The word "chocolate" is said to derive from the Mayan "xocoatl"; cocoa from the Aztec "cacahuatl." The Mexican Indian word "chocolate" comes from a combination of the terms choco ("foam") and atl ("water"); early chocolate was only consumed in beverage form.

Christopher Columbus is said to have brought back cacao beans to King Ferdinand from his fourth visit to the New World, but they were overlooked in favor of the many other treasures he had found. Chocolate was first noted in 1519 when Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez visited the court of Emperor Montezuma of Mexico and took back three treasure chests of beans back to Spain.. American historian William Hickling's History of the Conquest of Mexico (1838) reports that Montezuma" took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold." The fact that Montezuma consumed his "chocolatl" in goblets before entering his harem led to the belief that it was an aphrodisiac.

The first chocolate house was reputedly opened in London in 1657 by a Frenchman. Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class. Sixteenth-century Spanish historian Oviedonoted: "None but the rich and noble could afford to drink chocolatl as it was literally drinking money. Cocoa passed currency as money among all nations; thus a rabbit in Nicaragua sold for 10 cocoa nibs, and 100 of these seeds could buy a tolerably good slave."

Chocolate also appears to have been used as a medicinal remedy by leading physicians of the day. Christopher Ludwig Hoffmann's treatise; Potus Chocolate recommends chocolate for many diseases, citing it as a cure for Cardinal Richelieu's ills.

With the Industrial Revolution came the mass production of chocolate, spreading its popularity among the citizenry. Chocolate was introduced to the United States in 1765 when John Hanan brought cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with the help of Dr. James Baker. The first chocolate factory in the country was established there. Yet, chocolate wasn't really accepted by the American colonists until fishermen from Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted cocoa beans as payment for cargo in tropical America. Where chocolate was mostly considered a beverage for centuries, and predominantly for men, it became recognised as an appropriate drink for children in the seventeenth century. It had many different additions: milk, wine, beer, sweeteners, and spices. Drinking chocolate was considered a very fashionable social event.

(Eating chocolate was introduced in 1674 in the form of rolls and cakes, served in the various chocolate Emporiums) ?.

In 1828 the Dutch made chocolate powder by squeezing most of the fat from finely ground cacao beans. the cocoa butter from the pressing was soon added to a powder-sugar mixture, and a new product, eating chocolate was born.

In 1876, a Swiss firm added condensed milk to chocolate, producing the worlds first milk chocolate.

Nestle (The History of Chocolate and Cocoa, p. 3) declares that from 1800 to the present day, these four factors contributed to chocolate's "coming of age" as a world-wide food product:
1. The introduction of cocoa powder in 1828;
2. The reduction of excise duties;
3. Improvements in transportation facilities, from plantation to factory;
4. The invention of eating chocolate, and improvements in manufacturing methods.

The New York Cocoa Exchange, located at the World Trade Centre, was begun October 1, 1925, so that buyers and sellers could get together for transactions. In 1980 a story of chocolate espionage hit the world press when an apprentice of the Swiss company of Suchard-Tobler unsuccessfully attempted to sell secret chocolate recipes to Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. By the 1990s, chocolate had proven its popularity as a product, and its success as a big business. Annual world consumption of cocoa beans averages approximately 600,000 tons, and per capita chocolate consumption is greatly on the rise. Chocolate manufacturing in the United States is a multibillion-dollar industry. According to Norman Kolpas (1978, p. 106), "We have seen how chocolate progressed from a primitive drink and food of ancient Latin American tribes -- a part of their religious, commerce and social life-- to a drink favoured by the elite of European society and gradually improved until it was in comparably drinkable and, later, superbly edible. We have also followed its complex transformation from the closely packed seeds of the fruit of an exotic tree to a wide variety of carefully manufactured cocoa and chocolate products. Beyond the historical, agricultural and commercial, and culinary sides to chocolate, others: affect on our health and beauty, and inspiration to literature and the arts."

From those three chests of cacao beans that Cortes exported to Spain in 1519, the world exports in 1977 were 1.5 million metric tonnes, one fifth of which went to the USA. Even with this massive amount the USA only ranks 10th in the world for consumption: 4.5 kg per head per annum, far behind the number one consumers; the Swiss with 9.5 kg per annum!

WHAT IS COCOA AND HOW IS IT MADE?
Cacao, Theobroma cacao, is a tropical evergreen tree in the family Byttneriaceae. It is native to Central and South America and is cultivated extensively for its seed, which is the source of COCOA, CHOCOLATE, and cocoa butter. Cacao is a wide-branched evergreen that grows up to 7.5 m (25 ft) tall and bears seedpods up to 30 cm (1 ft) long and 10 cm (4 in) thick, with a hard leathery shell. Pods contain as many as 40 seeds, or beans, some up to 2.5 cm (1 in) wide.

