It is late at night and you have been sleeping soundly for hours. Then, suddenly, a strange sound wakes you with a start. You begin to wonder, "Is there someone in the house? Do I need to grab a baseball bat and explore?"
Finally, you work up the courage and head downstairs, ready to take on the intruder. After a thorough search, you discover the culprit. You cat has simply knocked over a few pots and pans. You breathe a sigh of relief and start to head back upstairs to bed.
Then another thought hits you. After all, you are in the kitchen already, so why not have a delicious midnight snack?
For the most part, midnight snacks come in two categories: salty or sweet. Nobody is getting up and having a banana for a snack in the middle of the night. Nope, you are either having a bowl of salty chips, decadent ice cream, or a delicious and filling candy bar.
Candy bars are a fantastic snack that many of us take for granted. Half the time we just grab them on an impulse while waiting in line at the grocery store. We never consider, however, just how much time and effort goes into making such a handy and convenient treat.
The chocolate that you find in the store is the product of an incredibly long and complicated refining process. This process starts off bean pods that come from a tree called the Theobroma cacao. Aztec and Mayan cultures had a great respect for this food, and the name literally translates to "food of the gods."
The Chocolate-Making Process
To start the process of making chocolate you must first harvest the cacao pods. These pods grow all over the tree, so to get them down you must chop them down with machetes by hand. But you can't just ship the pods out as-is from the tree. You must first split them open. This reveals the cocoa bean that lies inside.
After that, you must scrape at the beans and the sweet pulp that surrounds them. From there the pods are left to ferment for approximately two to eight days in baskets. This important step helps to mellow out the flavor of the beans. If you didn't do that, they would be far too bitter to enjoy.
If you like a higher-quality chocolate bar, then you are probably eating something where the beans were left to ferment for much longer. This results in a fruity and floral flavor. Once finished fermenting, the cocoa harvesters spread them all out into one single layer. They then allow the cocoa to dry out completely in direct sunlight.
From there the beans are packaged and shipped out to the manufacturing plant. At the plant, they first roast the cocoa. This helps to bring out the most intense flavors and colors. Different types of beans require different times and temperatures of roasting.
After the roasting process is completed, it is time to put the beans in a winnower. This machine gets rid of the shells, leaving only the "nibs" of the bean. This is the best part of the cocoa bean, which is then ground into a rich and thick paste. This chocolate liquor (which contains no alcohol) is the building block of all chocolate products.
Once the liquor is produced, it is time to press it. The pressing removes the cocoa butter, and leaves behind a powdery disc, called a "cocoa presscake." From there the process is different depending on what type of chocolate you are producing. In some cases, you re-add cocoa butter. In others, you add it to the conching machine to knead and massage the chocolate. From there it is tempered and wrapped into the candy bars you know and love!
Exciting New Varieties
Of course, there are all different delicious varieties of candy and candy bars. For one, the Tiramisu Bar is a delight that uses only the very finest chocolate all the way from Belgium. This exciting bar is made from the finest cocoa beans, and is an incredible imitation of an exotic dessert.
If you are a coffee enthusiast, then you probably know that chocolate actually contains trace amounts of caffeine. This makes sense when you think about it, because like coffee it is also derived from a bean. The delicious Espresso Bar is made from delicious Belgian chocolate that is combined with a little dash of energy-filled espresso. This candy bar truly combines the best of both worlds.
These are just two of the amazing, incredible varieties of chocolate bars that come in all different shapes and sizes. It is incredible to think that all of these delightful pieces of candy are produced from just one modest little cocoa bean! So the next time you are going to pick up a candy bar at the supermarket check-out, remember all the incredible work it took to get it there.
Andrea Mills is a freelance writer who writes about shopping and food products including candy bars.
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