Chocolate industry

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Chocolate industry

Answer 1

Environmental effects of cocoa production

The environmental effects of cocoa production

Cocoa Beans are a high demand consumer item all over the world. They are used in products such as chocolate, candy bars, drinks and cocoa powder. However, cocoa farming and the production of cocoa beans are extremely fragile and labour-intensive processes. The process begins with a Cacao plant, or Theobroma cacao, in which the beans are extracted from pods that grow directly on branches. Each pod contains roughly 30 to 50 beans. After the beans are extracted they must go through a time-consuming process of natural fermenting and drying. The farming process of cocoa can damage the environment depending on the practices of the farmer, as well as be limited by the environment itself. Global Climate Change, for example, causes longer drought seasons making it more difficult for farmers to plant and sustain new Cacao trees. Most of the environmental impact comes from CO₂.

Cocoa farming can only occur 15 degrees north or south of the Equator. It can take approximately three years after planting for the trees to be fruitful enough to harvest the pods. Cocoa pods are pollinated by tiny flies called midges. Ripe cocoa pods, which are yellow in colour, are then cut down from the trees using a machete. Use of a machete in this fashion, termed machete technology, prevents disease from spreading among cocoa pods, and thereby decreases the need for pesticides. The pods can be very low on branches and easily accessible or higher up on thick branches. Once they are gathered, they are sliced open and the cocoa beans are extracted from the pods. The beans are then spread out, usually between banana leaves, for a number of days to ferment. Next, the seeds are placed in the sun to dry for several more days. After drying, they are gathered, placed into bags and taken to collection offices. From there, they are shipped around the world to be processed into end products.

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Answer 2

Fair trade cocoa

Fair trade cocoa' is an agricultural product harvested from the cacao tree using a certified process which is followed by cocoa farmers, buyers, and chocolate manufacturers, and is designed to create sustainable incomes for farmers and their families. Companies that use fair trade certified cocoa to create products can advertise that they are contributing to social, economic, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.

In the 1990s, approximately 90 percent of the world’s cocoa was produced on small, family managed farms, primarily in West Africa and Latin America. Local collectors and intermediaries purchase and transport the cocoa to exporters and processors. Many farmers are unaware of the final destination and value of their cocoa. Low prices and increasing need for fertilizer often created labor shortage, leading to child and slave labor in many West African countries with cocoa production.

Fair trade cocoa certification was created to overcome these problems. The first fair trade certification of a cocoa product was arranged by the Max Havelaar Foundation of the Netherlands in 1994. The product was Green & Black’s Maya Gold Chocolate, which was made with cocoa from Belize. The Max Havelaar Foundation was also the first Fairtrade Certification Mark. The Dutch foundation has now incorporated itself into Fairtrade International (FLO), a nonprofit organization with 25 member countries that use fair trade certification labels.

In 2002, Fair Trade USA, which at that time had been incorporated into Fair Trade International (FLO), started certifying fair trade cocoa products sold in the United States. In September 2011, Fair Trade USA split from Fair Trade International (FLO).

In 2001, the issue of forced labour in cocoa production was brought to the public's attention by a series of articles published in the United States by Sudarsan Raghavan, Sumana Chaterjee, and the Knight Ridder news agency. They included interviews with victims of child trafficking for cocoa production. Noting that the United States has laws against importing goods produced using slave labor, Congressman Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin proposed to enact a “slave-free” label for chocolate. The United States cocoa industry lobbied against this, and the mandatory labeling proposal was reduced to a voluntary system. Under this system, known as the , chocolate producers pledged that by July 1, 2005, they would use “standards…consistent with applicable federal law, that ensure cocoa beans and their derivative products have been produced without the worst forms of child labor.”

The publicity surrounding these events increased consumer demand for fair trade certified chocolate.

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Answer 3

Ghirardelli Square

Ghirardelli Square

Ghirardelli Square is a landmark public square with shops and restaurants in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco, California. A portion of the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company.

