Everybody Loves Chocolate
Milk chocolate is a favorite food in every single country where it has been introduced (Brenner 91). For many people, the first taste of the confection leads to a lifetime of cravings, and studies have found that it is the food craved most often in countries where it is found, especially for premenopausal women (Brenner 97). Chocolate is certainly a unique food in many ways. For example, the melting point of milk chocolate is a few degrees below human body temperature, but it is solid at room temperature, which causes it to melt in the mouth (Becket 10, Brenner 11). For most of its history of being consumed by humans, it was regarded as supernatural; an aphrodisiac, a cure for bodily ailments, and a substance fit only for royalty (Brenner 92-94, Coe 125, Satre 14).
What exactly is it that makes Chocolate so irresistible? Although it contains a host of chemicals known to affect moods in the human brain, including magnesium, anandamide and phenylethylamine, none of them have ever been proven to have a significant effect on human physiology when consumed through chocolate (Brenner 96). It also contains caffeine, a known stimulant, but only a very small amount of it; a bar of chocolate of cup of cocoa contains far less caffeine than a cup of coffee or tea (Brenner 96, Coe 34). As for the idea which has been around for millenia that chocolate is a health food, it does contain flavanoids, known to alleviate high blood pressure and cholesterol, but the process of alkalization used in turning cocoa beans into chocolate (even dark chocolate) destroys most of them, with the result that in order to consume enough flavanoids to be beneficial, weight gain would inevitably result from the high fat and sugar content of the chocolate, which is known to cause diabetes and hypertension (Adams). While some companies have worked on creating "healthy" versions of chocolate by changing the alkalization process, the flavor suffers, and so the most popular types remain unhealthy.
Modern science has thus proven that milk chocolate, and even dark chocolate, are not health foods; in fact, they are made up mostly of fat and sugar. What, then, makes chocolate so addictive? Why do people across the globe crave it, and why does it make them feel so stimulated? Science has come to understand that in actuality, this is precisely because it is made up mostly of fat and sugar, in a ratio of about fifty percent of each; the brain sends out a pleasure signal upon consumption of foods that are either sweet or fatty, and that signal is multiplied when a food is both (Brenner 97).
Even still, research continues across the globe attempting to find health-related excuses for eating lots of chocolate. In fact, although milk chocolate has only been around for slightly over a century, chocolate has been enjoyed in other forms since 1000 BCE, and was always thought to possess supernatural healing powers.
A Brief History Of Chocolate
For the vast majority of its history, the word "chocolate" referred not to a solid candy, but to a beverage made from cacao beans (which are actually seeds, but are conventionally called "beans" because of their shape); milk and chocolate do not mix easily, and the secret to combining them into milk chocolate was not discovered until 1876 (Becket 1). Although Europe didn't come into contact with chocolate until the Spanish conquest of the Americas, native Mesomericans had made use of it for centuries before that; linguistic evidents suggests that the Olmec were the first to make chocolate from cacao beans approximately three thousand years ago (Brenner 92, Coe 37, Satre 13). Following them, the Mayan and eventually the Aztec civilizations continued the tradition, valuing the cacao beans so highly that they were used as currency, and making the chocolate drink out of beans too worn to use as money. In Aztec society, the drink itself was valued so highly that it could be drunk only by royalty, and the gods in the form of offerings. (Brenner 92).
When the Spanish Conquistadores first colonized Central America, they disliked the drink because it was bitter and the spices in it turned the mouth red (Coe 108). Over time, as the invading Spanish society began to assimilate more into the native culture and many settlers even started intermarrying, they began to appreciate chocolate, although they preferred it heated and with cane sugar added to it as a sweetener (Coe 115). In this way, they were the first to make chocolate into a sweetened treat (and, consequently, they took the first steps in making chocolate an unhealthy food). Eventually they found ways to ship dried cakes of ground roasted cacao beans back to Europe, where it quickly became a status symbol consumed by royalty, as it had in Aztec culture (Brenner 92). Chocolate as a beverage actually became popular in Europe long before coffee or tea, and over time the drink became available to the masses in "chocolate houses," which were similar to the coffee houses of today (Brenner 93).