Several species of Theobroma are cultivated in tropical America. T. cacao, the principal species used for cocoa, is grown throughout the wet, lowland tropics, especially in south-east Asia, South America, and West Africa, where the trees are planted under the shade of taller trees. They usually bear fruit 4 years after they have been planted. Workers harvest cacao beans with knives. After extraction from the fruit, the beans are placed in piles, covered with banana leaves, and allowed to ferment; afterward they are dried to prevent moulding. They are then sacked and shipped to chocolate or cocoa manufacturers. Cacao beans were once used as money by the people of Mexico and Central America

Cocoa is finely pulverised de-fatted, roasted CACAO kernels, to which natural and artificial spices and flavours may be added. It is commercially manufactured by pumping hot CHOCOLATE liquor (semi-liquid ground cacao kernels) into hydraulic cage presses where, under extreme pressure, part of the fat, or cocoa butter, is removed. The fat content of cocoa varies from less than 10% to 22% or more for breakfast or high fat cocoa. Cocoa may be Dutch-processed by mild alkali treatment to change and darken colour and improve flavour. Cocoa is the flavouring ingredient in many confections, baked goods, ice creams, puddings, and beverages. It is also used to flavour some tobaccos and pharmaceuticals

HOW IS CHOCOLATE MADE?
Workers cut the fruit of the cacao tree, or pods open and scoop out the beans. These beans are allowed to ferment and then dry. Then they are cleaned, roasted and hulled. Once the shells have been removed they are called nibs. Nibs are blended much like coffee beans, to produce different colours and flavours. The manufacture of chocolate begins with a thorough cleaning of the beans. Beans are blended to achieve delicate nuances of flavour and then roasted. When cooled, the cacao beans are broken and winnowed by separating the nib from the shell in an air current. The waste shell is totally removed. The clean, cool cacao nib is ground under rotating stones, discs, or rollers. The resulting chocolate liquor, more than 50 percent fat (cocoa butter), is liquid above 32 deg C (90 deg F).

With a proper mix of chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter and milk solids (for milk chocolate) the production of chocolate begins. These ingredients, automatically weighed and conveyed to large mixers with S-shaped blades are thoroughly blended and then conveyed to large five-roll refiners. These heavy machines with rollers from 100 to 150 cm long and 30-40 cm in diameter, crush the mixture four times. The particles are reduced to microscopic fineness to produce the smoothness typical of eating chocolate.

The chocolate is then conched, a unique process that completely mixes the chocolate at high temperatures: 54-71 deg C, while exposing it to a blast of fresh air. During conching, complex chemical changes take place that further develop the chocolate's delicate flavour. The addition of vanilla or other natural / artificial flavours provides a further flavour note. Lecithin, an emulsifier derived from the soybean, is also added; this establishes the precise viscosity necessary for proper flow in moulding or coating. From there different varieties of chocolate are produced.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN CHOCOLATE
Here's the recipe for making a real chocolate beverage. Important steps are in boldface.

Ingredients
1-2kg (2-4pounds) of cocoa beans.
A manually operated grinder.

Instructions
Sift though the beans removing any impurities (pieces of grass, leaves, etc). Place the beans in a pan (not Teflon) and roast them. Stir frequently. As the beans roast they start making "pop" sounds like popcorn. Beans are ready when you estimate that approx. 50-75% of the beans have popped. Do not let the beans burn, though a bit of black on each bean is ok. Peel the beans. Peeling roasted cocoa beans is like peeling baked potatoes: The hotter they are the easier it is to peel the darn things, at the expense of third degree burns on your fingers. (Tip: Use kitchen mittens and brush the beans in your hands). If the beans are too hard to peel roast them a bit longer. Grind the beans into a pan. They produce a dark oily paste called "cocoa paste". The oil in the cocoa has a bitter taste that you have to get used to. I like it this way, but not all people do. Here are the alternatives: With oil, which gives you a richer flavour: Spread aluminium foil on a table and make small pies of chocolate, about 1/4 of an inch high, and 6 inches in diameter. Let them rest overnight.

The morning after they should be hard tablets. Remove them from the aluminium overnight. The morning after they are hard tablets. Remove them from the aluminium foil and rap them in it. Store in the freezer. Without oil, some flavour is gone, less bitter, weaker (whimper) chocolate: Put the paste inside a thin cloth (like linen), close the cloth and squeeze until the oil comes out. If you manage to get most of the oil out, what is left is high quality cocoa powder, like Droste's.

