The Wake

Illustration by Oakley Tapola

Chocolate is everywhere! Holidays such as Halloween and Valentine’s Day make it a staple in everyone’s diet for at least two weeks surrounding the actual day. Songs, such as the infamous YouTube classic “Chocolate Rain,” have wormed their way into our brains. Chocolate is so popular that unsavory creatures, like ants and grasshoppers, covered in the creamy goodness are considered a fine delicacy. It seems like chocolate surrounds us and is something we are all familiar with, but do we really know what it is?

Doctor Gary Reineccius does! He is a food chemist and professor in the College of Food Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and has been studying chocolate and its flavors for over 40 years. His job consists of chemically breaking down food and detecting which chemicals produce smells and tastes. According to Reineccius, there are 800 aroma compounds in chocolate which give it a rich flavor.

“Of the foods in life, I truly like chocolate better than anything else,” Reineccius said. In his lecture at the annual Classes Without Quizzes presentation held by the College of Food and Natural Science, Reineccius explained the life process of chocolate.

Chocolate begins its life as a cacao plant in the warm climate in the region 20 degrees north or south of the equator. It is most commonly found in Central America, the Ivory Coast of Africa and Malaysia. The small tree grows cocoa pods, which hold approximately 30 beans, on its lower branches. The pods are harvested to undergo a fermentation process.

Fermentation entails laying the beans out either on banana leaves or in fermentation boxes, while being rotated for up to six days. Next, the beans must dry to prevent molding.

“Moldiness is not a pleasant additive to chocolate flavor,” Reineccius joked.

To ensure that the chocolate will be delicious and fungi-free, the beans are placed in the sun to bake and dry. Warmer weather results in a better quality bean. Another drying technique used during bad climates is artificial drying, which is done with wood and fire. However, there is danger of having an off flavor due to wood smoke, Reineccius said.

Once the beans are dried, they are sent overseas to be processed, which includes roasting, grinding, pressing and smoothing out the beans. The beans reach a temperature anywhere between 130 and 150 degrees Celsius for thirty minutes in order to develop flavor and lose any moisture that may have been regained since the drying process.

Once roasted, the beans are ground, creating a chocolate “liquor,” which boasts a fat content of 50 percent. This fat must be removed, to prevent the world’s population from becoming large, unshapely blobs, so the liquor is sent through hydraulic presses. With some of the fat removed, cocoa powder, one of the main ingredients in chocolate is created.

The final steps en route to the perfect chocolate involve the concept of smoothing. The chocolate particles must first be refined all the way down to a size between 25 and 65 micrometers. The more refined a piece of chocolate is, the smoother texture it has, which means it is more valuable and costly. Finally, the chocolate is conched, or stirred within a giant tub for 30 days, to enhance richness. After all of these steps, chocolate becomes what the consumer puts into their belly.

With 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate eaten each year around the globe, it would be devastating if the cacao tree were to ever become endangered. In attempts to keep chocolate thriving forever and to possibly lower fat intake as well as cost, scientists have been researching the possibility of using different fat ingredients in the recipe, but still calling it chocolate. This has received mixed reactions within the food industry and Reineccius believes that this new product would not be categorized as chocolate if it were to be available on the market.

“It may make it cheaper, but in the end it won’t be a better product,” he said. “It won’t taste better. It will probably taste worse.”

Let’s review the ingredients. Chocolate is comprised of chocolate “liquor,” cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, emulsifiers and milk. What? No crack? Then why is this magical, silky brown material beyond addicting? Reineccius prefers to use the word craving instead of addiction.

“You’re never addicted to chocolate. An addiction is more along the lines of what happens with cigarettes and drugs. We don’t want to put chocolate in that category. You have a craving for it. People don’t attempt to hold up banks for chocolate,” he explained.

There are many theories regarding the craving based off of dietary reasons or enhancement of serotonin or endorphins in the brain, but according to Reineccius, people crave chocolate simply because they like it and they want to treat themselves.

The mystery is solved. Chocolate is derived from beans in a tree, which undergo an intense processing procedure to become one of the world’s most precious and beloved desserts.