Gourmet chocolate candy, a delight to many. Our love affair with chocolate is by no means new. Chocolate has been around for centuries. The Mayans even used chocolate as a means of currency and this practice persisted through the Latin American area until the 19th century.
There was even a Black Market since people constructed counterfeit “money” to look like chocolate candy. So valuable was chocolate in the Mayan society that there was a chocolate God and their brides and grooms traded chocolate candies during the ceremony to solidify their union.
When the Aztecs conquered the Mayans, they adopted the reverence of chocolate as well. When Cortez arrived on the scene, he and his men tasted the chocolate, but hated it! (Can you imagine?) It was through Cortez’s continued subjugation of other lands that chocolate became destined for eventual greatness throughout cultures. In the Caribbean, someone added sugar to the cocoa bean and a star was born. Initially, the Spaniards reserved the miraculous food for their own use. It was regarded as a medicine and a health food. They prescribed this wonder drug for everything from fevers to pain. Eventually, the secret of chocolate got out. (Nothing this good can be kept under wraps!) Gourmet chocolate candy made its way to Europe, making it the first caffeine on the scene. In fact, in London is the 1600s, you could frequent gourmet chocolate candy houses. Yes, entire establishments devoted to the consumption of gourmet chocolate truffles. This led to a boom in the demand for chocolate, which led to entire plantations devoted to the production of chocolate. Not surprisingly, a cheapening of chocolate production simultaneously occurred. Chocolate production shifted from the more expensive and better tasting criollo to the cheaper and not as tasty forastero. Today more than 90% of the chocolate produced is made from forastero.
Gourmet chocolate candy is a term used to refer to superior chocolate. In the traditional sense, it would refer to chocolate made from the more expensive and better tasting criollo bean. Want to know how to spot the really good gourmet chocolate candies and not chocolate simply labeled “gourmet” in order to sell for more money? Quality chocolate can be discerned by its flavor, aroma, appearance, texture, snap, and aftertaste. Its flavor is well-adjusted, neither too bitter, nor too sweet. Its scent is full and savory. There’s no scent of chemicals or bitterness in gourmet chocolate candy, whether milk, dark, or white chocolate. Its appearance will be even throughout with a slight shine. Its texture is silky and velvety, rather than gritty or waxy. Its snap refers to how it breaks: evenly or crumbly. The aftertaste should loiter behind pleasantly.
Gourmet chocolate candy can come in dark, white, and milk varieties. Gourmet dark chocolate candy has the highest percentage of cacao of any chocolate. Gourmet white chocolate candy has cocoa butter, milk, and sugar, but doesn’t actually contain the ground cacao beans found in dark chocolate. Milk chocolate gourmet candy is regulated to contain at least 12% whole milk.
Gourmet chocolate candy should be looked at much as one looks at organic foods. It’s all in the materials used and the method employed to produce. Gourmet chocolate is comprised from superior ingredients, grown in more natural environments.