What is left now is either bitter tablets or bitter cocoa powder. You can now make a nice beverage as follows: Boil a litre of milk (or water, like in ancient Mexican style. Like water for chocolate, "Como agua para chocolate": you know). When the milk is warm (not hot) add a chocolate pie in pieces. Stir with a blender (but be careful! the blender's electric cord should NOT touch the pot or any other hot thing around it). When the chocolate has dissolved add 1/2-3/4 cups of sugar (depending how sweet you like your chocolate) and blend in fast. Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved in the chocolate otherwise it would be bitter no matter how much sugar you may add afterwards. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon or natural vanilla flavour (artificial vanilla flavour with chocolate results in an awful medicine like flavour) if you like, and blend again. Let the mixture boil, when it starts to get bubbly quickly remove the pan from the stove top, and rest the bottom against a soaked cloth. Put again on stove top, it should get bubbly almost immediately, remove once again and repeat one last time. This aerates the chocolate which enhances the flavour. In a mug, put about 1/2-3/4 of the chocolate mixture, and add cold milk, until the temperature and/or the concentration of the flavour is right for your tastes. Accompany with French Pastries. Enjoy!

WHAT KINDS OF CHOCOLATE ARE THERE?
Depending on what is added to (or removed from) the chocolate liquor, different flavours and varieties of chocolate are produced. Each has a different chemical make-up, the differences are not solely in the taste. Be sure, therefore, to use the kind the recipe calls for, as different varieties will react differently to heat and moisture.

Unsweetened or Baking chocolate is simply the cooled and hardened version of chocolate liquor. It is used primarily as an ingredient in recipes, or as a garnish.

Bitter Chocolate is when it contains more than 35% chocolate liquor

Semi-sweet chocolate is also used primarily in recipes. It has 15% chocolate liquor, extra cocoa butter and sugar added. Sweet cooking chocolate is basically the same with more sugar for taste.

Milk chocolate is chocolate liquor with extra cocoa butter, sugar, milk and vanilla added. This is the most popular form for chocolate. It is primarily an eating chocolate.

Cocoa is chocolate liquor with much of the cocoa butter removed, creating a fine powder. It can pick up moisture and odours from other products, so keep cocoa in a cool, dry place, tightly covered.

White chocolate is somewhat of a misnomer. In the United States, in order to be legally called 'chocolate' a product must contain cocoa solids. White chocolate does not contain these solids, which leaves it a smooth ivory or beige colour. White chocolate is primarily cocoa butter, sugar, milk and vanilla. There are products on the market that call themselves white chocolate, but are made with vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter. Avoid-these cheap imitations. White chocolate is the most fragile form of chocolate; pay close attention to it while heating or melting it.

Decorator's chocolate or confectioner's chocolate isn't really chocolate at all, but a sort of chocolate flavoured candy used for things such as covering strawberries. It was created to melt easily and harden quickly, but it isn't chocolate. If you want quick and easy, use decorator's chocolate. If you want the real thing, use real chocolate and patience.

What is couverture?
Couverture is a special kind of chocolate that has more cocoa butter than regular chocolate, anywhere from 33% to 38% for a really good brand. This type of chocolate is used as a coating for things like truffles ("couverture" is French for "covering") There are two ways of coating candies, either by hand dipping into melted chocolate or enrobing, gently pouring chocolate over the treat.

COOKING WITH CHOCOLATE
Chocolate is a very tricky food to cook with. Temperatures that are too high can scorch it, temperatures too low can cause it to harden unevenly .It must be watched very carefully. But if you can master the art, you can create some breathtaking desserts. Below are some things to know about cooking with chocolate.

What is tempering?
In order for chocolate to cool into a hard candy and not a mushy goo it must be tempered. This is a process where the chocolate is slowly heated, then slowly cooled, allowing the cocoa butter molecules to solidify in an orderly fashion.

The following is a pretty thorough method for tempering. Frankly, I've had decent luck with microwave ovens for melting the chocolate. It's an iterative process of nuking, stirring, nuking, stirring, etc. But I like the idea that the chocolate is not getting steamed as it is with a double boiler. You might try 15 seconds increments on high for a pound of chocolate. Keep an eye on the time as the chocolate gets into its melt; you may want to ramp it down some what. However, for either nuking or using a double boiler, it's not a bad idea to break up the chocolate into little pieces.

For a double boiler be careful not to have the water boiling or touching the bottom of the upper vessel. It sounds from your description like you might have the heat cranked up too much, even given convection from the bottom vessel to the top. Be patient. Dark chocolate can be taken up to about 115 degrees F and milk chocolate can betaken up to 110 degrees F. Once you've gotten a complete melt, letting the chocolate cool slowly while stirring it or working it will encourage the cocoa butter to arrange itself in a way that is particularly useful for making candy. This is 'tempering' the chocolate.

