Chocolate

Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavor other foods.

Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao); unprocessed, they taste intensely bitter. In making chocolate, these seeds are usually fermented to develop the flavor. They are then dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to reveal nibs, which are ground to chocolate liquor: unadulterated chocolate in rough form. The liquor can be processed to separate its two components, cocoa solids and cocoa butter, or shaped and sold as unsweetened baking chocolate. By adding sugar, sweetened chocolates are produced, which can be sold simply as dark chocolate (a.k.a., plain chocolate), or, with the addition of milk, can be made into milk chocolate. Making milk chocolate with cocoa butter and without cocoa solids produces white chocolate. In some chocolates, other ingredients such as vegetable oils, emulsifiers and flavorings are included.

Chocolate is one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and many foodstuffs involving chocolate exist, particularly desserts, including cakes, mousse, and cookies. Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened chocolate. Chocolate bars, either made of solid chocolate or other ingredients coated in chocolate, are eaten as snacks. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes (such as eggs, hearts, and coins) are traditional on certain Western holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and Hanukkah. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, such as chocolate milk, hot chocolate and chocolate liqueur.

The cacao tree was first used as a source for food in what is today Ecuador at least 5,300 years ago. Mesoamerican civilizations widely consumed cacao beverages, and in the 16th century, one of these beverages, chocolate, was introduced to Europe. Until the 19th century, chocolate was a drink consumed by societal elite. After then, technological and cocoa production changes led to chocolate becoming a solid, mass-consumed food. Today, the cocoa beans for most chocolate is produced in West African countries, particularly Ivory Coast and Ghana, which contribute about 60% of the world's cocoa supply. The presence of child labor, particularly child slavery and trafficking, in cocoa bean production in these countries has received significant media attention.