Couverture Chocolate Tidbits
Chocolates are always alluring and they are such a pain to resist. How much more if they’re made out of even higher amounts of cocoa butter than the usual one? You love the mouth-feel of chocolate melting on the tongue, don’t you? Imagine that being intensified. Yes, that.
Couverture chocolate is an extraordinary type of high-quality chocolate being used by chocolate companies and chocolate makers. It offers an even richer and creamier consistency than regular chocolate because more cocoa butter is put in. After proper tempering, you come up with a more polished and glossier chocolate with a crisper “snap” when broken. It’s ideally used for coating, molding, garnishing and dipping.
Not more than 100 companies worldwide produce couverture chocolate. Some of these companies produce only for their own private usage, while others sell their products to other chocolatiers who don’t have the capacity to make their own.
Couverture chocolate outshines the ordinary chocolate with its exceptional characteristics.
Among those is the quality. Couverture chocolate makers’ sources are the chocolate scouts who go around the world to find the best cacao beans, and careful study is being done for them to achieve the perfect bean blend for that exceptionally distinct flavor profile.
To be called as couverture, the chocolate must hold 32 to 39% of cocoa butter and the total percentage of the cocoa butter and the cocoa solids should be at least 54%.
Couverture chocolate is way too different from confectionery chocolate or compound chocolate sine these products have a much lesser amount of cocoa butter. More to these, some of them even contain vegetable/coconut/palm oil, hydrogenated fats, as well as artificial chocolate flavoring.
Couverture chocolate is suggested not to be mixed in with any other ingredients because of its high price and quality. It is built to stand out alone as an ingredient. It is ideal for chocolate fountains since the cocoa butter acts as a lubricant to avoid clumping of the chocolate and getting stickier than what is ideal.
If you want to give it a try, you can get samples from the makers to get the flavor profile you personally like since couverture chocolates have different tastes depending on where the beans came from and the process they undergo.
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Why Chocolate Is Downright Alluring
You can be a self-proclaimed chocoholic and love everything chocolate. You eat chocolate, you eat foo with chocolate, you use things with labels screaming chocolate, and all that jazz. Chocolate is so loved by people that the word ‘chocoholic’ made its way into Merriam-Webster. Almost all the important celebrations call for chocolate, be it the up-and-coming Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas!
What is it, really, that people are rooting for in chocolate? Its versatility, perhaps. You see, any delectable treat can be made out of chocolate and it’s bound to end up lip-smacking good, namely cakes, ice cream, cookies, and drinks, among so many other mouth-watering sweets. It can be soft, hard, white, dark, a filling, topping, or flow out of a fountain, name it!
Or maybe, it’s the feel-good reaction we get from chocolate. Some previous studies have found out that chocolate stimulates a part of the brain which has an influence on the mood. Thus, it gives out a rather comforting feeling after consumption, a feeling which is, by some means, addicting.
It can also be the pure novelty of chocolate that makes it such a pleasure. Chocolate has long been known as a powerful gift for quite a while now and it has always been used to show affection. For centuries now, chocolate has been famous as a gift in the European royalty. No arguments about why many are lured in by such treat. Suffice it to say, chocolate is the perfect gift for any age, gender, or occasion.
Chocolate is everywhere yet it still feels extremely out of the ordinary. It draws out different pleasurable emotions. The experience you get from its elegance, richness, and variety makes it all the more enticing.
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Chocolate And Kissing
Passionate kisses always give a different level of excitement to the body, but so does eating chocolate. As a matter of fact, studies have shown that the feeling of having chocolate melt in your mouth is even better than those long intimate kisses.
In a recent experiment conducted, young lovers who were all in their 20s had their hearts and brain monitored. Then they had dark chocolates melt on their tongue without chewing, and kissed their partners the way they normally would.
The outcome was quite intriguing and surprising according to the researcher. They were aware of the fact that chocolate is a stimulant because of the stimulating substances it contains, but what they didn’t expect was the length of duration of the effects it had on the mind.
The researchers also compared the resting heart rates of the participants with their heart rates when they had the chocolate and kissing tests. Turns out, even the most intimate and passionate kiss didn’t compare to the buzz that chocolate can give. At the point where chocolate was melting on the tongue, the entire regions of the brain were stimulated more intensely and the effects lasted even longer than what they got from kissing. The chocolate chunks also supposedly made the heart rate go higher.
And even though women are known to have more liking towards chocolate and also more romantic in nature, both sexes yielded the same results. The chocolate was able to provide a long-lasting body and brain buzz which lasted four times as long as kissing.
Like I said, chocolate contains several highly-stimulating substances that give a natural buzz, such as theobromine, caffeine, and phenylethylamine which is elicited when we are in love.
The said experiment used a 60% cocoa dark chocolate. A spokeswoman for the chocolate makers said: “You’d think people would be shy about kissing in a laboratory, but that wasn’t the case at all. We’re not talking about a quick peck here.”
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Chocolates As A Gift
Craving sweets is naturally a trait among people. Unfortunately, it sometimes goes out of hand which makes people wonder as to what steps must be taken for them to be able to stop craving for sweets.
