Handmade chocolate: how and where to store it to the top

Chocolate yesterday and today

“The only way to free yourself from temptation is to give in to it” wrote Oscar Wilde at the end of the 19th century, and if there’s one thing I really can’t say no to, it’s chocolate strong>, in whatever form it takes: chocolates, pralines, Easter eggs, a dessert ingredient, ice cream flavour.

It is produced starting from cocoa beans, fruits of the Theobroma cacao tree species, better known as the cocoa tree, and probably already known around 1500 – 1000 BC. Aztecs and Mayans cultivated it to obtain a drink based on cocoa, hot water and pepper, with a bitter taste but prodigious energy properties, therapeutic and aphrodisiac: they called it food of the gods and they used it during ceremonies and sacred rituals.

The recipe for modern chocolate, as we understand it today, began to take on its present form during the 16th century. when the Spanish monks began to sweeten the bitter drink by adding sugar, vanilla and other flavourings.

And throughout history there have been countless personalities who have left traces of their passion for this delicacy: from Marie Antoinette, who seems to have traveled only accompanied by a personal chocolatier, to Voltaire, who drank a dozen of cups a day to combat ailments due to age, to Giacomo Casanova, who made extensive use of it by virtue of its aphrodisiac properties. There are also famous quotations: in Così fan tutte Mozart tells of his strong desire for chocolate, Roald Dahl dedicates him The Chocolate Factory, translated twice to the cinema, and Chocolat is the title of the film (one of many on the subject) with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Chocolate for all tastes

Despite about 3000 years of history and technological and technical evolution, the cycle of processes that gives life to chocolate has remained almost identical to itself. At the base of everything are the cocoa beans, from which derive the three main types of raw material that master chocolatiers use to prepare their specialities: cocoa mass, cocoa and cocoa powder. The cocoa paste is the result of grinding the cocoa nibs (dried, chopped and roasted beans): the pressure and friction generate heat which, in turn, induces the melting of the cocoa paste strong>cocoa butter, the fatty part contained in the seeds. This, separated from the paste by means of presses and subsequently filtered, is what gives the chocolate its brilliance and the ability to melt in the mouth. What remains of the paste is finally ground again to become cocoa powder.

What has changed and undergone modifications over time are the individual recipes necessary to obtain the finished products: given a common and almost identical starting point for all, the diversification regards the infinite types of finished products. Chocolates, bars, pralines and eggs are now prepared in the most varied and, at times, unusual flavours, and what characterizes them, identifies them and makes them unique are the art and mastery of the chocolatier artisans who made them.

Enemies of chocolate

Quality artisan chocolate is usually prepared from cocoa mass, to which flavors and ingredients are added. Then? What happens to the finished products? What are the times and methods to best preserve them?

Once made, chocolate-based products have some main enemies from which they must be protected and kept away: high temperatures, humid conditions, environments contaminated by other odors and exposure to light and air.

In fact, exposure to high temperatures causes the cocoa butter to melt and is the cause of the phenomenon known as butter blooming, which consists in the appearance of a thin gray patina – white on the surface of the chocolate. The taste itself is not compromised nor are there any health risks for those who eat it, but the aesthetic aspect is strongly the aesthetic aspect which, as we know, is fundamental in the field of confectionary craftsmanship.

exposure to excessive humidity produces the so-called sugar flowering, i.e. the condensation of micro-crystals of sugar on the surface of the chocolate, which consequently takes on a rough and bumpy, rather than smooth and shiny as it should be. On the other hand, when it comes in contact with light and air there is the phenomenon of oxidation, i.e. the fatty part contained in the chocolate decomposes, producing a loss of flavour.

Finally, there are the risks associated with exposure to odors which cocoa butter, being a fatty substance, tends to absorb very quickly.

Top chocolate showcases

The ideal conditions for the perfect preservation of chocolate are those which guarantee an average and constant temperature between 10 and 18°C and humidity between 20 and 50%. Too low or too high temperatures, humidity and exposure to the other factors indicated above are the cause of the onset of those phenomena which, although not harmful from the point of view of the health of those who will eat that chocolate, produce negative changes in the aesthetic appearance of the products. These in particular will not have a smooth, shiny and bubble-free surface as the state of the art would require, but will instead be rough and opaque due to the effect of the blooms.

It is therefore of fundamental importance that the showcases intended for their conservation and display are controlled and adjusted in an extremely precise and accurate manner: only in this way will it be possible to ensure optimal internal conditions from the point of view of temperature and humidity, guarantee the maximum aesthetic quality of the chocolate and, lastly, protect it from contamination with other smells and aromas which would alter its taste. The FB display cases meet these requirements, dedicating to each model a display case designed specifically for the chocolate shop.

This complex system of optimal conditions must also be calibrated according to the perfect conservation of heterogeneous contents: in fact, chocolate is often processed, packaged and sold in a multitude of shapes and textures and combined with other easily perishable ingredients to obtain, for example, creams or pralines, of which quality, freshness and authenticity must be equally guaranteed.