We’ve had a love affair with chocolate for a long time.  Why? 

Let’s start with the current process of making chocolate, then the history, and finally the health benefits and why we love it so much!

Chocolate comes from wild cacao trees, which farmers tend to in various rainforests around the world.  There they receive just the right amount of rain, shade, humidity, wind and nutrients.  Cacao pods are the size of a small papaya and similarly shaped.  They change from a light green to a brilliant red color on the tree when ripening.  

Understanding when the pod is ripe takes talent, as does the harvesting.  The plucking of cacao pods need to be done delicately by hand so as to not damage the bark of the tree.  The pods are then hacked open with machetes, revealing pulp covered seeds.  This harvest happens twice a year.

These seeds are then naturally fermented in piles lined and covered with banana tree leaves.  The pulp and seeds warm up in the tropical heat and humidity, activating enzymes and creating chemical compounds that make it taste like chocolate.  Fermentation is finished when these white seeds turn a milk chocolate brown. 

Next the seeds need to be dried.  This is done naturally out in the open air and sun on bamboo mats. This process takes about a week and causes the seeds to lose about half their weight.  These cacao seeds are now ready to leave the gentle hands of these tropical farmers, to be packed up in burlap sacks and sent to chocolate making companies far away.

Once at the manufacturer, the process becomes a bit more mechanical and the cacao beans start to look more and more like the chocolate we know and love.

The seeds are sorted, cleaned and roasted to perfection.  This roasting takes some ingenuity as the seeds are different depending on their origin.  The seeds roast for 30 minutes to 2 hours and turn a dark coffee-bean-like color.  This roasting makes the shells very brittle, so they are easier to remove, leaving the remains, which are called chocolate nibs.  These nibs are naturally made up of 53% cocoa butter and 47% pure cocoa solids. 

In order to make chocolate, the cocoa butter and the pure cocoa need to be separated.  This is done by crushing the nibs with heavy steal rollers, which generate a lot of friction and heat to liquefy the nibs into a thick paste, called chocolate liquor.  This chocolate liquor is then placed in a huge hydraulic press which squeezes out the white cocoa butter.  This is sometimes added back into chocolate bars or used for the base of white chocolate. 

Once this cocoa butter is separated, the remaining solid cocoa is pulverized into pure cocoa powder.  This cocoa powder is sometimes used in baking, cooking or for making hot chocolate. 

To make creamy, ‘melt in your mouth chocolate bars’, the chocolate liquor (which still has the cocoa butter in it) is mixed with condensed milk, sugar and sometimes extra cocoa butter.  The recipe depends on the percentage of chocolate desired.  The extra cocoa butter helps the chocolate bar stay solid at room temperature, but also allows it to melt in the warmth of your mouth as it begins to soften around 75º F and melts at 97ºF.  This refined paste is ground with heavy rollers, sometimes for up to 6 days to smooth out the grains of chocolate and sugar.

These are just the basics of how the chocolate we know and love is made today…but chocolate has a long history! 

600 – Maya Indians moved from Guatemala to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and brought with them cacao.

1000 – The cacao bean began to be used as money

1200 – Aztecs began demanding payment of taxes in the form of cacao beans.  They used cacao beans for a drink, adding flowers, vanilla and honey.

1502 – Christopher Columbus was given his first drink of xocoatl (chocolate) on his fourth voyage to the Americas.  He didn’t like it, but took some cacao beans back as an unusual item for the people at home.

1519 – Cortez captured Montezuma and began ruling the Aztec empire.  He established a cacao plantation in the name of Spain.

1528 – Cortez returned to Spain with cacao beans and hid them in monasteries with the formula kept secret for the special chocolate drink, which only the very rich could afford to buy. 

1615 – Anne of Austria marries Louis XIII and takes the Spanish custom of chocolate drinking to France

1657 – The first chocolate house is opened in England by a Frenchman, but it is still very unaffordable for most. 

1674 – A London coffeehouse sells the first solid chocolate in stick form. 

1764 – The Baker Chocolate Company is established in Dorchester, MA by James Baker.  He calls his products “Baker’s Chocolate”.

1861 – Richard Cadbury creates the heart-shaped candy box for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day was an ancient fertility festival celebrated seven weeks after Winter Solstice, marking the progression from Winter into Spring.  Chocolate came into the picture many, many years later, but is rightfully part of this “love” holiday. 

Chocolate contains the same “feel good” chemical that is produced in our brains when elated or “falling in love”.  The chemicals in chocolate give you a “lift” because of the psychoactive ingredients like serotonin, salsolinol, phenylethylamine, anandamide and theobromine.  We get very small amounts of these chemicals when we eat chocolate, but they (and the added sugar) still seem to do the trick! 

Now…is chocolate healthy?

Chocolate has antioxidants called phenols, similar to the ones in red wine and tea.  The darker the chocolate the more phenols it contains.  The purer and darker chocolate provides the most health benefits.  For example, dark chocolate (but not milk chocolate) contains flavonoids, which are antioxidants that are believed to prevent oxidation of bad cholesterol which could help slow early stages of atherosclerosis in the arteries.

Chocolate bars do contain varying amounts of sugar, which of course isn’t healthy, especially in large doses.  This sugar stimulates the release of endorphins, generating a feeling of pleasure and well being, but of course also stimulates the release of insulin, which can eventually cause a sugar crash, and possibly more fat storage.

The best way to experience all the “feel good” benefits of chocolate without the negative impact of the sugar and calories is to choose dark chocolate and eat it in small portions.  You may be surprised how satisfying a 1 ounce piece of very good dark chocolate can be!  Moderation is key…Enjoyment necessary!

About the Nutritionist

Amyjo Johnson has a Bachelors of Science in Human Nutrition and is currently working on her Certification and Masters in Nutrition through the nationally accredited American Health Science University and the National Institute of Nutrition Education.  For two years, Amyjo has been providing nutrition consulting to the on-site food service team and employees at Google, Inc. She provides information on assuring nutritionally balanced menus, excellent ingredients, and food choice nutritional education for ideal productivity and health. Through her company, Food for Change, Amyjo provides individuals and businesses counseling and consultation on a variety of nutritional situations and needs.  Contact her at:  This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it