Gourmet Chocolate
Until relatively recently, chocolate had been reserved for nobility and royalty. Indeed, even to the Olmecs, the ancient Central American civilization that first cultivated and consumed chocolate, the plant was so important that only the aristocracy was allowed to partake in the beverage that they made from the cocoa bean. In fact, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the industrial revolution gave rise to machines that made the production of chocolate easier and cheaper. Until that time, chocolate and all its components had to be hand crafted. However, after the Industrial Revolution automated some areas of chocolate production, the cost to produce chocolate dropped significantly and the price to consumers also dropped significantly. It was in this way that chocolate became available to the average citizen.
In a way, the gourmet chocolates of today are the heirs to the tradition of chocolate being hand crafted and a luxury. While there is nothing wrong with a $.75 chocolate bar from the corner store, it almost isn’t even the same thing as a gourmet chocolate. Gourmet chocolate is distinct from common chocolate, like that found in groceries and corner stores in several different ways. The first way is that gourmet chocolates, generally speaking, don’t have the chemicals that regular chocolate has. Another difference is that gourmet chocolates are not mass produced, and the third difference between regular chocolate and gourmet chocolate is that gourmet chocolates generally come in a wide variety of flavors and textures while regular chocolate simply has several permutations.
