Channeling Julia

The pods of the tropical cacao tree contain cocoa beans, which are fermented, dried and shipped to the factory. There they are roasted, cracked, hulled (the nibs remain), ground and pressed to separate the cocoa butter from the solids (cocoa powder). Cocoa powder can be treated by the "Dutch alkali process" to make a darker powder that is less bitter and more water soluble for use in chocolate drinks, though this changes the taste somewhat.

Recombining the cocoa butter and cocoa powder (in differing proportions) makes bitter or baking chocolate. Add sugar (and sometimes other fats) to produce sweet dark chocolate. Further adding milk powder or condensed milk produces milk chocolate.

Minimally processed cocoa powder has the highest health benefits (antioxidants), followed by dark chocolate, with milk chocolate having the least benefit. White chocolate contains no cocoa powder (just cocoa butter) so it has no significant health benefit.

Carob is a substitute for those allergic to chocolate. Since it comes from a closely related tree, the beans, nibs and powder much look the same. The major difference (other than lack of antioxidants) is that carob contains more sugar and less fat.

The quality of chocolate is improved by several processes - conching, which grinds the sugar and cocoa to a smooth texture, and tempering, which improves the crystal structure to make a harder chocolate. The chocolatier uses these processes to create a better product.