocolate is the franco-belgian company BARRY-CAIL-LEBOT. It is customary practice for there to be a minimum fat content of 31%, with the final percentage making the chocolate either smoother or stronger to the taste.
DRUG
The phenyethylene and anandamide contained in chocolate have anti-depressant properties. This does not mean however that chocolate should be designated as a drug. You would actually have to eat 11 kg of chocolate per day before experiencing withdrawal symptoms!
ICE CREAM
It wasn¹t until 1922 that Christian Nelson finally managed to master the infamous process of coating ice cream with chocolate and putting it on to an ice cream stick.
SPICES
Pepper, green cardamon, fennel and curry have now replaced the coarser aromas used by the Aztecs although these spices are not always used. Vanilla and cinnamon are now the top favourites. In the past spices were used to hide the acidity of the cocoa, and it is worth noting that in Latin America, Italy and Spain chocolate is actually considered to be a spice.
SWEETS
These first appeared towards the end of the 17th century in the form of pastilles but filled chocolates as we know them today did not appear until the beginning of the 19th century.
THEOBROMA
Theobroma, which literally means "food of the gods" in Greek, was the name given to cacao beans when they were discovered by the Spanish. At this time the beans were used as a form of currency based on units of twenty and only the high dignitaries (the emperor and his court), who considered themselves to be the direct descendants of the Gods, had the right to consume the beans hence the term Theobroma. It is also worth noting that theobromine which characterises cocoa is a powerful pulmonary dilator, or to put it more simply, a natural E.P.O. which is used by certain sports men and women.
WHITE CHOCOLATE
This product should not really bear the chocolate designation because of its composition: cocoa butter, powdered milk and sugar and because the sugar content very often exceeds 55%. White and coloured chocolate coatings are often destined for very specific products like for example liqueur "chardon" chocolates. Traditionally each different liqueur chocolate should have a coloured chocolate coating which corresponds to the colour of the liqueur. It is best to check beforehand that the "chardon" chocolates you wish to eat have both a plain chocolate coating and a coloured decorative white chocolate coating. But then it goes without saying that the only proof of the pudding is in the eating.
WINNOWER
The machine used to shell the outer hull from the cacao beans by a crushing and sucking process. The winnower in the BONNAT firm is over 70 years old and is made out of exotic wood, although the exact species remains a mystery today. This museum piece is lovingly tended to and continues to delight journalists from all around the world: Envoyé Spécial, V.S.D., Le journal télévisé de France 2, N.H.K. (Japan), Der TELEGRAFER (The Netherlands), Le Dauphiné Libéré, La Confiserie, Radio Suisse Romande, (Salut des Petits Loups).
A few facts and dates :
5 centuries are separating us from the origins of chocolate, its history and the passions it spreads all around the world. So here are few important dates to know how those littles beans became one of the most famous element in the world.
1502 :Christopher Collumbus' fourth voyage. He discovers cocoa in GUANAJA, off HONDURAS, but unfortunately does not pay any attention to it. But then you can¹t be good at everything !
1519 : Hernando Cortes stops off at San Juan de Ulloa, tastes a cocoa based drink and realises how good it is. He creates a plantation and triggers off the start of the Spanish cocoa monopoly which was to last two centuries.
1641 : Cocoa is introduced to Germany via the Spanish court and a scholar named Johann Gerorg Voldkammer.
1659 : Louis XIV hands over the chocolate monopolies of the Paris chocolate drink trade and the French Royal Court to David Chaillou.
1671 : The Marquise of Sevigne discovers chocolate. Undecided as to its virtues and drawbacks she records it in her journal.
1847 : Invention of the chocolate bar by the English firm Fry and sons. Before this chocolate had only ever been consumed in liquid form.
1875 : Invention of milk chocolate by Daniel Peter de Vevey in Switzerland which spelt the beginning of the Swiss' hegemonic relationship with chocolate - the product the children all adore. It is interesting to point out that the best cocoa used to make milk chocolate is already paler in colour, and that it is known as "pale cocoa" (pale in colour when crushed) in the chocolate business. It is however extremely expensive and is often replaced by less expensive beans which are darker in colour and require a higher proportion of powdered milk to lower the cocoa percentage in the chocolate.
1879 : Rodolph Lindt founds his chocolate factory as well as inventing coating, conching and plain chocolate.
1884 : Félix Bonnat founds the Bonnat Chocolate Shop. Shortly afterwards he creates the French praline which forms the basis of the Voiron "Pavé" (Praline Chunk), the recipe of which remains unchanged today. 1904 sees the mechanisation of the process for wrapping the chocolates in embossed, waxed aluminium foil, which are sold in all French trading posts in Africa and Asia. A little later he invents the Cocoa Grands Crus and the plum cake with a patent which actually dates back to 6 January 1900. In 1919 Bonnat makes it his job to see that the chocolate industry is rationalised. This is largely due to the influence of the textile industry in Voiron, one which was very much at the forefront of industrial progress in Europe at the time. By using thermal power from cold water, Bonnat managed to create the first cooling channels for sweets and chocolates. It would seem that the Bonnat family is to this very day the oldest family firm still producing handmade chocolates starting right from the actual cacao bean.
1868 : The Tobler firm is founded and starts to produce its own chocolate in 1899, the year the Toblerone nougat, almond and honey chocolate was born.
1900 : In the United States, Milton Snavely Hershey created a town called Hersheyville dedicated to the production of chocolate. The speciality called the "Hershey Kiss" is still being produced today at a rate of 1500 products a minute.
1932 : Forrest Mars (that's the kind of name you don't invent), the son of the creator of the Milky Way, also created a leading product. No less than 2 million Mars bars are produced every day.
Glossary provided by Bonnat.
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