Chocolate Fountain
Loved by the world, and particularly by girls in bad tempers, the sweet, exquisite material called chocolate has increased in popularity only during the past 175 years or so. The Aztec Indians drank a hot mixture made of cocoa beans, but it didn’t resemble hot chocolate as we understand it. In reality the 1st solid chocolate bar was sold in England in 1847. Chocolate also comes in many forms some familiar, some less so.
Chocolate is created by cropping the pods from the cacao tree and permitting them to ferment for roughly a week. The beans are then shelled from the pods and either sun-dried or machine dried. The latter system takes less time, but produces a lower grade of chocolate.
After being dried, the beans are then graded, roasted and ground. The ground beans are pushed to release the fat, or cocoa butter, and the result’s cocoa mass or “liquor.” The cocoa spirits is then used to make various kinds of chocolate.