Chocolates - The Extraordinary Delight for Your Taste Buds!

What are the types of Chocolates?

There are different types of chocolates that we may not even know. Common types are dark, milk and white chocolates. Other varieties are semisweet, bittersweet and couverture chocolates. Each of these chocolates is made from different ingredients.

What are they made from?

The main ingredient of chocolate is cocoa beans. These cocoa beans contain cocoa pods - a fruit filled sweet, white pulp that helps in making chocolate. Other ingredients include cocoa butter, milk, sugar and flavoring agents. All these ingredients are cooked together and they undergo some production stages to deliver rich, smooth and creamy chocoalte bars.

What are the other ingredients added to them?

For enhanced taste, sometimes flavors like vanilla, mint, coffee, orange, cherry, cinnamon and more are added to chocolates. Now-a-days, most of the chocolate bars contain nuts, dried fruits, peanuts, caramel and crisped rice. These ingredients not only delight your taste buds, but also add to the nutritional value.

What are the interesting facts about chocolates?

Did you know? Swiss has the world's largest consumers of chocolate. Each person consumes 22 pounds of chocolate per year. Other European countries including Austria, Germany, Ireland and Norway have the highest chocolate consumers. Approximately, more than 7 billion chocolate chips are consumed annually. Chocolate manufacturers use 20 percent of the world's peanut resources and 40 percent of the world's almond resources. In 2000, the biggest bar of chocolate was created in Turin - a city in Italy. It weighed 5,026 pounds. The shelf life of a chocolate bar is one year, if you keep it refrigerated. Chocolates contain heart protective antioxidants called phenolics that help prevent bad cholesterol. Specifically, dark chocolates are rich in antioxidants and possess anti-cancer properties.

What you can do with chocolates, chocolate chips, sprinkles and flakes?

Chocolate chips are used in biscuits, cookies, pancakes, waffles, cakes, pudding, muffins, pies and other types of pastries for added flavor and taste. You can use sprinkles or vermicelli to decorate desserts such as ice cream, cupcakes, puddings, doughnuts and more. Flakes are also used for decorative purposes and they add perfect texture and look to your finished products. To make an occasion very special, you can make different recipes using chocolates. Most famous recipes include chocolate cake, brownies, icing, frosting, mousse, truffle bars and much more.