What are the qualities of chocolate?

They say nothing makes a great gift as chocolates. So, how do you recognise a good chocolate? Well, to begin with a good chocolate should be more than just taste. It should be a blend of lot of things. It should make a crunching sound when broken, and should smell heaven. And of course, taste wise it should stand apart. So, if you want to begin your experiment, then definitely start by tasting different variants and lots of chocolates. A great chocolate is not a single way out, but a multitude of steps. Right from production, grinding, conching, tempering to processing, it is a whole lot of process.

It has to be balance of textures and different flavours. Also, chocolate is available in different variants. Dark and milky chocolate are more popular. Dark chocolate has more cocoa than milky ones. Dark chocolate is also more beneficial than milky chocolates on several counts. Dark chocolates are rich in flavonoids which help in reducing stress. They make the person more agile mentally. Dark chocolates are rich in magnesium, potassium, iron etc. Dark chocolates are health wise beneficial than milky chocolates as they provide more energy. Dark chocolates give more energy contrary to the belief that milky chocolates are rich in calories.

So, how do you recognise a good chocolate when you see one? Chocolate quality to a great extent depends on the raw ingredients taken. High quality chocolate has sheen, is smooth, and does not contain lumps, specs or bubbles. It melts in the mouth. It does not have a greasy coating, and is not sticky. For, cakes and desserts, a chocolate which has high cocoa content is advised.

Hazelnut chocolates are one of the best. Godiva dark chocolate has all the qualities of a good dark chocolate.

Things to consider before buying chocolate

Here are some tips on how to go on with buying a good premium quality chocolate:-

1.Price tag- The price tag is definitely an indicator of buying good premium quality chocolate. Good chocolate most of the time costs more. However, it is important to be cautious, and other things should be considered before buying chocolates. Some sellers may sell low grade chocolates at higher price. Specifically if it’s a truffle type of chocolate, the price tag should be considered.

2.Ingredients- The ingredients of the chocolate needs to be considered before buying the chocolate. A good chocolate will have cocoa butter and cocoa solids. If you see a list of ingredients which is difficult to comprehend, avoid purchasing it. A good chocolate consists of cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and vanilla, and sugar. Milk and milk ingredient are also included.

3. Manufacturing date- Do check the manufacturing date. The more recently it is made, healthier it would be. Dark chocolate is suggested to be consumed within 1 year, milk chocolate within 6 months.

4.Flavour and smell- Do smell the chocolate. If there is a foul smell coming, don’t purchase it. Chocolate has a tendency to absorb the odour of the environment, so do play attention to what it smells of. If it catches the smell of anything nearby, it means it has not been stored well.

5.A glance- Just a glance at the chocolate and you know if its quality is good or not. A chocolate whose wrapper is all torn up means it has been exposed and is not fresh and not fit for consumption.

6. Break it even- A simple way of checking a chocolate is breaking it into two halves. If there is a crunching noise, it means the chocolate is of good quality.

Swiss chocolate and French chocolate have all the qualities of a good chocolate.

The world of chocolates revealed

Chocolates are said to have various benefits contrary to the belief that they ruin your health. The various health benefits of chocolate are:-

1.It reduces stroke rate- Statistics reveal that chocolate reduce stroke rate and heart related diseases. People who consume 45 grams of chocolate per week are at lesser risk of dying of a heart disease than people who do not. This goes on to prove that chocolate is indeed good for health.

2.Chocolate gives protection against blood inflammation- One dark chocolate bar in a week and your risk of a heart disease reduces to a great extent. Consuming about 6.7 grams of dark chocolate in a day keeps away the blood inflammation-inducing protein.

3.It is increase your mental prowess- Studies reveal chocolates help you psychologically increasing your brain power. People who binge on chocolate have a better mental capacity and analytical skills then people who don’t.

4.It helps in reducing depression- Chocolates help in reducing depression. Chocolates are said to contain factors and elements that help in reducing anxiety and depression.

5.Chocolate provides you with good skin- Studies reveal the chocolate is actually good for your skin. The Flavonoids in dark chocolate protect skin of women from the harmful UV rays of the sun. Chocolate massages are actually good for your health.

