Chocolate in its Natural Form

To draft this paper the first time I needed to learn the history and how chocolate is made. Also we needed to taste a lot of different types of chocolate. When we tasted the chocolate we took notes on taste, smell, appearance, texture, and packaging. For the first draft it was easy to write about how chocolate was made and the characteristics of the chocolate. The hard part about writing the first draft was connecting all of the research we had done into a comprehensive coherent essay. I found it difficult to not simply list all of the characteristics of the chocolate in an uninteresting manner. To develop this essay I used definition writing and compare and contrast writing. I gave the definition of chocolate and compared the various types of chocolate that we tasted during our experiment. In this essay I also used the history of chocolate to enhance the paper.

When I first read this draft today I enjoyed the fact that my draft had a lot of information in it about both the history and how the different chocolates tasted. I now realize however that the information about the creation of chocolate was not completely necessary in the creation of this paper. The paper was supposed to be about how the different types of chocolate tasted and not so much about chocolate as a general item. The reason I put so much information in about the creation of chocolate was that I found it interesting. The information about the making of chocolate and then the descriptions of the different chocolates do not blend as well as they should. This creates the effect of multiple different essays that should not go together. I think that this essay needs to concentrate more on the tasting of the chocolate and less on the making. If I revised it I would delete some of the making of the chocolate which gives too much definition in a paper that is supposed to be more centered around compare and contrast. In addition in my description of the chocolate I would use more sensory details to describe the chocolate and possibly organize the comparisons of the chocolate in a way that flowed more.

My partner suggested that I should concentrate more on the taste of chocolate. My introduction gives the reader the idea that the entire paper is about the history and manufacturing of chocolate. My partner thought that the sharpest detail of the paper was when I was talking about how it was made I told how some of the manufacturing process would effect the final product. The best suggestion that my partner gave me was that I concentrated too much on the making of chocolate and that the description of how the chocolate tasted needed more description.

When I revise this paper I plan to shorten the introduction. In the introduction I will summarize the process of making chocolate and keep most of the history but try to shorten that also. For the rest of the paper I will reorganize the paper so the paper has a paragraph on every one of the characteristics that I took notes on when tasting the chocolate. In my original draft I tried to organize the paper based on the different types of chocolate. This caused confusion.

Chocolate

            Chocolate, a wonderful sweet that is enjoyed by all who taste it. Who does not love chocolate, the rich creamy melt in your mouth deliciousness that is chocolate.  Chocolate has a long history in our hearts. It originated in the Americas with the Mayas and Aztecs the founders of chocolate. They did not enjoy the chocolate that we all know and love they drank their chocolate in a biter frothy drink. When the Europeans came to the Americas they brought back with them the chocolate drink of the natives. In Europe they added sugar to the drink to make it sweeter. The chocolate drink was a symbol of wealth in Europe because cacao the tree that chocolate is made of and sugar was expensive. Both could not be grown in Europe and had to be shipped from the tropical locations they were grown in. The industrial revolution allowed chocolate to be made faster and cheaper. This was the first time that the common people got to taste chocolate. The cacao was still grown and harvested by hand but the other processes of making chocolate were improved.

            Much like chocolates complicated past the process of making chocolate is no walk in the park. Farmers grow the cacao and harvest it by hand. The cacao grows on trees in large pods with the seeds inside the pods. Seeds are used to make chocolate. The seeds are removed from the pods and let to sit in containers to ferment for three to nine days. When the fermenting is complete the seeds are dried in the sun. When the seeds contain little moisture they are shipped around the world to factories that will turn the seeds into the sweet we are all familiar with. When the seeds arrive at the factory they are sorted and cleaned. Depending on the chocolate that is being made seeds from different countries are used. Most of the time many different seeds are used in chocolate to get the correct flavor. Seeds are then roasted at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes to two hours. When the seeds are roasted the shells are then removed from the seeds that are not used in the process of making chocolate. The seeds now free from the shells are then crushed and liquefied to make chocolate liquor. The liquor is compressed to squeeze out cocoa butter leaving cocoa left. The cocoa is crushed into a powder and can be sold at this point in the process to bakers to be put into chocolate flavored goods.

            In the next steps of production the chocolate starts looking more like the final product. The chocolate liquor that has not been compressed to remove the cocoa butter is combined with condensed milk, sugar, and cocoa butter. The ingredients are mixed into a coarse brown powder. The chocolate is now almost complete and no additional ingredients will be added. The chocolate mixture is then crushed between steel rollers, to make the chocolate creamy. The chocolate is then moved to a different machine which kneads, grinds, and blends the chocolate. This is done to smooth the sugar grains and give the chocolate a silky texture. After this the chocolate is cooled and warmed repeatedly called tempering, to give the chocolate a glossy sheen. This also causes the chocolate to melt properly when people eat it. The final step in making chocolate is to mold it into the final shape. The process of making chocolate is long and tedious but the results are well worth it.

