What is Chocolate?
Chocolate is made from fermented and dried cocoa beans. There are many steps involved in making chocolate. The final result is a firm product that melts easily with warmth and is varying shades of brown, due to the amount of cocoa in the chocolate. Milk chocolate is paler than bittersweet chocolate and has a higher sugar content. The flavor is sweet, nutty and has an earthy quality. It has a unique flavor, unlike any other.
What does Chocolate Taste Like?
...Sweet is one of the five main tastes. It has smooth and round notes in its flavor profile. Sweet is a naturally occurring flavor in many foods, including fruits, berries, winter squashes, sugarcane, and honey. The sweet taste in these foods is due to a higher sugar content. Sweetness is characteristic of desserts and is used as an accent in savory foods.
Ingredients
...Sugar comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. The sugar is extracted from the juice of both plants and refined into the granulated substance known as sugar. Sucrose, the sweet substance of sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. White sugar is composed of tiny white, dry granules. The flavor is sweet and neutral. Brown sugar is brown and has more moisture, with a richer flavor that hints at molasses. Sugar is used in both sweet and savory foods.
...Milk powder, also called dried milk, is made by evaporating the milk until it is dry, via various processes. Powdered milk has a long shelf life and does not need refrigeration. The powder is soft and cream colored and can be used in exactly the same way that regular milk is used for cooking and baking. It is not generally used as a drink.
...Cocoa butter is fat that has been extracted from the cocoa bean. It is pale yellow and when heated become liquid and oily. Once cooled, it hardens and takes on the pale yellow, or cream color. It is extremely smooth and is often used in dessert and confection making and is a main ingredient in making white chocolate. Cocoa butter is rich and tastes mildly like vanilla.
...Palm oil comes from the red colored pulp of the palm fruit. The oil is yellow golden. Red palm oil is a reddish color and of a slightly higher quality. Yellow palm oil has a mild buttery flavor and red palm oil has a harsher taste. The oil is of a similar consistency to olive oil.
...Butter is made from churned cream, usually from a cow. It has a cream color and a texture that is smooth and melts easily. The flavor is mild and creamy. Butter is often sold in square sticks, or as a flat or round block. It is delicious on bread. It pairs better in baked goods than salted butter, due to its more neutral taste. It also makes an excellent cooking fat.
...Additives are added to food items in small quantities to improve the flavor, change the texture, enhance appearance, or preserve the item. Additives are both natural and artificial. Natural additives have been used for a long time, while many artificial ones were discovered in the 19th century. There are numerous artificial additives including soy lecithin, guar gum, ascorbic acid and sodium nitrite.