6.Helps in controlling cough- Chocolates help in controlling coughs. Theo bromine is a sweet chemical component which helps in controlling that part of the brain which can cause coughing.

Chocolates we see have a several good and positive points. It helps in strengthening the brain and helps in reducing depression. Chocolates are available in various forms like candy bars, cup forms, and cones, hot chocolate on a stick etc. Belcolade delivery service in Brasil is provider of some best chocolate.

Taste the French legacy

French premium chocolate manufacturer named Valrhona started their legacy in a small town of France named Hermitage. Started as a pastry chef from France, Alberic Guironnet is the founder of this company. This brand prepares gastronomic chocolates that are now distributed all the cities of the world. They also focus on creating chefs that are the best in the country in one of the schools owned by them.

Along with plain bars and chocolates, that are their most famous creations, Valrhona milk chocolate and confectionary are also manufactured by them. These delicious products are made from the Grand Crus which is single year harvest cocoa beans. Not only do they provide their products for cruise ships as pillow chocolates but also used in elegant restaurants which makes them the best in the industry. One has to have a healthy relation with the chefs and plantation owners because they are the actual producers of fine cocoa which the company excels in.

Apart from French ones Swiss chocolates are also high in demand amongst lovers of chocolates. Lindt truffles are the best product from the Swiss which is manufactured by Lindt and Sprungli and the company is known as Ghirardelli Chocolates. The founder of this company was an Italian named Domenico Ghirardelli who first brought his recipes in United Sates of America. He started as a local candy maker and later on completed his education in the field of chocolate making because since childhood he was passionate about making chocolates. In his 20’s he moved to Peru after getting his degree as a master chocolatier so that he could start his own confectionary. This did not work out well but he was not the one who would give up so soon.

He then started a general store in California which turned out to be a flop as well after which he opened a second one in Broadway and then a third in San Francisco itself by the name of Cairo Coffee House. His efforts finally gave good results with the opening of Cairo Coffee House.

Struggles of a chocolatier

The founder of Ghirardelli chocolates was an Italian named Domenico Ghirardelli who established this organization in United States. Being passionate about chocolate making, he first obtained a degree in this field and then practiced this as a profession. In his late 20‘s he moved to Peru with his entire family so that he could start his own business. He opened a confectionary store which burnt down because of fire in the town but he did not lose hope which is why he opened a second one in California. This general store also burnt down due to fire; however, he wasn’t a quitter. He formulated two more stores in Broadway and San Francisco by the name of Cairo Coffee House but luck was not on his side even then because these businesses weren’t successful either.

Finally Ghirardelli chocolates experienced their first success in the city of Washington and Kearny Streets. He later on changed the name of the company from “Ghirardelli and Girard” to “D Ghirardelli & Co.”. They are known to be one of the best producers of fine chocolate and are famous for their Ghirardelli chocolate chips.

After many struggles, Ghirardelli finally managed to get success in the field of chocolate making. This company now imports the highest quality of cocoa seeds in order to ensure the production of the best treats and confectionary items. Their roasted flakes are specifically 19 mm in size because they roast them from the insides of the shell that results in the different flavor of cocoa.

Lindt excellence on the contrary believes in producing smooth, velvety and creamy treats. Their truffle is manufactured worldwide and is loved by all. Specialty of their product is that the outer layer is made of dark chocolate and underneath the shell lies creamy, white, milk butter which melts in the mouth and is as soft as cotton.

Why Chocolate Is Good For Health??

We have been hearing the warning of not eating too much chocolates right from our childhood. There are a lot of different varieties of chocolates which are available like milk chocolate which is best for your health and comes with Valrhona caraibe. The fact can be accepted that there are a lot of disadvantages of eating chocolates. But that doesn’t mean that there are no benefits at all.

Here is a list of some of the biggest health benefits of eating chocolates –

1.The first benefit of eating chocolate is it can help you to develop your thinking power, and it is also beneficial for the students who are week in mathematics, eating chocolate can help them in solving different equations. The students who eat chocolates while revising their syllabus are able to remember what they have studied for a longer period of time.

