The Ingredient behind Chocolate
Cacao trees refer to small (4-6 meters tall) trees that are evergreen. According to recent studies, the Amazon was the origin of the Cacao plant, from where it was distributed to Central and Mesoamerica at a later point. With the earliest use of cocoa beans recorded as around 1100 BC, it is clear that cacao has been grown and used for over three millennia. The cacao tree is common throughout most of South America. It grows at the foot of the Andes Mountains, on the basins of the Orinoco River as well as in the Dominican Republic.
Cocoa beans are the fully fermented, dried seeds of the cacao tree. The cacao tree is an under-story tree, which means that it grows best under shade. It normally grows below the evergreen canopy formed by the bigger trees around it.
Neither bees nor butterflies pollinate Cacao trees; they are pollinated by tiny flies known as forcipomyia midges. In each ripe flower pod there are between 20 and 60 cocoa beans (seeds).
Cocoa beans (and by default cacao trees), are most commonly used for Making chocolate. This is done by cleaning, drying and roasting cocoa beans after fermentation. After this is done the shell is removed, which produces cacao nibs. Chocolate liquor refers to the liquid formed by the grinding and liquefying of the cacao nibs.
By further processing the liquor you get either cocoa butter or cocoa solids. In most cases both of these products are used when Making chocolate, but are used in varying degrees depending on the type of chocolate you are looking to make. Most chocolate that we can buy nowadays are sweetened chocolates, meaning that they have added sugar to the cocoa solids and butter mix.
Milk chocolate is made by adding milk or condensed milk to the cocoa butter and solids, whilst white chocolate is the use of only cocoa butter NO cocoa solids (which gives cocoa its brown colour). Even though purists prefer plain dark chocolate (many times unsweetened), milk and white chocolate has become very popular in recent years because of their sweet and creamy taste.