It is such an easy task to choose a gift for someone who is a chocolate-loving friend; you do not need to search far and wide since it is already a given that she will enjoy and be thankful if you give him chocolates. It may be a redundant idea to give him chocolates over and over again but hey, it’s the thought that counts right? With chocolates, anything is and can be possible. Limitless ideas are up for
Some chocolates are being sold in many and varied shops all over the world while some more are being bought from the internet. With many creative ideas and thoughts that people spend on creating these treats, you wouldn’t have a hard time looking for something to give to you sweet-toothed friend. Chocolates are one of those treats that you can never go wrong with, coupled with a little spray of creativity and thoughtfulness, you will be able to go the extra mile in making a friend of yours feel very special and loved.
There are lots of fun and varying types of gifts that can be given to your friend. Boxes and bags of treats are being sold out there in the market. You can even have heart-shaped boxes or just the usual square or circle shapes. You should bear in mind that the gift that is going to be given should be appropriate for the person who is going to receive that particular gift. You can choose to give it during special events or maybe just on a normal day just to extend your generosity and make somebody really happy.
Although these chocolate treats may be seem too good to be eaten, always remember that the best part of the whole experience is the tasting and gift giving. It never hurts to be thoughtful and be nice for someone who matters to you.
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Chocolate’s Dark Side
During the medieval times, Christianity and chocolates didn’t mix. The Catholic Church used to bracket together chocolate and heretical behavior like blasphemy and even witchcraft. Does it even make sense? Read on.
I bet if you’re the type who digs medieval anything or maybe you’ve heard it at school at a certain point in your student life, you probably know about ‘Inquisition’. Never heard? Well then, let me shed some light on you about this dreadful thing. The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis (inquiry on heretical perversity), gives a picture of the heavy-handedness of religion during that certain time, persecution, and prejudice. It was the fight against heresy by the Roman Catholic Church.
You may be wondering by now what exactly it is about chocolate that connects such a morbid even to our beloved chocolate. For starters, even downing a chocolaty beverage while in a particular event can be included in heretical behaviors. Truth be told and as morose as it may seem, there were even stories told in which Charles II, King of Spain, supposedly drank chocolate while observing Inquisition victims being slain.
Document and papers about Inquisition even acknowledged some actions of chocolate merchants that are involved in anti-Christian behavior, chocolate was even utilized in seduction and witchcraft. Those documents also showed how people went on betraying one another either by choice or by force.
A lot of individuals during those tough times were laid blame on for using chocolate in “non-Christian” acts. Some chocolatiers were even denounced for being observant Jews.
Thankfully, nowadays, chocolate is tantamount to anything cheery, joyful, and festive. It was quite a transition and a very disheartening story to hear. But it’s a thing of the past. All we can do now is be grateful that we can enjoy chocolate freely!
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Chocolate Can Prevent Heart Disease?
A recent study revealed that individuals who consume chocolate on a regular basis may not only be satisfying their sweet tooth craving, but also lowering their chance of having certain diseases namely cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke by 37%, 31% and 29%, respectively.
A link has been found between eating chocolate and prevention of heart disease, but the study is too premature to jump into conclusions. The said experiment included intake of dark and milk chocolate and included chocolate candies and drinks.
Previous studies have already associated chocolate with the reduction of heart risk since cocoa is known to have positive antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on the heart. But in this new study, it appears that people who regularly eat chocolate pretty much reduce their risk by one-third. It is not accurate though how much health benefits chocolate has to offer.
According to World Health Organization, heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death across the world. Metabolic syndrome, together with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, affect approximately one fifth of the adult population around the world.
Nevertheless, you can prevent yourself from having these deadly conditions by means of lifestyle modification such as diet and exercise. Also, chocolate can contribute to avoiding these diseases. We just need to know more details about its precise benefits to the health.
Most chocolates that you can find in the market are loaded with sugar and fat, which can only cause you to gain weight, and can also lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain heart diseases. Further knowledge should be studies need to know ways of reducing these harmful elements in chocolates yet still maintain its delectable taste.
Yet again, don’t go devouring chocolate because of this! For the nth time, moderation is key.
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Flavonoids In Chocolate Are Good For The Health
Cacao is known to contain a certain substance called Flavonoids, specifically Flavanols. These are chemicals usually see in plant-based foods and they are famous for their nutritional value. There are over 4,000 flavonoids and they are typically found in fruits, vegetables and beverages such as rea, coffee, beer, wine and fruit drinks. Why certainly, it is found in chocolates as well!
When we consume flavonoid-containing foods, it follows that we get the benefits of antioxidants in it which can combat body cell damage. Moreover, research suggests that flavonoids have benefits to the vascular health like lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow to the brain and heart so the blood platelets become less viscous. Therefore, it keeps cholesterol from gathering in and blocking blood vessels. It also retards the immune responses that may cause arteries to clog.
Eating a tiny piece of dark chocolate per day can give you health benefits over time. Why dark chocolates, you may ask. We know that there are different types of chocolate. Dark chocolates contain the highest amount of cocoa compared to other variants such as milk and white chocolates which pretty much means dark chocolate holds more flavonoids than the other two. Since processing chocolate oftentimes wipes out the flavonoids in chocolates, chocolate companies have been learning techniques to make dark chocolate keep its flavonoids up to 95%.
Health experts suggest that flavonoid-rich foods are better than dietary supplements that contain high amounts of flavonoids. So, go ahead and get your piece of chocolate! Yes, besides being mouthwatering and luscious, chocolates are in fact healthy!
However, just because it’s healthy and can give you health benefits doesn’t mean you have to devour 5 bars in one sitting. Remember, too much of something is bad. Moderation is always key. Eat a little at a time and wait for the nutritional payback over time.
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