Types of Chocolate & The Menier Chocolate Company

Types of Chocolate & The Menier Chocolate Company
By: Stephen Campbell

A dusting of cocoa powder with a soft creamy center surrounded by a thin shell of chocolate would be a good description of Chocolate truffles.

The European Union has been involved in a dispute about the definition of chocolate. However chocolate is any product made of cocoa solids and cocoa fat. Changing the time and temperature during the roasting process of the beans, and changing the quantities of cocoa solids and fats provide different flavors, another change comes from adding non-chocolate ingredients.

Several ways are used to reduce the cost of producing chocolate; reducing the cocoa solid content and using non-cocoa fat instead of cocoa fat (cocoa butter) are two of those ways. A popular ingredient in many foods any change in its cost has a big impact on the food industry.

Two jobs are associated with making chocolate candy: Chocolate makers produce couverture chocolate which is used by professional cooks. This form of chocolate melts smoothly and is glossy, however it needs tempering. Couverture chocolate has a minimum of 32% cocoa butter, allowing it to form a thinner coating often used to chocolate coat fruits, this is also the chocolate used in chocolate fountains.

Chocolatiers use the finished couverture chocolate to make chocolate candy bars, truffles and other desert items. The first chocolate was drunk instead of being eaten, and was served only to the highest nobles and clergy of the Mesoamerican age. The Aztecs and Mayans created both sweet and bitter drinks by mixing the ground powder with water.

Chocolate liquor (smooth liquid chocolate) blended in different quantities with cocoa butter makes different types of chocolate. The blends of ingredients showing the highest quantity first are: Plain dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and sometimes vanilla.

Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or powdered milk and vanilla.

White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or powdered milk and vanilla.

Notice that only the white chocolate has no cocoa liquor in it, the only ingredient that is actually from the cacao bean in white chocolate is the fat or cocoa butter which has a very distinct flavor.

The Menier Chocolate Company:
Posters by Firmin Bouisset showing a little girl writing Chocolat Menier on a wall or window began the use of advertising for Menier in 1893. This became their logo and a symbol of their success recognized worldwide. The original posters and promotional items are still in demand today, as are the reproductions.

Their sales strategy was flawless, Menier introduce small sticks of dark chocolate to be inserted in a piece of bread. Chocolate kiosques began to appear on town sidewalks all over the country, (their design is still used for newspaper kiosques.) The designs of the kiosques were so popular they were duplicated into candy dispensers filled with miniature chocolate bars.

They were billed as the leading chocolate makers in the world at the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. Throughout its history, Menier Chocolate Company remained a leader in technology and fair treatment of its employees. Moving into the 20th century was no different as another new building was raised at the Noisiel plant in France. This building was one of the first using reinforced concrete; its appearance earned the local name of the Cathedral.

The decline of this great empire began with World War I, Europe being in turmoil, all business suffered extensively. In the neutral countries Switzerland and the United States among them, companies continued to prosper untouched by the war and benefited from the number of refugees immigrating, both in market size and in the manual labor needed for the necessary expansions.

The end of the war brought problems for Menier whose finances had been weakened as technology and competition had increased substantially. In addition, a Swiss company had introduced filled chocolates; it was the beginning of the end for the chocolate giant.

With World War II the company was in even more trouble, neither of the Meniers who were running the company had the ability to deal with it problems. Even with the excellent brand recognition worldwide and a variety of products (including childrens books) by the 1950s it was being snowed under by its competitors.

Menier continued to loose sizeable amounts of money and its market share, when Hubert died in 1959, Antoine would be the last to run Menier Chocolate Company, and by 1965 there was no longer a member of the Menier family holding an interest in the company.

Article Source: http://articles.directorygold.com