How To Choose The Best Chocolate?
Chocolate is considered one of the most consumed products in the world, transcending cultural borders, languages and customs. This food helps to externalize sublime feelings of happiness and romance. One of the best gifts for lovers, or to lift your spirits and personal self-esteem, is a piece of chocolate.
There are many recipes that have been created by the great brands in the market. The answer to how to choose the best chocolate? it is one of the great complexities. Each country very subjectively defends the purity of its ingredients. Mainly the cocoa grown on their land that is the main base of this precious product.
There are competitions in different parts of the world that award each year the taste, excellence, and quality of chocolate.
Guidelines for how to choose the best chocolate
- Aroma: it is necessary to know that the stronger the aroma of the chocolate, the better its quality, flavor and purity. Even so, cocoa should be predominant and not vanilla or sugar, since these two added ingredients can be harmful to health.
- Firm feel: to confirm the good crystalline structure in cocoa butter, the chocolate should emit a crisp, dry and firm sound when divided.
- Color: The ideal color for chocolate should be dark brown and glossy fairly evenly. The presence of colored spots, bubbles or holes in the chocolate would indicate its dilution and therefore, a lower quality. That is why it is advisable to be very aware of its appearance.
- Melt in the mouth: the body heat is enough to start the process of melting a good chocolate with a high content of butter. It is about observing a perfect melt in the mouth, without leaving traces of granulations and providing a sensation of lubrication on the palate; there should be no greasy feeling. This is another important sign that tells us that we have chosen the best chocolate.
- Flavor: by nature, chocolate must have a cocoa bitterness, but sweet and sour flavors will be predominant. Depending on the brand and the treatment of the chocolate, it is possible to find many different shades.
The mixture with milk and other flavors
It is important to clarify that chocolate is dark, its color and flavor vary when combined with other ingredients such as milk, liqueurs, nuts, etc. It is traditional to drink milk chocolate that turns its original texture and flavor into a much smoother and more pleasant product for those who are not addicted to chocolate.
New contributions in medicine
Although chocolate has always been considered a very caloric product and not recommended, except in small doses, currently there are important contributions from science.
There are many nutrients that chocolate can provide us. Here are some of them:
- It is a healthy product for our heart.
- It generates a feeling of happiness and pleasure when consumed, as it releases endorphins.
- It is listed as a pain reliever for some bodily ailments.
- Helps the growth of bacteria (optimal) in the body.
- It is used in a large quantity in beauty products.
- Increases cell regeneration.
- Promotes concentration and good memory.
- Reduces fatigue and improves physical performance.
Dark chocolate
When we drink chocolate to improve our health, the ideal is that it is dark dark chocolate. White chocolate retains some properties with high levels of carbohydrates and they are less beneficial.
The most famous and richest chocolates
Swiss chocolate
Switzerland has been making chocolate for centuries. Throughout history, it has positioned itself as a country with the best chocolates. For the taste, quality and percentage of cocoa.
Belgium
Cocoa is not grown in Belgium, but its production is very important throughout the world. It is said that there are more than two thousand stores that sell Belgian chocolate around the world.
Italian chocolate
The well – known chocolate bars are made in Italy, for the most part. The Pisa region is known as the “cocoa valley”, because there are world-famous companies. This is the case of Ferrero Rocher.
Ecuador
Another of the great cocoa producers around the world, awarded for some of its products.
Mexico
It is also one of the countries with the highest production of cocoa and chocolate. Not only in solid products, but also in some of their beverages.