Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Chocolate Bacon Lover's Gift Pack


It's holiday time again and we have the perfect gift for any chocolate lover on your list. This is our Bacon Chocolate Lover's Gift Pack. You will get a selection of chocolate and bacon favorites. We use Applewood smoked bacon with no nitrites or nitrates, specially made imported Belgian chocolate, and all natural peanut butter. Once you try ours, you will never want store bought candy again!!

Check out our Etsy shop for lots more chocolate gift ideas.

We also have a MINI chocolate bacon gift pack for smaller appetites and budgets.

Monday, March 15, 2010

How Chocolate is Made

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which are fermented, then dried, then roasted in order to bring out their flavor. After roasting, the beans are cracked into cocoa nibs. The nibs contain 53% cocoa butter and 47% cocoa solids.



Next, the cocoa butter is separated from the cocoa solids. The nibs are ground into a thick paste (cocoa mass or chocolate liquor). Then, the paste is pressed so all the cocoa butter is squeezed out. What’s left is 100% pure cocoa solids.



The differences between chocolates depend on the flavor profile of the beans used, the proportion of cocoa solids to sugar to cocoa butter, and the amount of refining and processing. In the US, to be labeled as dark chocolate, it must contain at least 35% chocolate (total amount of cocoa solids and cocoa butter). In the UK, it must contain at least 42% chocolate. Milk chocolate must contain 10% chocolate and 12% dairy.



In less expensive chocolate, the cocoa butter is replaced by other fats. Since these fats have a higher melting point than cocoa butter, chocolate made with them doesn’t melt in your mouth the way that high quality chocolate does.