THEOBROMA: FOOD OF THE GODS

WHERE DOES CHOCOLATE COME FROM?

The source of Chocolate is the Cacao tree (pronounced “cuh-cow.”)

Cacao grows in the rainforest within 20 degrees north and south of the equator.

The cacao tree is native to Central and South America. It is thought that the first cacao trees were in the Amazon and Orinoco River basins.

The Maya were the first known consumers of chocolate, but…

they didn’t have SUGAR so they spiced it with….. honey, corn and even chili peppers.

The Aztec emperors drank the bitter chocolate concoction they called Xocatyl.

The Spanish and English took the chocolate bean to West Africa to start cacao plantations there. Today, a majority of the world’s cacao is produced in West Africa, particularly Cote d I’voie and Ghana. Child and even slave labor abuses have occurred for years on the cacao plantations. Many people refuse to eat chocolate as a result of the abuse.

The slave trade from Africa to the Americas was established as a direct result of European demand for chocolate because……

Europeans liked their chocolate mixed with sugar which increased the demand for sugar cane and the need for cheap labor to grow it.

The cacao pod is about the size of a football.

Each pod contains hundreds of cacao beans inside. The beans are laid in the sun to dry where they turn brown.

Drying cacao beans before they are bagged.

Large sacks of “magic beans” are then sent to the factories to start the process of making chocolate as we know it.

Cacao is a “cash crop” in West Africa. Many of the farmers in places like Cote d I’voire have never tasted processed chocolate.

Cacao beans are shelled and were originally ground by hand, but now are ground by large crushing machines that grind them into cocoa powder.

The cocoa powder is combined with sugar, milk and vanilla to make chocolate.

Chocolate in its natural state is very bitter. Through hundreds of years of experimenting (including adding brick dust to hold it together into a bar) chocolate has been refined to the product we know today. Baking chocolate has the bitter taste of little or no sweetener.

A major innovation came in the late 1800’s when Henri Nestle developed the first successful process to make milk chocolate.

A little known (but important) fact: phenyl ethylamine is the naturally occurring substance in chocolate that produces The same biochemical reaction occurs when we fall in love!

In the USA, Pennsylvania produces more chocolate than any other state. Why? It is the home to the Hershey’s Company.

A chocophile considers chocolate a gourmet food. A chocoholic will consume any chocolate

The Europeans consume more chocolate per capita than any other region of the world. There have even been “chocolate battles” between member of the European Union over what constitutes certain types of chocolate. First taste of choclolate

Thank You Columbus!!!

Ghanaian song from the 1950s If you want to send your child to school, it is cocoa If you want to build a house, it is cocoa If you want to marry, it is cocoa If you want to buy cloth, it is cocoa If you want to buy a lorry, it is cocoa Whatever you want to do in this world It is with cocoa money that you do it.

End of chocolate PowerPoint one. Continue if using ppt one and two.

Pact to end African ‘chocolate slavery’ Ivory coast, Ghana, and Nigeria rank as 1,2,and 4 th in cocoa production Multinational companies are accused of creating market conditions which encourage child slavery and forced labor (driving prices low and keeping farmers in poverty)

Pact to end African ‘chocolate slavery’ Chocolate manufactures, human rights groups, and Ivory Coast gov’t signed pact to end industry child labor Children work in Ivory coast and Ghana cocoa fields for little or no wages Slave children are from poor areas and some are sold by parents for just a few dollars Many are thought to be slave labor from Mali, est. 15,000

Ivory Coast protects cocoa farmers Long suffering abuses from major chocolate companies prompted President to ensure a minimum price for cocoa “to give farmers their dignity back” Economy of Ivory Coast dependent on cocoa, coffee, and palm oil Tropical rainforest has been devastated by commodity plantations and threatens cocoa production