Who likes Chocolate?

Who likes chocolate? I do. Why wouldn't I like it? It’s the best thing in the world. J I can consume a bar in 10 minutes and would love to have more. Isn’t it weird? I guess it’s not really the peculiar side of it but it’s more of the taste and moreover, they concur that it has a positive health benefits, especially the Dark Chocolate. There are different types if chocolate;

Types of Chocolate:

* Dark chocolate is produced by adding fat and sugar to cacao. It is chocolate without milk as an additive. It is sometimes called "plain chocolate".

* Milk chocolate is chocolate with milk powder or condensed milk added

* Semisweet chocolate is often used for cooking purposes. It is a dark chocolate with a low (typically half) sugar content.

* Bittersweet chocolate is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which some sugar (typically a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla and sometimes lecithin has been added. It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate, but the two are interchangeable in baking. Bittersweet and semisweet chocolates are sometimes referred to as 'couverture' (chocolate that contains at least 32 percent cocoa butter); many brands now print on the package the percentage of cocoa (as chocolate liquor and added cocoa butter) contained.

* Couverture is a term used for chocolates rich in cocoa butter. Popular brands of couverture used by professional pastry chefs and often sold in gourmet and specialty food stores include: Valrhona, Felchlin, Cacao Barry,Callebout. These chocolates contain a high percentage of cocoa (sometimes 70% or more) and have a total fat content of 30-40%.

* White chocolate is a confection based on sugar and fat (either cocoa butter or vegetable oils) without the cocoa solids. Technically white chocolate is not chocolate, because of the lack of cocoa solids.

* Cocoa powder There are two types of unsweetened baking cocoa available: natural cocoa (like the sort produced by Hershey's and Nestlé using the Broma process),and Dutch-process cocoa (such as the Hershey's European Style Cocoa and the Droste brand). Both are made by pulverising partially defatted chocolate liquor and removing nearly all the cocoa butter. Natural cocoa is light in colour and somewhat acidic with a strong chocolate flavour. Natural cocoa is commonly used in recipes which call for baking soda. Because baking soda is an alkali, combining it with natural cocoa creates a leavening action that allows the batter to rise during baking. Dutch-process cocoa is processed with alkali to neutralise its natural acidity. Dutch cocoa is slightly milder in taste, with a deeper and warmer colour than natural cocoa. Dutch-process cocoa is frequently used for chocolate drinks such as hot chocolate due to its ease in blending with liquids. Unfortunately, Dutch processing destroys most of the flavonoids present in cocoa.

* Compound chocolate is the technical term for a confection combining cocoa with vegetable fat, usually tropical fats and/or hydrogenated fats, as a replacement for cocoa butter. It is primarily used for candy bar coatings, but because it does not contain cocoa butter, in the US it is not allowed to be called "chocolate." This is especially true for much candy passed as "white chocolate" , which need not contain anything from the cacao bush at all. This can translate to poor taste, texture and possibly health concerns, particularly when partially hydrogenated oils are used to replace cacao butter.

Dark Chocolate

The consumption of high-cacao-content chocolate has been correlated with positive health benefits from flavonol antioxidants derived from the ground and fermented cocoa seeds of Theobroma cacao.

Well, even chocolates have health benefits too..Interesting, isn't it?