Cocoa – The “brown gold” of the gods
Good news for chocoholics! It has long been scientifically proven that chocolate makes you happy. The reason for this lies in some of the elements that are in cocoa, the main ingredient in its production. The brown beans have been cherished since 1500 BC when The Mayans and Aztecs considered cocoa as the ‘food of the gods’ and for a long time, its consumption was reserved only for kings and the noble. Cocoa originated in South America and is mainly cultivated in South and Central America, Africa and South East Asia today. It is harvested by hand by cutting the ripe cocoa pods from the trunks of the cocoa trees with knives. During the fermentation process that takes five to ten days, the cocoa beans – the seeds that grow inside the pods – develop their dark color and trademark aroma. The beans are then dried before they can be further processed into chocolate.
Incidentally, with an average annual consumption of 9,3 kg per person, Germany is the 3rd highest chocolate-consumin country, beaten by Switzerland and Austria.