As demand for chocolate in Europe increased, a commodity market came into being, and cacao plantations for the purpose of international export were established in South America during the seventeenth century (Coe 181), powered at first by native slave labor, and, once the natives succumbed to European diseases, imported African slaves (Coe 184).
Despite its popularity throughout the world, the cacao tree is incredibly difficult to grow; it will not grow more than 20° north or south of the equator, in cool temperatures, at high altitudes, or without constant moisture (Coe 19), and so there are very few places on earth suitable for its cultivation. In 1824, cacao tree cuttings were transported for the first time from South America to a small island in West Africa named São Tomé, which was a Portuguese colony at the time (Coe 201). From there, the plant spread across West Africa in various European colonies run by African slaves. Consumers of chocolate often have an opinion with regards to which country produces the best chocolate, be it Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, or even the United States. In truth, nowadays 70% of the world's cocoa is grown in West Africa, with 43% in Côte D'Iviore, and only a very small portion is still grown in South America (BBC); although different manufacturing processes will create varying flavors, it is impossible to make good chocolate with inferior cacao beans, and so the African and sometimes South American farmers are the real source of the world's best chocolate.
Basic Production
Despite the advances in technology which have been made over the years, the first steps of making chocolate which are carried out by the grower have never changed; if a single one of these steps is insufficiently carried out, the resulting chocolate will be bitter and unpleasant, and not taste like chocolate at all (Coe 23). The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao, the first part of which means "food of the gods") is fairly small, and grows in the shade of larger foliage (Becket 7). The cacao beans used to make chocolate grow in pods which hang off of the trunk, or sometimes larger branches, and each pod contains thirty to forty beans (Becket 12, Coe 22). The first step in making chocolate is to harvest these pods, which is done with machetes, and break them open with knives or clubs, revealing the beans and a sweet, sticky white pulp (Becket 11). The pods do not all ripen at once, which makes mechanical harvesting impossible; they must be collected by hand over the course of several months (Becket 11-12).
Next, the beans must be allowed to germinate, and then fermented. The cacao provides its own natural mechanism for fermentation; the pulp is full of yeasts, sugars, and bacteria which react over the course of five or six days (on average) to ferment the beans. Fermentation is considered the most important step in developing the flavor, and if it is not done properly, the chocolate made from the beans will taste terrible. Once sufficient pulp and beans have been collected, they are piled up and covered with banana leaves to ferment, during which process most of the pulp will be consumed (Becket 13). Once fermentation is complete, the beans must be dried, either in a special oven or simply spread out in the sun (Becket 16). The dried beans are then subjected to inspection to ensure their quality.
At this point, the beans leave the grower to be shipped to the manufacturer. The beans are stored in large hessian sacks and stacked to be shipped many tons at a time (Becket 23). Although the beans are now dry, with a moisture level of about 7%, there is a risk of large amounts of condensation because of the large quantity shipped at once, and precautions must be taken to protect the sacks from moisture; there have been instances of shipments arriving at their destination moldy and unsuitable for use (Becket 24). In recent years, special containers have been developed to help prevent this from happening (Becket 25).
Different chocolate manufacturers have different methods of processing the cacao into chocolate, the details of all of which are secret, and which give the chocolate made in different parts of the world different tastes; but the basics of the process is the same. The beans are first cleaned and roasted, then ground, then alkalized to develop the chocolate's flavor (Becket 62, 69, 73). The chocolate powder is then further refined and conched, developing the flavor even more and making it suitable for use in food and candy (Becket 98). If milk chocolate is being made, the milk and sugar are combined first, and then chocolate is then added, with various heatings and coolings of the substance along the way (Becket 104).
There is an incredible amount of chemistry involved in the development of various chocolate flavors, making chocolate a science which has been steadily improved over time, giving rise to the wide variety of different types and flavors available across the world (Becket 108).