The square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants. Some of the original shops and restaurants still occupy the square.

In 1893, Domenico Ghirardelli purchased the entire city block in order to make it into the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1960s, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company which moved the headquarters off-site to San Leandro and put the square up for sale.

San Franciscan William M. Roth and his mother, Lurline Matson Roth, bought the land in 1962 to prevent the square from being replaced with an apartment building. The Roths hired landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons to convert the square and its historic brick structures to an integrated restaurant and retail complex, the first major adaptive re-use project in the United States. It opened in 1964. In 1965, Benjamin Thompson and Associates renovated the lower floor of the Clock Tower, keeping the existing architectural elements, for a Design Research store. The lower floors of the Clock Tower are now home to Ghirardelli Square's main chocolate shop.

In order to preserve Ghirardelli Square for future generations, the Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

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Answer 4

History of chocolate in Spain

The history of chocolate in Spain is part of the culinary history of Spain as understood since the 16th century, when the colonisation of the Americas began and the cocoa plant was discovered in regions of Mesoamerica, until the present. After the conquest of Mexico, cocoa as a commodity travelled by boat from the port of Nueva España to the Spanish coast. The first such voyage to Europe occurred at an unknown date in the 1520s. However it was only in the 17th century that regular trade began from the port of Veracruz, opening a maritime trade route that would supply the new demand from Spain, and later from other European countries.

The introduction of this ingredient in Spanish culinary traditions was immediate, compared with other ingredients brought from Latin America, and its popularity and acceptance in all sectors of Spanish society reached very high levels by the end of the 16th century. Since its inception, chocolate was considered by Spaniards as a drink and retained that perception until the beginning of the 20th century.

From the early stages, the cocoa was sweetened with sugar cane, which the Spanish were the first to popularise in Europe. In pre-Columbus America chocolate was flavored with peppers and was a mixture of both bitter and spicy flavours. This made it an acquired taste and limited its appeal to the Spanish conquistadors, who were soon encouraged to sweeten it with sugar brought from the Iberian Peninsula in addition to heating it.

Over a 100-year period since its first appearance in the ports of Andalusia, chocolate became popular as a drink in Spain, where it was served to the Spanish monarchy. However, for a time the formula was unknown in the rest of Europe. Later chocolate spread from Spain to the rest of Europe, with the first countries to adopt it being Italy and France.

The great popularity of the drink in Spanish society from that time until the 19th century is attested to in various reports written by travellers who visited the Iberian peninsula. It was said that "chocolate is to the Spanish what tea is to the English". In this way chocolate was converted into a national symbol. The unusual fondness for this drink meant that coffee remained relatively unpopular in Spain compared to other European countries.

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Answer 5

Kuapa Kokoo

Kuapa Kokoo is a Fairtrade-certified cocoa farmers organisation in Ghana. The organisation was established in 1993 by a group of cocoa farmers from Ghana with support from Twin Trading, Christian Aid and The Body Shop. They are based in Ghana and currently has over 83,000 registered members.

The Day Chocolate Company (a UK company, now Divine Chocolate) was set up by Kuapa Kokoo and Twin Trading in 1997. The company primarily uses Kuapa's cocoa, and the cooperative also holds 44% of Divine Chocolate's stock. Kuapa uses its Fairtrade premium to pay bonuses to members, and invests in social projects, such as schools, bore-holes for drinking water, and mobile clinics.

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Answer 6

Mast Brothers

Mast Brothers

Mast Brothers is an American artisanal chocolate company headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. The company was founded in 2007 by brothers Rick and Michael Mast, who are from Primghar, Iowa and who have been described as having "magnificent Civil War-era beards". Mast Brothers, according to Vanity Fair, are "widely credited for introducing artisanal chocolate to mainstream American culture" and to have been instrumental in popularizing the bean-to-bar movement in America, but has faced criticism for their lack of involvement in the artisanal chocolate business community, as well as allegations they used third-party chocolate in their early products.