            There are different types of chocolate that vary the manufacturing process slightly using a different ratio of ingredients or cocoa from different countries. The different types of chocolate have slightly different tastes and texture. The presentation of chocolate can vary dramatically with different packaging and different shapes. I decided to taste all of the different types of chocolate to compare their different qualities. The most dramatic difference in the chocolate was the appearance. In my studies I tried two different types of Dove chocolate. One of them was a small individually wrapped serving and another was a bar of chocolate. Both of the products had Dove written on the chocolate so you always know what type of chocolate you are eating. Many of the chocolates that I tasted had the same mentality as Dove and put their name on the chocolate, including Heresy and Lindt. The packaging of the chocolate was all about making you feel good when eating it. The packages claimed that the chocolate was silky smooth chocolate and that you would, “lose yourself in the taste of Dove pure silk chocolate”. This was not my experience in eating the chocolate I was not lost in the process of eating the chocolate. What I thought was the best was that the individually wrapped chocolates had a saying on the inside of the wrapper. The chocolate that I ate claimed that, “Sometimes one smile means more than a dozen roses”. I found this humorous that Dove was not only trying to feed you chocolate but give you advice on your love life. The chocolate bar was wrapped in gold foil trying to convey the message that their chocolate was as good as gold. Another chocolate that I tasted was Godiva that also had its chocolate wrapped in gold foil.

 During my taste test I also tasted two different types of Hershey chocolate. I tasted the classic Hershey chocolate and the more sophisticate symphony chocolate that is also made by Hershey. The classic Hershey bar was wrapped in silver foil with a chocolate colored paper sleeve slid over it. The paper had Hershey written on it in large print that almost took the entire sleeve.  The more sophisticated Hershey chocolate Symphony was wrapped in a silver foil with a milk chocolate colored sleeve. The actual Symphony chocolate was a lighter color than the classic chocolate. Both as discussed before had Hershey written on them.

Lindt chocolate was also in my line up for chocolate taste testing. The Lindt packaging claimed that it had the finest creamy smooth milk chocolate. The Lindt chocolate that I tasted was a chocolate bar. This was done in order to level the playing field because in my opinion the hands down winner of chocolate is the Lindt truffles. They are balls of chocolate filled with creamy smooth on the verge of liquid chocolate. This is not comparable to a plain chocolate bar so it was not involved in the chocolate taste test. The chocolate like many others had its name writhen on it. The name was slightly fancier written than the Hershey name aiming more for class. The Hershey company wanted even the slightly blind to read their name. Godiva was the last chocolate that I tasted during the taste test. This chocolate was clearly aiming to the higher class and tried to look fancy. The chocolate was wrapped in gold foil. This was also the only chocolate that I tasted that did not have its name written on the chocolate. On their chocolate there was a person riding a horse engraved in chocolate. The person was very elegant and looked like a person in a old move riding a horse in their fancy clothes in a dramatic scene.

For the most part all of the chocolate that I sampled had the same texture. The texture was for the most part creamy and smooth. The classic Hershey chocolate was the least smooth chocolate, it was slightly grainy. This chocolate did not melt in your mouth as much as the other chocolates. It was more able to be chewed. The Lindt chocolate was the creamiest of the chocolate and it was almost too rich. The creamy chocolate was not at the best balance in your mouth and in some ways dried out your mouth.

By the end of the chocolate taste test I was having difficulties telling the difference between the tastes of all the different chocolates. Most of the chocolates tasted rich and creamy. The symphony was nuttier and the classic Hershey was chocolatier and not as creamy. All of the chocolates smelled like chocolate. The smell was sweet, creamy and nutty. A realization I came upon from my chocolate taste testing was that many chocolates taste very similar.

My favorite chocolate was the classic Hershey chocolate. This chocolate was not as creamy as the other chocolates and was more refreshing. The other chocolates were too creamy and made me thirsty. The Hershey chocolate was slightly grainier than the other chocolates.

During my chocolate taste test I discovered that I like most chocolate. Chocolate has a complicated past and a long history in the world. It has progressed over time into the chocolate that we enjoy today. The chocolate taste test also taught me that most chocolates taste similar. This is probably due to the fact that the manufacturing of chocolate does not have many variations that can be made. Chocolate can vary in taste when it is combined with other products. Chocolate can be combined with almost any thing to change and excite the flavor.