What is Dark Chocolate?
- Also known as "plain chocolate" or "black chocolate"
- It is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa
- It is chocolate with no milk or much less than milk chocolate
Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate
- Good for heart — helps lower blood pressure and improves blood flow
- Good for brain — as it helps increase blood flow to the brain, it helps improve cognitive function
- Dark chocolate contains several chemical compounds that have a positive effect on mood and cognitive health
- Dark chocolate also contains caffeine, a mild stimulant
- Dark chocolate helps control blood sugar — helps the circulation unimpaired to protect against type 2 diabetes
- Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants
- Dark chocolate contains theobromine — helps lower the risk of getting cavities if you practice maintaining good hygiene
- Dark chocolate is high in vitamins and minerals — potassium, copper, magnetism, and iron
1. Cacao Cultivation
Chocolate begins with a cacao tree. Each tree bears oval fruits or pods, and the pods contain 30-50 seeds which are known as cacao beans.
2. Harvesting
Cacao pods are ripe when they turn a vibrant yellow. After being chopped off, the pods are opened and their seeds are removed
3. Fermentation
Beans are cleaned by hand, with the baba left on to help develop flavor. Exposed to light, the cream-colored beans turn a purplish color. The beans are then wrapped in banana leaves.
4. Drying & Shipping
Once dried, the beans are graded, packed into sacks, bundled, and checked for quality. They are then shipped and traded on the international market.
5. Preparing Cocoa Mass (Cocoa Liquor)
Once received by the processor, beans may be blended with other origins and estates for desired characteristics (or kept separate as “single-origin chocolate”).
6. Producing Chocolate (This step determines what type of chocolate is made)
The cocoa liquior can be combined with cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, milk
- Pascha
- Sweetriot
- Alter Eco
- Ghirardelli Intense Dark
- Godiva
- Lindt
- Green & Blacks
- Valrhona
- Moser Roth
- Endangered Species
- Chocolove
- Taza
- Vivani
- Giddy Yoyo
- Theo
- Scharffen Berger
