The Mystic of White Chocolate Is it really Chocolate?

Even after muddling through the scientific, nutritional, medicinal, and harvesting information I still did not find a straight answer. Then, I realized I was over-thinking the question and really needed to get back to just the basics. There it was, the answer, clear as day. Mystery solved!

Basically, pods, similar to papaya, grow on the trunk or thicker branches of cacao trees. When the pod, which are about the size of a football, is ripened, which is judged by various color shades, it is cut from the trunk by using a large knife, like a machete.

One person can harvest about 650 pods per day. The pods are then opened, typically using the machete, to reveal the cacao beans. The outside rind is removed, leaving the beans protected by a pulp-like substance. Each pod has 20-50 beans and one person can separate approximately 2,000 beans per day.

The beans now begin the fermentation process where the cacao beans are laid out for several days to allow them to “sweat-off” the pulp. Next, the beans are sent to the factory where they are roasted, then they go through a “winnower” which cracks and de-shells the bean.

After the cacao bean has gone through a manufacturing process it becomes known as cocoa. The pieces surviving the winnower process are called “nibs”; consisting of cocoa butter and cocoa powder. The nibs now enter the Broma process where the nibs are placed in bags and hung in an overheated room to allow the cocoa butter to melt or drip, from the beans. The substance that is left behind is cocoa powder.

When you mix the cocoa butter with milk and sugar, you get “white chocolate”. While the cocoa butter is a by-product of the cacao bean, it has none of the cocoa powder therefore it is no more “chocolate” than the cacao husk which is converted into animal feed and fertilizer, the bean shells which are used as organic mulch, and cocoa butter which is used to make lotions, soaps, and moisturizing creams.

While not the most healthy of foods, it does have its assets; it is caffeine free and apparently good for the vascular system.

Mystery solved!