1. The Story of Chocolate

2. The Origin of Chocolate

3. Cacao Tree
Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, which is formally known as Theobroma Cacao.
Cacao trees grow in three main regions:
West Africa
South and Central Americas
Southeast Asia and Oceania
Cacao trees flourish only in the hot, rainy tropics, 20 degrees north and south of the Equator. 
Cacao trees are delicate plants that live in the understory of tropical forests and require other, taller trees to shelter them from wind and sun.

4. Pods
The fruit of the cacao tree is a football-shaped pod that comes in various colors depending on genetics and degree of ripeness—green, yellow, orange, red, purple or maroon.
Inside each pod is sweet white pulp and juice—which can be used to make drinks with a sweet, mild flavor—covering 50 to 60 seeds.
Before the pod can grow, however, the tree’s flowers must be pollinated. They have no scent. Insects such as a type of gnat called a midge pollinate them naturally, or a farmer can do so by hand. Of the thousands of flowers on each tree, only three to 10 percent will become fruit.
The same tree may have both cocoa flowers and fruit on it at any given time, as the tree bears fruit year round. Pods ripen after five to six months. 

5. Beans
The 50 to 60 seeds that nestle in the pods’ sweet juicy pulp are what we call cocoa beans. 
Harvesting Beans
Fermenting Beans

6. The Chocolate Farm
For the most part, cacao is grown by hand on family-run farms as small as two and one-half acres apiece

7. The Chocolate Factory
While details differ, most manufacturers follow the same general process to turn cacao seeds into scrumptious chocolate.
No matter what the step, professionals at the factory take and test samples to ensure the chocolate meets or exceeds safety and quality standards. Computers control temperatures, air moisture content, length of processing steps and more to ensure each batch is consistent and high quality.
Roasting and Pressing

8. Who Depends on it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Vy57rpWtA
The Story of Chocolate
What is it?
Who Depends on it?
Savor it?

9. Ingredients Ingredients
Chocolate is a natural product made of these ingredients: Chocolate Liquor: Cocoa beans with their shells removed that have been fermented, roasted and ground until they liquefy.  This liquid is made up of cocoa butter and cocoa solids; both are naturally present in the bean.
Cocoa Butter: Natural fat from the cocoa bean; extra cocoa butter enhances chocolate’s flavor and mouth feel.
Sugar
Lecithin: An emulsifier, often made from soy, that makes the ingredients blend together.
Vanilla or vanillin and other flavors.
It also may include
Milk: For milk chocolate.

10. Kinds Dark Chocolate: The bare essentials
Dark chocolate is simply chocolate liquor (the centers of cocoa beans ground to a liquid), extra cocoa butter, sugar, an emulsifier (often lecithin) and vanilla or other flavorings. Dark chocolates may contain milk fat to soften the texture, but they do not generally have a milky flavor.  Dark chocolate also is known as semi-sweet chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate, or baking chocolate, is 100 percent chocolate liquor and is typically very bitter and astringent.
Darker chocolates often have a higher percent cacao, which means they have a higher proportion of cocoa beans in them than other chocolates do

11. Kinds
Milk Chocolate: All of the above, plus milk solids
Surprisingly, sweet and creamy milk chocolate isn’t usually made with cold, frothy milk. It’s usually made with dry milk solids, which look like powdered milk. Milk chocolate has at least 10 percent cocoa liquor by weight, and at least 12 percent milk solids. It’s the most common kind of eating chocolate.

12. Kinds
White Chocolate: Cocoa butter takes center stage.
White chocolate features cocoa butter—think milk chocolate minus the cocoa solids.  In addition to the cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids, lecithin and vanilla, white chocolate may contain other flavorings. It has at least 20 percent cocoa butter, 14 percent milk solids, and no more than 55 percent sugar.

13. Additional Information
Baking Chocolate: Chocolate liquor, served straight up, is all that’s in baking chocolate. Its bitterness comes from pure nibs, the finely ground centers of roasted cocoa beans. Also called unsweetened chocolate, it has no sugar and is used often in dessert recipes with sugar as a separate ingredient. All other chocolate is called eating chocolate.
Bittersweet Chocolate: The darkest of eating chocolate, bittersweet has the highest percentage of chocolate liquor and may contain extra cocoa butter. Both bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate must contain at least 35 percent chocolate liquor, but bittersweet usually contains at least 50 percent cacao. Chocolates in this range are often referred to as dark chocolate.
Cacao and % Cacao: Pronounced “kuh-KOW” or “kuh-KAY -oh”, cacao represents the three ingredients derived from a cocoa bean—chocolate liquor, extra cocoa butter and cocoa powder. The % cacao refers to the total amount of these ingredients contained, by weight, in the finished product.
Chocolate-Flavored Coating: These coatings may contain chocolate liquor and/or cocoa powder, but use vegetable fats to supplement or replace cocoa butter. While often used to cover confectionery or ice cream products, they can be molded into solid bars or shapes. While coatings made with vegetable fats cannot be called “chocolate,” they may legally use the claim “made with chocolate” if they are made with chocolate liquor, since U.S. regulations consider “chocolate” and “chocolate liquor” as synonymous.
Chocolate Liquor:  Grinding the nib, or center, of a cocoa bean into a smooth, liquid state produces what’s called chocolate liquor—also called chocolate mass, cocoa mass, cacao mass and cocoa paste. According to U.S. regulations, chocolate liquor may also be called chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, baking chocolate, or bitter chocolate. An essential part of dark and milk chocolate, this ingredient with the many names does not contain alcohol, or vegetable fat.
Coco Powder

