Chocolate and the making of chocolate and chocolate confections has a language all its own. Impress your Valentine with your chocolate knowledge!
This is the process of making chocolate bars from cacao beans.
Gianduja is the name of chocolate made with nut butter or pastes, typically hazelnut paste.
Cacao is the name for Theobroma cacao. It belongs to the genus Theobroma and is in the subfamily of Byttneriodeae in the mallow family Malvaceae. Theobroma cacao is one of 17 different species of Theobroma and the one we use to make chocolate.
The cacao pod is the fruit of the cacao plant, and it contains the seeds, referred to as beans, that are used to make chocolate. Each pod contains 30-50 seeds.
After harvesting, beans are cleaned and fermented, sometimes in boxes or bags or with banana leaves.