Fascinating facts about chocolate
Fribourg's Natural History Museum is using tasty treats to attract visitors to a special exhibition about chocolate over Easter. As well as sampling choice pralines and bonbons, visitors are given a fascinating insight into Switzerland's favourite sweet.
Few sweet lovers know that the much-maligned mosquito plays a vital role in the creation of chocolate. The reason is because the cacao tree – from which all commercial chocolate is derived – relies on these nasty insects to pollinate its flowers.
That’s just one of the fascinating facts in an exhibition devoted to the origins of chocolate and its development from bean to bonbon.
Arriving at the show, visitors follow the alluring aroma of melted chocolate into the demonstration chocolate-making kitchen, captivated by the promise of free samples.
No doubt most are more interested in the final product than the displays of cocoa pods and seeds and of the techniques used in the processes leading to the almost magical transformation of the seeds into powder, flakes and blocks.
But the museum’s scientific collaborator, botanist Gregor Kozlowski, has more than a passing interest in the process. The botanical name for the commercial cocoa tree is “Theobroma cacao” – “Theobroma” meaning “food of the gods”.
Kozlowski explains that the cocoa tree requires three specific growing conditions: high humidity, shade and hot temperatures all of which abound in rain forests and tropical forests.
The tree is native to South and Central America but it is also cultivated in Africa with the Ivory Coast ranked as the world’s top producer.
“It has a special pollination biology,” says Kozlowski. “The flowers are pollinated by mosquitoes.” Also special is the fact that the flowers and fruit grow directly from the trunk of the tree.
Some of the close relatives to the cocoa tree include the cola plant, cotton and the baobab.
The irony hasn’t escaped Kozlowski that one of the main threats to the cocoa tree, whose products are so highly valued by humans, is man himself through the destruction of these same forests.
One of the contributors to the exhibition is the Union of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers, Chocosuisse. Its director, Franz Schmid, says Easter is a very important date for the industry in Switzerland representing about five per cent of total consumption.
Switzerland, in fact, leads the world in the per capita consumption of chocolate at nearly 12 kilogrammes a year.
On the wall of the exhibition are the photos of the many Swiss who developed the art of chocolate making and who subsequently lent their names to their products.
They include people such as François-Louis Cailler who opened the first Swiss chocolate factory, Philippe Suchard, Daniel Peter, the inventor of milk chocolate in 1875 and Rodolphe Lindt, who invented the refining process called “conching” which gives chocolate its smooth texture.
Asked about trends in chocolate making, Schmid says the industry has borrowed a classification practice from the wine industry. Cocoa beans are being classified in terms of growth quality, with traders referring to high quality beans as “grand cru”.
“Consumers want to know what they are eating and where it comes from,” says Schmid. “The industry is simply responding to this demand.”
Could “appellation controlée” chocolate bars be far behind?
by Paul Sufrin
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