2.Eating dark chocolate is another benefit of consuming chocolates because eating dark chocolates can increase the tone of your skin. Flavonoids are present in the dark chocolates which help the skin to protect from skin allergies and other problems, especially in regards of the females.

3.The third benefits of consuming chocolate are it improves the blood circulation which is very important to improve the metabolism of any body.

4.The fourth benefit of consuming chocolate is that if you are taking chocolate on the regular basis then there are less chances of getting heart attack to you. Chocolate helps in solidifying the blood because of which, slow down the platelets.

5.According to the research, it was proven that if you consume chocolate on a regular basis then there will less chances of getting a stroke. Almost 20% of the women have experienced about consuming chocolates.

These were some of the biggest benefits of eating chocolates. But still you should remember one thing that excess of everything is bad.

What Is Good Chocolate and Bad Chocolate

As there are various brands of chocolate available in the market, and it becomes difficult for the buyer to tell which one is better in quality than other without having a closer look at each one of them. So, we are discussing some of the few tips that can help you in picking the best chocolate for your loved ones next time when you are out to buy preferable and delicious Valrhona Jivara or Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate.

Good quality chocolate is known to have shine as well as a great snap whenever it breaks into pieces. It will melt into your mouth perfectly with an intense shine. If there is a bad chocolate in front of you, then you will easily recognize it by seeing the grey or white stripes on its surface, which you can also call it as chocolate bloom. Chocolate bloom is made up of crystallized sugar which comes onto the surface because of exposure of chocolate moisture. Such types of chocolate will melt into a grainy mass, thus rendering it difficult for making good quality products. Fat bloom is another term that is associated with bad quality chocolate, the reason for which is that the chocolate is stored at an inappropriate temperature. This type of bloom not allows the chocolate to melt properly. Such quality of chocolate is more suitable for batters rather than creams, cookies and cakes.

Here is a delicious recipe of Valrhona Jivara Chocolate Mousse:

Take one Gelatin sheet, 245 grams of Valrhona Jivara chocolate and chop them, 15 grams of basic custard and 245 grams of heavy cream and whip into medium peaks.

Now take a look at the steps for making Valrhona Jivara chocolate Mousse:

1.The first step that you have to start with is marinate gelatin in ice water till it gets soft; then press it so that the excess water can be removed and keep it aside.

2.Blend gelatin into hot custard so that it can be dissolved properly.

3.Pour the mixture atop of the chocolate and start the technique by using hand blender until n unless the mixture gets smooth.

4.Keep the mixture aside so that it can become cool and after that fold it with the help of whipped cream.

Using Baking Chocolates

Who knew there were so many types of chocolate available that could be used for baking? From no sweet, semisweet and bittersweet to milk chocolates and dark chocolates, all of them could be used for baking in the form bars, morsels or powder. With so many varieties of chocolates available, deciding on one of them for a particular recipe can be difficult. But today, we are going to specifically talk about The Baking Chocolate, its characteristics and with what kind of recipes it can be used. Remember, educating yourself about the different type of chocolate will improve your baking considerably and will ensure that you get delicious results every time you bake.

What is The Baking Chocolate?

Best Baking chocolates are generally available in a bar in the form of premium dark chocolate, but no matter how tempting and delicious they look, refrain from taking a big bite out of it as it is absolutely devoid of sugar and any other kind of sweeteners. You might already be familiar with it as unsweetened or bitter chocolate. Basically, baking chocolates are the true essence of chocolate with 100 percent solidified chocolate liquor. It is essentially the center of cocoa beans, ground to a liquid and then solidified without adding any sweeteners, flavors and emulsifiers. How to use baking chocolate?

Because it is practically impossible to eat this chocolate out of hand, it is primarily used as an ingredient in a variety of recipes like fudge icing, cakes or brownies. These recipes will need sugar to be added along with baking chocolate to bring out the full flavor. Without sugar, your baked product will be lacking the pleasing flavor that we so love and crave.

