Chocolate is a roasted and ground cacao seed preparation that is available as a liquid, paste, or block and may be used to flavor other foods. The earliest evidence of use comes from the 19th century BC and is linked to Olmec sites (within what would become Mexico’s post-colonial region), showing that chocolate beverages were consumed. The bulk of Mesoamericans, including the Maya and Aztecs, invented chocolate beverages. The English word “chocolate” comes from the Nahuatl word Xochitl, which is derived from the Classical Nahuatl word Xochitl.

The seeds of the cacao tree contain a strong bitter flavor that has to be fermented to bring out. After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted. Cacao nibs are removed from the shell and crushed into cocoa mass, which is raw chocolate. Chocolate liquor is produced from chocolate that has been heated to liquefy it. The liquor can alternatively be chilled and separated into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Baking chocolate, often known as bitter chocolate, is produced entirely of cocoa solids and cocoa butter, with no sugar added. Dutch cocoa is produced from powdered baking cocoa, which is higher in fiber than cocoa butter and maybe alkali-processed. The bulk of chocolate consumed today is sweet chocolate, which is comprised of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, or other vegetable oils, and sugar. Milk chocolate is chocolate that has been flavored with milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate has no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter, sugar, and milk.

Chocolate is one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and there are many chocolate-based meals available, particularly desserts like cakes, pudding, mousse, chocolate brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. Sweetened chocolate fillings or coatings can be found in a variety of confections. Snacks include chocolate bars made with solid chocolate or chocolate-covered extra components. Chocolate presents molded into various forms (such as eggs, hearts, and coins) are common during certain Western celebrations, such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Hanukkah. Chocolate may also be found in alcoholic beverages like crème de cacao, as well as cold and hot beverages like chocolate milk and hot chocolate.

Despite the fact that cocoa originated in the Americas, West African countries, particularly Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, are the world’s leading cocoa producers in the twenty-first century, producing about 60% of all chocolate.

Slavery and trafficking of children were major issues in 2018, and they remain so now, with two million children working in the cocoa industry in West Africa. International efforts to improve the situation for children were doomed to fail due to persistent poverty, a lack of schools, growing global cocoa demand, more intensive cocoa production, and ongoing child labor exploitation.

Chocolate has been turned into a drink for almost as long as it has existed. Chocolate manufacturing by pre-Olmec peoples goes back to 1750 BC, according to a vessel unearthed at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico. Cacao beverages have been found in a Mokaya archaeological site on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, dating back to 1900 BC. Cacao was initially used as a source of fermentable sugars for an alcoholic drink, not merely as a beverage, according to the residues and the type of vessel in which they were discovered.

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