Our Love affair with Chocolate goes back centuries, made from cacao pods harvested in South & Central America.
We've long had an obsession with chocolate of all types as it oozes from a spoon or the sweet rush of flavour as it breaks.
Chocolate really is an art and every bar has a different technique and taste.
Looking back the Mayan tribes used chocolate almost like wine using chocolate drinks to toast special religious festivals and occasions. A product of the people not of the rich as it may have been in other cultures at the time.
There are various stories of how chocolate came to Europe most likely through explorers travelling to or from the Americas encountering vessels at sea or first hand on the American continents.
Chocolate varies depending on what's added to it like dried milk powder making milk chocolate this is often more acceptable on the pallet and is probably the most common chocolate consumed.
To Make milk chocolate all you need is Cacao powder, cacao butter, salt & Dried milk powder. You can add various different ingredients to enhance and alter the flavour such as honey, various nuts, sugar, Treacle etc.
Use a bowl over a saucepan to melt the cacao butter, Once melted mix with Cacao powder & milk powder Mix together and add any seasoning or other ingredients. A chocolate grinder is often also used to make the mixture ultra smooth. Add to a mold & transfer into the fridge. Here you have simple milk chocolate.
Fairtrade is now a really important part of Chocolate making, as previously there would be questions around the fairness of payments to farmers. Various initiatives have been launched to improve this.
Check out our friends Guppy's Chocolates - Luxury Chocolate Gifts - Hot Chocolate Flakes UK (guppyschocolates.co.uk) to learn more about the schemes.
Nowadays there's some really cool Chocolate trends like Ruby chocolate made from a certain Cacao bean that turns the chocolate a vivid pink colour or Chocolate & sweet combo's.
Chocolates versatility is partly what makes it so popular its a great flavour medium but also superb for different occasion's it can say sorry, well done, let's celebrate or to eat on a cold winters night.
Check out our range of chocolates now and decide which is your favourite.
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