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Post by darkchocolate on Feb 6, 2010 4:31:03 GMT -5
The answer to this question is crucial to understanding why chocolate has health benefits. Because of the association of chocolate with desserts and sweets, it is often difficult for people to believe that chocolate can actually be good for you. In fact, chocolate has plant origins, and like other plants, has nutritional value. The cocoa bean is actually an almond-shaped seed from the large fruit pods—about a foot long—of the flowering cacao tree. These seeds, which are the basic ingredient to any chocolate product, are nutritional powerhouses. The average tree can hold between 20 and 35 pods at any given time, and the pods take an average of 4 to 6 months to mature. The cocoa bean is then generally broken into nibs and ground into a paste. The paste is then pressed, and its liquid cocoa butter is drained off and cake-like cocoa powder remains. About 10 pods (totaling between 300 and 6700 seeds) produce two pounds of cocoa paste. Most of the world’s chocolate now comes from the Ivory Coast, with Ghana and Indonesia following close behind. Brazil, Nigeria and Cameroon are also cocoa producers, though on a much smaller scale.
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Post by cheebs on Feb 6, 2010 10:51:52 GMT -5
More crudely disguised spam...
Don't you think we KNOW where chocolate comes from?
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Post by Brad on Feb 6, 2010 20:31:43 GMT -5
According to my chief lab tech, Gerard, (photo below), chocolate comes from the barrell shaped machines in my shop! He's VERY intuitive, and tells me that the ingredients show up in big square metal boxes at the back of our shop, and are then carried by little orange men in white coveralls. I believe he refers to them as Ooompa Loompas.... whatever nationality that may be. I'm glad I have someone as astute as Gerard working for me! ;D
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Post by cheebs on Feb 7, 2010 8:41:23 GMT -5
Whoa! Can Gerard come down to Guatemala with his Ooompa Loompa crew to give me a few pointers? I thought I had chocolatemaking DOWN, but you just shattered all my preconceptions!
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Post by Brad on Feb 7, 2010 22:06:35 GMT -5
Sorry Cheebs. Gerard's a hot commodity up here - booked solid for a couple of years.
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Post by cheebs on Feb 8, 2010 10:08:14 GMT -5
Sorry Cheebs. Gerard's a hot commodity up here - booked solid for a couple of years. Can't fault a geek for trying!
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Post by charlieangel on Mar 12, 2011 11:42:57 GMT -5
I thought chocolate came from little chocolate eggs the chocolate easter bunny lays?
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Post by cheebs on Mar 12, 2011 13:50:31 GMT -5
I think it's the ether bunny, not the Easter bunny, but I may be mistaken. Google it anyway.
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