Cocoa Liquor

Cocoa liquor is not alcoholic in nature. It is a matter of common knowledge that chocolate is made from cocoa. In fact for most people chocolate and cocoa are synonymous. Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cacao tree.

So, how do you get chocolate from the cocoa seeds? The cocoa beans undergo a lot of processing before they are in the form that we recognize as chocolate. Firstly they are fermented. Next, they are sun dried and bagged before being exported. To develop the distinctive flavor of chocolate, the cocoa beans are sorted, cleaned and roasted. These roasted beans are then shelled and grounded. The intense heat of the grinding process melts the fat in the cocoa beans resulting in a fatty material with a bitter taste called the chocolate liquor. From this liquor cocoa butter or yellow fat is separated leaving behind a solid cake. This is then ground and sifted to manufacture cocoa powder.

Cocoa liquor is rich in nutrients. Some of these are protein; fat of which about 50 per cent is saturated fat; vitamin E; calcium, phosphorus and magnesium; iron; caffeine and theobromine - nervous system stimulants; copper; antioxidant phytochemicals (such as flavonoids) - cocoa beans, a main ingredient of chocolate (more so in dark chocolate), contain more than 600 plant chemicals, including antioxidants, that may protect against heart disease and cancer. Dark chocolate contains more cocoa liquor than the other kinds of chocolate.