14. Additional Information
Cocoa Beans: The source of all things chocolate, cocoa “beans” are actually seeds from the fruit of Theobroma cacao, a tree native to the tropical Amazon forests that is now grown commercially worldwide within 20 degrees latitude of the Equator. Approximately 20 to 40 seeds cluster inside football-shaped pods and are covered by sweet white fruit pulp.
Cocoa Butter: Cocoa butter is the fat naturally present in cocoa beans. It melts just below body temperature, giving chocolate its unique mouthfeel. The nibs, or centers of the cocoa beans, are 50 to 60 percent cocoa butter. There is no connection to dairy butter.

15. Additional Information
Cocoa or Cocoa Powder: Comes from pressing chocolate liquor, the liquid that comes from grinding the nibs or centers of cocoa beans, to separate out of the cocoa butter. What’s left are the chocolate solids, called press cake. The press cake is then ground, becoming the dry cocoa powder used in hot cocoa mixes and baking. Under U.S. regulations, “cocoa” and “cocoa powder” can be used interchangeably.
Cocoa Solids: Chocolate liquor without most of the cocoa butter—the ground nibs, or centers of cocoa beans, with the cocoa butter pressed out. Cocoa solids, sometimes called chocolate solids, often are ground into cocoa powder.
Dutch (or Dutched) Process: While being ground into chocolate liquor and pressed into cocoa powder, nibs may be treated with an alkaline solution to neutralize acidity. This process darkens the color of the cocoa and produces a milder chocolate flavor. When treated cocoa is used in a food product, the terms “dutched” or “alkalized” are included on the ingredient declaration for products sold in the U.S.
Nib: The nib is the center or meat of the cocoa bean. Roasted or unroasted cocoa beans are cracked mechanically to break off the cocoa bean shells and expose the nibs. See more about 
Organic Chocolate: Chocolate grown without agricultural chemicals and meeting USDA Organic requirements.
Raw Chocolate: Raw chocolate is made from unroasted cocoa beans
Semisweet Chocolate: Like bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate is required by U.S. regulations to contain at least 35 percent chocolate liquor. Generally, semisweet chocolate contains 35 to 45 percent chocolate liquor. Semisweet chocolate is often referred to as dark chocolate.
Sweet Chocolate: Sweet chocolate is a combination of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter and sugar containing at least 15 percent chocolate liquor.
Unsweetened Chocolate: The same as baking chocolate (above).

16. Health and Chocolate
Chocolate has been an enjoyable part of people’s diets and has been used as medicine by various cultures throughout the ages. In recent years, scientific evidence has begun to indicate that the nutrients, phytonutrients and fatty acids found naturally in cocoa may be associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. These effects have been attributed to flavanols, which are natural compounds that occur in a wide range of fruits and vegetables and have been extensively studied in cocoa.
Over the past decade, studies examining the eating patterns of adults and their overall health over the course of several years suggest that those who regularly included cocoa products and chocolate in their diets maintained better cardiovascular health.  
Over the past five years, in various studies that examined the cocoa and chocolate eating habits of over 90,000 adults of mixed ages, ethnicities and genders over the course of multiple years, individuals who reported eating chocolate on some regular basis were less likely to develop a range of cardiovascular problems.  Findings included a reduction in overall mortality and blood pressure.

17. In a Nut Shell How is chocolate made?
Chocolate, known in ancient societies as "food of the gods," comes from cocoa beans, cacao, grown in tropical locations around the world.
After the beans are removed from their pods they're fermented, dried, roasted and cracked, separating the nibs (which contain cocoa butter) from the shells. The nibs are ground to extract some of the cocoa butter, leaving a thick, dark brown paste called chocolate liquor.
Next, the chocolate liquor is refined (sugar, milk or other ingredients are added), and finally, it goes through conching, a process by which huge machines with rotating blades slowly blend the heated chocolate liquor, ridding it of excess moisture and acids.
The result is the sweet, delicious dark brown squares, bars, chips and chunks we love so much!