COCOA POWDER
COCOA POWDER Let us look at the sweet history of cocoa. Chocolate may be the “ FOOD OF GOD ,” but for most of its 4,000-year history, it was actually consumed as a bitter beverage rather than as a sweet edible treat. Anthropologists have found evidence that chocolate was produced by pre-Olmec cultures living in present-day Mexico as early as 1900 B.C . The ancient Mesoamericans who first cultivated cocoa plants found in the tropical rainforests of Central America fermented , roasted and ground the cocoa beans into a paste that they mixed with water , vanilla , honey , chili peppers and other spices to brew a frothy chocolate drink . Chocolate remained an aristocratic nectar until Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten in 1828 invented the cocoa press, which revolutionized chocolate-making . The cocoa press could squeeze the fatty cocoa butter from roasted cacao beans , leaving behind a dry cake that could be pulverized into a fine powder that could be mixed ...