Using the unsweetened baking chocolate allows chemical reactions to occur naturally in your baking by controlling the amount of sugar or other sweeteners. If you add semi-sweet morsels in the same quantity as the baking chocolate, too much sugar will kill your recipe. For example, your cookies might burn or the cake might sink in the center. You can add recipes of baking chocolates in your chocolate gift basket.

Note that:

1. Don’t use baking chocolate in the recipes where sugar is not required to bring out the flavor. Like in candy coatings or chocolate chips.

2. Also, don’t eat this chocolate, raw.

Recipe of Hazelnut chocolate with Ice Cream

Want to try something new with ice cream, try this recipe. For making Hazel nut ice cream, you will need sugar, three egg yolks, full fat milk, full fat cream and 45g hazelnut Valrhona praline. For chocolate soil you will need 120 g of caster sugar, 120 g of ground almonds, 80 g of plain flour, 60 g of cocoa powder and 80 g of butter.

For pliable chocolate you will start by soaking the gelatine in ice cold water. Boil all the ingredients and add soaked gelatine to it, now whisk it until it dissolves properly. Set this mixture in a flat tray and put it in the fridge, you will need it later.

First prepare the raspberry jelly, for this soak the gelatine in ice cold water. Now, bring the puree to boil and add the gelatine to it. Now, whisk the mixture until it is properly dissolved. Set the mixture on a flat tray, which measures 2 cm x 2 cm. Put it in the fridge and after a while take it out and cut it into cubes of 2 cm.

Now for Hazelnut ice cream, you need to whisk the egg yolk and sugar until they become pale and double in size. Now, boil the milk with the cream and add hazelnut praline to it. Now, pour this over the mixture of sugar and egg. Place this in a bowl and now freeze it. Now, you need to deep froze the ice cream. After this blend it.

For making chocolate soil you just need to mix all the ingredients together and spread it on a flat tray. Let it dehydrate for an hour. For the chocolate shell the chocolate should be at the temperature of 43 degrees and then you need to cool it down to 25 degrees and then heat it again at the temperature of 32 degrees.. Pour into the sphere moulds and your chocolate shells are ready.

So, do you also love cooking, especially the hazelnut chocolate recipes? ...Then you can use Godava chocolate also along with the hazelnut to get the best flavour.

Top 10 chocolate brands

There is a huge competition in the chocolate industry. Many chocolatiers have evolved as big brand names in terms of chocolate manufacturers. Making chocolate is not just a job. It is a passion that determines who a true chocolatier is. The top 10 brands of this industry are:

1)Teuscher: Ranked no.1 amongst Gourmet chocolate brands, this company is located in Zuich, Switzerland. They are producers of Swiss chocolates and have been tagged to have the Best Chocolates in the world by National Geographic Magazine.

2)Vosges Haut-Chocolate: They specialize in making of American chocolates because they are located in Illinois, Chicago, USA. They use some of the rarely found chocolates, spices and flowers as their main ingredients.

3)Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc.: This Company is located in California, USA. It was founded by a master chocolatier Robert Steinberg and a producer of wine John Schaffenberger. Their chocolates consist of 99% cocoa.

4)Jacques Torres Chocolate: Another American chocolate maker with its location in New York, USA, are famous for the addition of special ingredients like cinnamon, smoked ground chipotle chili peppers, allspice, etc. to their chocolates.

5)Norman Love Confections: The Company is known to produce ‘real’ chocolates in USA. Their specializations include dark and milk chocolates, chocolate truffles and white chocolates.

The other big brands include Valrhona which is ranked sixth in the top 10 list of chocolate companies. Godiva Chocolatier is another company that produces high quality Belgian chocolates. Ghirardelli chocolate chips are also known for its smooth chocolates which are exported worldwide. Some others which top the charts are Richard Donnelly Fine Chocolates which is a mixture of French and Belgian chocolates and is located in USA. Richart is a producer of French chocolates and is ranked ninth in the top 10 list. Last but not the least, ranked tenth is Puccini Bombini that is known to produce best chocolates in the Netherlands area.

