|
Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of ''Theobroma cacao'' seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Mokaya (Mexico and Guatemala), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BC. In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs,〔Justin Kerr. 〕 who made it into a beverage known as ''xocolātl'' , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to produce cacao nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because the cocoa mass is usually liquefied before being molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids. Cocoa solids are a source of flavonoids and alkaloids, such as theobromine, phenethylamine and caffeine.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mhdao/Factsheets/Pages/caffeine.aspx )〕 Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and a vast number of foodstuffs involving chocolate have been created. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages such as chocolate milk and hot chocolate. Although cocoa originated in the Americas, today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world's cocoa, with Ivory Coast growing almost half of it. ==Etymology== The word "chocolate" entered the English language from Spanish. How the word came into Spanish is less certain, and there are competing explanations. Perhaps the most cited explanation is that "chocolate" comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, from the word ''chocolātl'', which many sources say derived from ''xocolātl'' , combining ''xococ'', sour or bitter, and ''ātl'', water or drink.〔 The word "chocolatl" does not occur in central Mexican colonial sources, making this an unlikely derivation. Another derivation comes from the Yucatec Mayan word ''chokol'' meaning hot, and the Nahuatl ''atl'' meaning water. The Nahuatl term, ''chicolatl'', meaning "beaten drink", may derive from the word for the frothing stick, ''chicoli''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「chocolate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|