Chocolate Behind the Scenes Trivia Quiz

Answer: A tree

Theobroma cacao is an evergreen tree that grows well in the tropics, within about twenty degrees latitude of the equator. It's native to Central and South America; the Aztecs famously enjoyed a chocolate drink, although their hot cocoa was decidedly unsweetened.

The trees love moisture and shade, which makes them perfect for rainforest cultivation: they're perfectly happy as understory trees, with other trees growing above. Flowers grow right on the trunk, so that's where the pods develop, too. Unlike many other trees with edible fruits, cacao trees flower all year round, so pods at many stages of ripening coexist on the same trunk. Each pod takes about six months to ripen, and only then can chocolate happen.

Answer: They're fermenting

A ripe cacao pod is about the size and shape of an American football, and each one contains about 40 beans. But at this stage, those beans are really seeds. Once they're pulled off the tree, they're going to start to germinate -- that is, to grow into little cacao seedlings. A germinated cacao bean quickly turns even more bitter, which is not what a chocolate maker wants!

Inside a sweatbox, air and heat help natural yeasts convert the sugars of the fruit and beans into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This kills the seed, reduces bitterness, and helps bring out the rich flavor for which chocolate is so well loved.

Answer: The optimal roasting plan depends on the origin and type of the cocoa bean

Dry roasting is an essential step: you just don't get that amazing chocolate flavor without the chemical changes it induces in the beans. And chocolate makers aren't the only ones who find this process essential: tea leaves, coffee beans, and peanuts for peanut butter are also roasted before consumption. There are several different types of chocolate roasters, ranging from rotating ball roasters (with the beans inside, and the heat source outside) to conveyor belts that bring the beans through roasting tunnels.

No cocoa roaster should get as high as 250 degrees C; that's a temperature much more appropriate for coffee beans. Cocoa beans are less robust and take a lower heat. Exactly how much lower is a matter of some art; the type and origin of each bean gives it a certain flavor profile, and bringing out those specific flavors is going to take a specific roasting scheme. Perhaps this will involve a short burst of high heat; perhaps it will be a long, slow roast over low heat; or perhaps there will be several roasting stages. Either way, you'll generally have someone tasting the beans periodically to make sure that things are proceeding, and the beans will be removed from the roaster somewhat before they're as tasty as they could be. You don't want to remove the beans when they're perfect, because they'll continue to roast as they cool down -- so you need to account for that extra heat!

Answer: Cocoa nibs

Crushing a roasted cocoa bean gives you two types of fragments: cocoa nibs, and little bits of shell that aren't quite so useful. That's why, after crushing, the fragments pass through a winnower, which uses a series of sieves and fans to separate the nibs and the husks.

The husks are discarded, composted, or perhaps sold on for use by gardeners as cocoa mulch -- and the nibs go on to greater chocolate glory.

Answer: Chocolate liquor

I'll admit it: this is a confusing name. Chocolate liquor, also called cocoa mass, is a thick, rich, paste, containing cocoa butter and cocoa solids just as the beans do. It isn't alcoholic, though; that's the province of chocolate liqueur, in which chocolate flavoring is combined with some form of alcohol (such as vodka).

Chocolate liquor looks utterly enticing, but don't be fooled. It's still completely unsweetened, so tasting it is likely to be a bitter experience.

Answer: Cocoa butter

Cocoa butter is the fatty component of cocoa liquor. You can separate it out by pressing a sample of liquor; the pressure drives out the cocoa butter and leaves behind cocoa solids, a non-fatty component that is used to make cocoa powder. The extracted cocoa butter can then be mixed in with pure cocoa liquor, increasing the fat content of the chocolate and giving it a creamy, melty feel.

Some manufacturers use other emulsifiers, like vegetable oil, to replace cocoa butter -- or they add the cocoa butter to cocoa solids, rather than to cocoa liquor. The resulting chocolates are generally considered inferior (and are certainly less expensive).

This is also the stage where milk or milk powder can be added to the mix, if you're making milk chocolate. Vanilla is also a popular additive here.

Answer: Conching

Lindt's first conche machine got its name from its shape. The chocolate mixture ran through a granite trough, and was rolled under a granite cylinder with spiraled grooves like a conch shell. A variety of different conche designs are now in use, but they all share some kind of kneading and agitating action.

After running through the conche, the chocolate mixture is smoother and more flavorful. Strangely, it still isn't known exactly how this works. Is it the gentle melting of the mixture from the frictional heat? Is it the relentless action of the kneader in mixing the fats with the powders? Chocolate makers jealously guard their conching recipes: the one thing they know for sure is that their chocolate would taste much worse without it.

Answer: A mottled appearance

As it cools, cocoa butter crystallizes -- that is, the molecules form a regular structure. However, there are several ways that cocoa butter can crystallize, and not all of them result in a pleasant texture to the human palate. The goal of the tempering process is to ensure that the entire chocolate mixture cools into the right crystal structure, and stays there. This can be done from scratch through careful management of temperature, since the different crystal structures have different melting points. Alternatively, you can jump-start the formation of the crystal structure you want by introducing "seed" chocolate of the desired form.

The mottled, dull appearance of badly tempered chocolate is a sign that several different types of crystal structure are present. Well tempered chocolate is glossy, and snaps when broken instead of crumbling. White chocolate is the result of an entirely different mixture of ingredients.

Answer: Centrifugal force

If you're using a mold with a hole in the bottom, this isn't too hard. First, inject molten chocolate until the mold is full. Wait a very short while. Then drain the mold through the hole. The hot chocolate near the cool walls of the mold will have solidified, leaving a thin shell around the hotter, central chocolate that you've just drained away.

If you don't have a hole in your mold, you need to use physics! Put a small amount of chocolate in the mold, close it up, and then turn it around -- rotating it around each axis in turns. Centrifugal force (which isn't exactly a real force, but is a useful shorthand) will fling the molten chocolate out toward the walls of the mold. If you do this until the chocolate cools, you should end up with an even layer of solid chocolate coating the inner walls. Chocolatiers use clever machines that rotate the molds around more than one axis at once.

Answer: White chocolate is made with cocoa butter but not with cocoa solids

White chocolate's different color isn't a result of what's added, but of what's missing. Chocolate liquor -- the basic ingredient of dark and milk chocolate -- can be pressed to separate out the fatty cocoa butter from the brown, non-fat cocoa solids. That cocoa butter can then be added to another batch of chocolate liquor, to make deliciously creamy dark or milk chocolate -- or it can be blended with milk solids, milkfat, and sugar to make white chocolate. (Or, more pedantically, ivory chocolate.)

Without cocoa solids, white chocolate also lacks significant amounts of theobromine, caffeine, or antioxidants. It does make a pleasant confection, though -- and isn't that what chocolate is all about?