Chocolate's Dark Side
Cacao beans are an international commodity in very high demand, but its inability to grow in more than a few locations worldwide mean its production is highly concentrated, primarily in West Africa. It is also a relatively low-yield crop, and this, combined with the difficulty in growing it, gives large plantations an enormous advantage over small, family-owned farms. While much cacao is still grown on family farms, the families who own them have difficulty getting by; the average cacao farmer in Africa makes only $30 to $110 (US) annually (Osagie). On top of this, as a commodity, cacao prices are subject to fluctuation, and when the price drops, families must struggle even harder to make ends meet. In Côte D'Iviore, the world's largest cacao source, there are no minimum wage laws for workers in agriculture, and while child labor is illegal, the laws are not enforced. For these reasons, families are often forced to put their children into indentured servitude on large plantations in return for about $140 (US) and the hope that they will return home with money to contribute to the family (US State Department).
Unfortunately, things rarely turn out so well. A recent study by the Inter-national Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) found that more than a quarter of a million children are employed in the cacao industry working in hazardous conditions, and 64% of those are under the age of 14 (the minimum legal age for work in Côte D'Iviore). Among these, 12,000 had no relatives nearby, 284,000 were harvesting cacao pods and clearing fields with machetes, and 153,000 were involved in spreading pesticides without any protective equipment (IITA). Another dangerous activity too often performed by young children is the carrying bags of cacao beans on their shoulders. The bags weigh between 60 and 70 kilos, and many children suffer from open wounds on their shoulders from the straps which never heal because of their constant work (Tryon). There is also wide documentation of plantation owners beating and otherwise abusing child laborers, and locking them at night in crowded sheds without sufficient food and clean water (Tryon, US State Department).
Because there is no law against trafficking people, many children are recruited from outside the country, such as in Mali and Nigeria. The families are promised by recruiters that their children will find good, well-paying jobs, and so will be able to contribute to the household, but once they reach the plantation, they are treated as slave laborers, and suffer the mistreatment described above (Tryon, US State Department).
Even amongst children who work on family cacao farms, the opportunity to go to school is rare. In Côte D'Iviore, a third of school-aged children have never once set foot inside a classroom, and few children ever complete their primary education (IITA).
The Good News
As more and more people worldwide become aware of the problems with child labor and poverty in the West African cacao industry, changes are slowly being made. Groups like Save the Children and UNICEF are working with the chocolate industry to get child labor out of the system (MacAdam), and fair trade companies such as Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) and Equal Exchange are working directly with farmers to set fair prices for their goods, encourage organic farming practices, and eliminate child labor. Fairly traded goods are slightly more expensive than traditionally traded goods because the farmers are paid a living wage for growing it, but they are not as expensive as people tend to think: much "fair trade" chocolate costs the consumer only 4% more than traditional chocolate, but the farmer receives about 25% more money for their beans (MacAdam). Farmers are also paid extra for beans grown organically. The extra money makes it unnecessary for families to use child labor or sell their children into indentured servitude, and fair trade regulations prohibit child labor - and unlike national laws, these regulations are strictly enforced. Quality regulations are also stricter than those for traditional cacao sale, and the chocolate itself is generally made without loads of artificial chemicals and other highly processed ingredients such as corn syrup, which means that the consumer is able to enjoy chocolate which is not only good for farmers, families, and children, but also generally of a higher quality (MacAdam, Equal Exchange).
Works Cited
Adams, Stuart J. "A critical look at the effects of cocoa on human health." Pabulum. 2006. April 15, 2007. <http://nutra-smart.net/cocoa.htm>.BBC. "Child labour rife in cocoa sector." BBC News. August 2002. April 15, 2007. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/2166032.stm>.Becket, S.T. Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use. Glasgow and London: Blacki & Son Ltd, 1988.Brenner, Joël Glenn. The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars. New York: Random House, 1999.Coe, Sophie D. and Michael D. The True History of Chocolate. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1996.Equal Exchange. April 20, 2007.
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