Treat for the taste buds
Trilochan Singh Trewn

When years ago we docked in northern Poland shipyard for repairs, we found that the foreman looking after jobs of our ship was residing in a chocolate manufacturing factory on the outskirts of Gdansk port. His wife was a supervisor in the chocolate factory. We were amazed by the variety of chocolate bars the foreman used to bring as part of his lunch box daily. One day he invited my wife and me to visit the chocolate factory. We were excited and decided to see the mixing and pouring section early in the morning. About one furlong before the chocolate factory, as we drove along, we got the sweet and delightful aroma of hot chocolate mix.

Upon entering the factory, we learnt in detail about chocolate-making. France, Italy, Venezuela, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, USA and UKare generally the best known chocolate-makers.

Cocoa bean is the main ingredient of any chocolate. It is ironical that while cocoa bean is grown mostly in hot places like Ghana, lvory Coast, Java in Indonesia, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico and Venezuela, it is finally processed in cooler climes. The temperate climate of North America and Europe suits chocolate processing because a temperature of 18 degree celsius is apt for producing good chocolates. If it is warmer than that, a chocolate loses its liquid crunch and tends to melt.

Although cocoa butter is the main taste-giving ingredient of any good chocolate, many chocolate-makers use vegetable fats to lower costs. Vegetable fats in chocolate lower the ‘melting in mouth’ taste of a good chocolate. But it has one distinct advantage in a tropical country like India i.e. it is not prone to melt at the prevailing atmospheric temperatures.

Chocolates are made mainly in three colours. Plain dark, milk and white. Plain dark is a mixture of sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and vanilla. If milk powder, milk and vanilla is added we get milk chocolate. For white chocolate, we have sugar, cocoa butter milk and vanilla but no cocoa liquor. Many people like chocolates in the form of bars, bonbons, callets, blocks or filled with rum, wine or whisky. Many ice creams and cakes have chocolate for providing variety in flavours. It is also used for desserts. White chocolate is equivalent to de-caffeinated coffee or non-alcoholic beer. But nothing like a dark chocolate with 75 per cent cocoa which melts in mouth.

We spent about two hours in the factory. We tasted hot liquid chocolate with various types of spices added to it. Before leaving, the management presented us with a gift pack of chocolate bars having lesser percentage of cocoa in it — thus more suitable for Indian climate. The special consideration was that our names were shown on the dark chocolates with white chocolate mix. The largest chocolate bar presented weighed 2 kg.

The excitement of visiting a chocolate factory and tasting the choicest varieties of chocolates apart, medical opinion confirms that dark chocolate boosts blood flow temporarily to special sections of the brain. Also contents in a chocolate accelerate brain function, fight fatigue, provide sound sleep and resist ageing effects.

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