Happy National Cocoa Day!
Though you're surely familiar with chocolate, perhaps you're uncertain of the route it takes from cocoa bean to candy bar. Cocoa beans are grown in pods on the Theobroma cacao trees, predominantly in Africa, Southeast Asia and tropical locales, like Hawaii, Brazil and other South American countries. Once removed from the pods, according to the "Food Lover's Companion," the beans are then "fermented, dried, roasted and cracked, [before] the nibs are ground to extract about 75 percent of the cocoa butter, leaving a dark brown paste called chocolate liquor." After this paste hardens, it's ground into cocoa powder.
Whether you're using it in an instant hot-chocolate mix or tossing it into various
recipes, enjoy some cocoa powder today!
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