Where does this delicious treat start its journey? The answer is simple; chocolate is made from cacao that has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavour.

After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to produce cacao nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form.

Because the cocoa mass is usually liquefied before being moulded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions.

Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk.  White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids.

Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavours in the world, and a vast number of foodstuffs involving chocolate have been created.

Although cocoa originated in the Americas, today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, with Ivory Coast growing almost half of it.