Did you know...

Hold your own with any chocolate professional by learning a few terms of the chocolate world. This is just a tiny hint of many of the terms used by great chocolatiers though, you'll find more here.

Chocolate Liquor
The ground up center (nib) of the cocoa bean.

Cocoa Butter
An oily product which is an essential fatty part of the cocoa bean. Cocoa Butter is a natural fat extracted from chocolate liquor under high pressure.

Bittersweet Chocolate
Dark Chocolate that contains a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor Bittersweet and semi-sweet both fall under this definition, however, bittersweet is traditionally the term reserved from chocolate with a minimum of 50% chocolate liquor.

Semi Sweet Cackled
Also known as bittersweet chocolate. Contains a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor.

Cocoa Bean
Seeds from a pod of the Theobroma tree. Native to the tropical Amazon forests. Commercially grown worldwide in tropical rain forests within 20 degrees latitude of the equator.

Milk Chocolate
Chocolate with at least 10% chocolate liquor and 12% mild solids, combined with sugar, cocoa, butter, lecithin and vanilla.

Cocoa Powder
The cocoa solids resulting from pressing the cocoa butter out of chocolate liquor. May be natural or "dutched".

Dutched Process
A treatment used during the making of cocoa powder. Cocoa solids are treated with an alkaline solution to neutralize the natural acidity. This process darkens the cocoa and develops a milder flavor.

Tempering
In order to stabilize chocolate, a heating and cooling process is needed. This stabilized the cocoa butter, avoiding crystallization and giving a good surface gloss.

Conche Process
A machine which is constantly agitating the chocolate, thereby achieving desirable flavors and liquefying the refined chocolate mass.

Compound or Confectionery Coating
A blend of cocoa powder, sugar and vegetable oil. By substituting the vegetable oil for the cocoa butter, melting is easier but the results are not as high in quality.

Did you know...

Chocolate and cocoa may help prevent heart attacks, researchers said on Wednesday, but don't run to the office vending machine yet. So far, available chocolate products are known to contain high levels of flavanol, the substance linked to heart health, they said. Flavanols are naturally occurring compounds in many plants or plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruits, red wine and cocoa. They are thought to have an effect on vascular dilation, or a relaxing of the muscles around blood vessels, which helps keep blood flowing through the vessels.

Research also suggests flavanols enhance nitric oxide, which causes arteries to dilate and increases blood flow, keeping potentially dangerous deposits from adhering to artery walls.And flavanols may have an aspirin-like effect on platelets, reducing blood clotting linked to heart attacks.

Marguerite Engler, professor and vice chair of the Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California at San Francisco, was an investigator in a study that compared the Dove dark chocolate to another dark chocolate bar and to aspirin. The study, presented at the American Heart Association meeting this week in Chicago, was independently funded. In the study, 21 people ate 46 grams -- an average-sized candy bar -- of either chocolate each day for two weeks.The researchers found the subjects who ate the flavanol-rich Dove dark chocolate showed blood vessel dilation two hours after eating the candy, as measured by an ultrasound of a main artery.

"It's a great alternative, but people still need to be aware there are calories in chocolate," Engler said in an interview. "People should realize that you still should be eating healthy and exercising too.

Engler also said that "the response was more robust" when people took a low dose of aspirin instead of chocolate.

Did you know there's a Chocolate Academy?

Yes! Imagine that!

Barry Callebaut, the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate, has opened its first U.S. Chocolate Academy alongside its new North American headquarters in Chicago. The courses, given by Barry Callebaut focus on in-depth theoretical knowledge and putting it into practice. Barry Callebaut has developed a wide selection of courses, ranging from introductory courses for novice craftsmen to advanced courses for experienced confectioners, pastry chefs and chefs de cuisine, with specialized courses for each business segment.

There are 3 levels of expertise to consider when signing up for their courses.

• You may or may not be working as a professional in the food industry and you have little or no experience in the field of chocolate or pastry.

• You are working as a professional in the food industry with a good knowledge about the processes of working chocolate and/or pastry. We won't spend time on theory about tempering and cooling or the basics of pastry.

• You have been working as a professional in the food industry for some time now and have a thorough knowledge of chocolate and/or pastry and want to improve in either field.

There are also Academies worldwide hosting approximately
500 chocolatiers, confectioners and chefs each week. In total there
are 12 Academies located around the world. Locations include: Wieze,
Belgium; Meulan, France; Lodz, Poland; St. Hyacinthe, Quebec;
Singapore; Zurich, Switzerland; Banbury, United Kingdom; Suzhou,
China; Mumbai, India; Zundert, Netherlands; Chekhov, Russia.