The building is located in Williamsburg. Encompassing 3,000 square feet (280 square meters), the Minimalist-style chocolate shop is located inside a building that once served as a spice factory and today houses various small companies. A critic's pick by New York Magazine.

Mast Brothers opened London's first commercial bean-to-bar chocolate factory on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, an East London neighborhood, welcoming visitors into a multi-use space where they can see the chocolate production process, buy chocolate bars and other treats, and even drink their chocolate.

Mast Brothers opened the first bean-to-bar chocolate factory in Los Angeles, California in May of 2016. The chocolate factory is located in a 6,000 square foot warehouse in the Arts District.

Mast Brothers currently offers 12 varieties of chocolate bars with their 2016 Collection which launched during the London Design Festival. The 2016 Collection consists of six dark chocolate bars (Sea Salt, Mint, Olive Oil, Almond Butter, and their signature Dark) and six milk chocolate bars (Goat Milk, Sheep Milk, Vanilla, Maple, Coffee, and their signature Milk). The bars are available in three sizes. A 70-gram bar of Mast Brothers chocolate typically sells for $9 from the Mast Brothers' Brooklyn flagship location and for $10 at hundreds of secondary retailers. The company has gained attention both for the quality of its packaging design ("not unlike unwrapping a gift", as Vanity Fair described it) as well as for its chocolate, including praise from noted French Laundry chef Thomas Keller.

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Answer 7

Organic chocolate

Organic chocolate is chocolate which has been certified organic. As of 2016, it was a growing sector in the global chocolate industry. organic chocolate is a socially-desirable product for some consumers. Major brands, such as The Hershey Company, have begun to produce organic chocolate.

Many, if not most, producers of organic chocolate source their ingredients from certified fair trade cocoa farms and cooperatives. Organic chocolate comes in many varieties, including milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate. Major brands of organic chocolate include Britain-based Green & Black's, Hershey-owned Dagoba Chocolate, and Equal Exchange. Less-known retailers include Taza Chocolate, Pacari Chocolate, and Sacred Chocolate, a brand noted for producing raw chocolate.

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Answer 8

Pure Imagination

"Pure Imagination" is a song from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by British composers Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie. It was sung by Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka). The intro of the song, which also is the musical code for entering the Chocolate Room played by Willy Wonka, is the introduction of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro".

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Answer 9

Poiana (chocolate)

Poiana is a Romanian chocolate brand owned by Mondelēz International. The brand originates from a chocolate company that was based in Brașov. In 1994 this company then known as "Poiana – Produse Zaharoase S.A" was bought by Kraft Foods. In 2009 Kraft Foods closed production in Brașov and consolidated production in another unit outside Romania, with the loss of 440 jobs.

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Answer 10

Raw chocolate

Raw chocolate is chocolate which is produced in a raw or minimally-processed form. It is made from unroasted (sun-dried) cacao beans and cold pressed cacao butter. A variety of crystalline and liquid sweeteners may be used, including: coconut sugar, xylitol, agave nectar, maple syrup, and stevia. Cane sugar and other highly processed sugars are not used, but this is no evidence of being less harmful. Dairy products are not added to raw chocolate, therefore it is usually vegan. Soy is also usually avoided – soy lecithin is often used in processed chocolate. It is also naturally gluten-free.

Claimed to have health benefits and potential as a superfood (although the term superfood is a marketing ploy, as they do not actually exist), it represents a fast-growing segment of the chocolate industry. Notably, the low-heat or "cold" production process (which avoids roasting) helps to preserve vitamins & antioxidants (in particular polyphenols, especially flavan-3-ols (catechins) and flavonoids), and minerals which are naturally present in raw cocoa. Many, if not most, marketers produce chocolate that is certified organic or fairly-traded.

Raw chocolate has been promoted on major networks such as Fox News, and appeared on series 13 of popular UK show Dragons' Den. Among the recognized brands of raw chocolate are Rawflect, Xocai, Gnosis, and Sacred Chocolate.

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