Turns out that cocoa butter molecules can arrange themselves in a variety of ways [six that I know of] and it is these different arrangements that determine the melting temperature of the chocolate. The respective melting temperatures range from about 60 degrees F to about 97 degrees F. The one you're looking to get is the most stable form, and has a melting temperature of 93 - 95 degrees F. Which is good, because it means that your chocolate will tend to be that way, as long as you're patient. It also means that the chocolate is going to feel delightfully cooling in your mouth. So, you've taken your chocolate up to 110 -115 degrees, and that has had the effect of breaking up [melting] all of the cocoa butter molecules. Now you want them to arrange themselves in a stable arrangement; but you also want to manipulate the chocolate now that it is a liquid.

There are a couple of strategies for encouraging the cocoa butter into its stable arrangement. As mentioned above, stirring it or working it with a spatula will tend to bring about the proper 'crystallisation' of the cocoa butter molecules. Another technique is to 'seed' the molten chocolate by putting in little pieces of solid chocolate. The molten cocoa butter then will do a kind of follow-the-leader and arrange itself after the fashion of the solids. Which is what you want. The hazard with seeding your chocolate is that you might get little air pockets associated with the solid pieces. I tend to just stir the chocolate.

Traditionally, small batch chocolate is tempered on marble slabs. Just pour it on and work it with a spatula until it becomes kind of slushy-mushy. I don't use a marble slab, I use a bowl that I can pop back into the microwave if I need to. The next tricky step is to maintain enough heat to keep the chocolate molten, but not heat it up so much that it forgets how to arrange itself. This is where the 85 - 90 degrees F comes in. [I think the heating pad idea sounds cool]. The marble slab will retain some of the heat. Be careful about using the same vessel in which you heated the chocolate. I know it's convenient, and that's what I do, you have just got to be more careful about over heating the chocolate. Overheating the chocolate will make the cocoa butter separate from the cocoa-solids, and that's a bad thing. Indication that you're overheating the chocolate is either chocolate bloom in the hardened chocolate or out and out separation of cocoa butter in the chocolate soup

WHAT IS THAT WHITE, BLOTCHY STUFF ON MY CHOCOLATE BAR?
A white, filmy residue on chocolate is called a bloom. It occurs when some of the cocoa butter in the chocolate separates from the cocoa solids, usually when the chocolate is stored in a warm area. If you buy a chocolate bar and find it has bloomed, don't let the sales person convince you the taste has not been altered.

CAN I FREEZE CHOCOLATE TO EAT LATER?
Freezing chocolate isn't such a great idea. When you freeze it, then thaw it out, it will have a greater tendency to bloom. Chocolate is best kept at around 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a nice pantry or dark cabinet. Kept at this temperature, chocolate (assuming it isn't covering fruit or other perishables) has a shelf life of about a year.

I WAS MELTING CHOCOLATE AND SUDDENLY IT TURNED INTO A THICK, DULL PASTE, WHAT HAPPENED?
As discussed before, chocolate is very sensitive. Any slight variance from the instructions can cause disastrous results. What you have described here is called seizing. Water changes the crystalline form of the chocolate by providing a different lattice structure that is hard, in contrast to natural cooking chocolate, which is probably a non-crystalline solid or a eutectic mixture. There may be chemical changes also, with water favouring making or breaking of chemical bonds, especially in the sugar components of chocolate.

Seizing can happen for several reasons:
The chocolate is burned. Even temperatures that aren't too hot for your finger can be too hot for chocolate. When melting chocolate, keep the heat low and keep stirring, especially for milk and white chocolates.

A small amount of moisture has been added. Chocolate is very finicky about liquids. Even the moisture from a damp spoon can contaminate a batch of melting chocolate. This is what happens after a while to chocolate fondue - moisture from strawberries or cheese can ruin the texture. Be careful if you are melting pure chocolate by itself to keep everything very dry.

Cool liquids have been added. Another oddity about chocolate: small amounts of liquid can spoil melted chocolate, but large amounts are ok., so long as the liquid is warmed to match the temperature of the melted chocolate. If you add cold cream or milk, for example, the chocolate will begin to solidify and you'll end up with a mess. Regardless of how your chocolate gets seized, you'll have to throw it out and start again. There is no way to "un-seize" and re-melt chocolate once it has been contaminated in this way.

HOW DO I MAKE CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES?
Covering strawberries is not an easy task, but if you exercise a little patience, you can come up with an excellent dessert treat. The main thing to remember: Make sure the strawberries are dry. Remember, even the slightest moisture can ruin an entire batch of chocolate. If it's a real humid day, wait until tomorrow, you'll have better success Prepare a cookie sheet or other flat surface with wax paper, small enough to fit into your refrigerator. Lay your dry strawberries out on a plate. Cut up the chocolate into small pieces; this will enable it to melt faster at a lower temperature.