Online purchase of chocolates

Before buying anything online, we check for its authenticity. This is done to ensure that the product that we are purchasing is one of the best. Same goes with the purchase of gourmet chocolates online. Some things to keep in mind while buying chocolates online are:

1)Taste: every individual has a different sense of taste which is why it is necessary to taste the product before buying it especially if you are purchasing it in bulk quantity. 80% of the chocolates quality depends on the taste of it which in turn depends on the processing and content of cocoa and other ingredients in it.

2)Aesthetics: Appearance of the chocolate and its packaging also plays an important role in selection of chocolates. Some like to keep up with pictures of chocolate on the cover box which in turn lets the chocolate to appear natural as well.

3)Navigation: The placement of different type of chocolate in the box is also an important factor that determines the grade of the manufacturing company. If a person wants to have a milk chocolate amongst the several ones placed in a square box and gets a taste of the bitter dark chocolate, the experience will surely not be a god one.

In order to get the single origin chocolate bulk it is important to know the quality which in turn depends on the quality of cocoa used and the maker of the chocolate. They are named single origin because the cocoa used in it is obtained from a single source. This allows the chocolatiers to create something that is unique in flavor than the previous one. The quality of cocoa also depends upon the location of the plantation because the right type of soil and weather conditions are two major factors that affect the quality of cocoa being high or low.

More about American & Swiss chocolates

America is one of the largest producers of high quality chocolates. Out of the brands included in the top 10 list of chocolate making companies, 5 are exclusively American brands. The demand of chocolate products is also very high in this country. This explains presence of so many manufacturers of these products in this country alone. One such company is Vermont nut free chocolates .

This organization was founded by the mother of a child who was allergic to peanuts which is why the concept of chocolates free of any nuts was born. They produce fruit and mint creams, caramels, chocolate truffles and bars and raisin clusters. Their manufacturing unit is also free of any nuts thus making the whole of the company a nut free facility.

This company also mentions the ingredients included in the chocolate on their packaging so that people can avoid the consumption of that particular ingredient to which they allergic. They also specialize in making of cookies, Boxed chocolates, Baking products, Granola Bars, Candy and pretzels as well.

On the contrary to nut free chocolates, the producers of chocolates in Switzerland include different types of nuts in almost all of their products. They believe that nuts and resins enhance the taste of Swiss chocolates and are liked by all. Because Dark chocolates are also known to be good for health, the addition of fruits and nuts makes it even better. Children who are resistant in eating fruits can get the nutrition from these chocolates. This helps develop their brain along with providing nutrition to the body.

If both these chocolate types are compared, they are found to be the best in their areas. It is just that people need to be wise while selecting the type of chocolate because if one can be dangerous for their health other can be a little low on the nutrition side.

Experience the true taste of high quality chocolates

In order to be one of a kind, it has to different. Same goes with chocolates. To get something new one has to try and make different quality and kinds of chocolates. Madecasse is one such company that does just that. It all started with their production of chocolate and vanilla in Madagascar where they learnt that in order to make best quality chocolates it is necessary for the manufacturing unit to be nearby the plantation area so that the transparency with the farmers can be maintained.

They started as Peace Corps that is a volunteer group teaching English in Madagascar, Africa and now they have already received many awards including “Leader of Change” by the United Nations Office of Partnership Foundation for Social Change. It has also been tagged amongst the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World because they were successful in setting up a gourmet chocolate company in one of the poorest countries in the world.

On one hand exists companies like Godiva that continue to manufacture chocolates in every form like Godiva chocolate gift or a Godiva gift basket, and on the other hand are companies like Madecasse that has created a revolution in this industry by opening up elementary school from the profits for people in Africa by collaborating with Whole Foods Market.

They believe in covering up the gap between farmers and producers which is why they have come up with the concept of direct trade. Most of the chocolate manufacturing companies outsource the supply chain but Madecasse uses the Fair trade label. This label is used by big brands who have their manufacturing units away from the plantation area, in order to ensure that the farmers, who are the actual cultivators of cocoa beans, are paid a fair price for all their efforts.