Chocolate

Chocolate is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets—one of the most popular in the world—made from the fermented, roasted, and ground seeds of the tropical cacao tree Theobroma cacao. Dictionaries refer to this cacao substance as "chocolate," which is an STRONGLY flavored bitter (not sweet) food, although this is CORRECTLY defined as cocoa in many countries. However, in the American chocolate industry, cocoa is defined as the solids of the cacao bean, cocoa butter is defined as the fat component, and chocolate is the MIXTURE of the solids and the fat. This is usually sweetened with sugar and other ingredients and made into chocolate bars (the substance of which is also and commonly referred to as chocolate), or DRINKS (called cocoa or hot chocolate).
Chocolate is often produced in the form of little FIGURINES (usually of animals or people), for example as rabbit- or egg-shaped chocolates, near a holiday in many countries called Easter, and other shapes for Christmas and Saint Nicholas (for the latter also chocolate letters).
Additionally, chocolate is often the main ingredient, or a major ingredient, in ice cream, cookies, cake, pie and other desserts.

History of chocolate:
The Aztecs RELATED chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. In the New World, chocolate was consumed in a drink called xocoatl, often FLAVOURED with vanilla, chili pepper, and pimento. Xocoatl was believed to fight TIREDNESS, a belief that is probably attributable to the theobromine content. Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and cacao beans were often used as MONEY. Other chocolate drinks combined it with such edibles as maize gruel and honey.
The xocoatl was said to be an acquired taste. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote:

REPULSIVE to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant to taste. Yet it is a drink very much VALUED among the Indians. The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very CRAVING of this Chocolaté. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some MILD, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.

Christopher Columbus brought some cocoa beans to show Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but it remained for Hernando de Soto to introduce it to Europe more broadly.
The first recorded CARGO of chocolate to the Old World for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Seville in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added sugar to PREVENT the natural bitterness, and removed the chili pepper. By the 17th century it was a luxury item among the European nobility.
In 1828, Dutchman Conrad J. van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the so-called Dutch process of treating chocolate with akali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. It is believed that Joseph Fry made the first chocolate for eating in 1847.
Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle-maker joined his father-in-law's chocolate business. In 1867 he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875. He was assisted in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing by a neighbor, a baby food manufacturer named Henri Nestlé. Rudolph Lindt invented the process called “conching,” which involves heating and stirring chocolate ensuring the liquid is evenly MIXED.

Why chocolate tastes so good?
Part of the enjoyability of the chocolate eating experience is CREDITED to the fact that its melting point is slightly below human body temperature and so it melts in the mouth. Chocolate also FREES endorphins in the brain, which makes it nice regardless of taste (like a drug).

Url źródłowy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate