January 14 - Chocolate Tasting

Activity 2: The Chocolate Chain

Farmer – grows the cocoa tree, must pay for his own farming tools and fertilizers, needs money to care for his family, he needs to replace the roof on his house

Manager of Godiva – buy cocoa from Ghana, pays for transportation, buys all the supplies for making chocolate, pay wages for workers, pay for packaging and advertising

Manager of D&W – buy chocolate, pay rent for store, pay sales staff

In the real world, the farmer gets the least amount of money while the manager of the chocolate manufacture gets the most amount of money.

We thought that we would give the farmer 50 cents, the manager of Godiva 75 cents and the manager of D&W 75 cents.

One example of how 2 dollars would be split up is the Chocolate manufacturer would get 96 cents, retailers would get 64 cents, the government of Ghana would get 20 cents, and the farmer would get 20 cents.

Activity 3: The Art of Tasting Chocolate

Chocolate contains crystals that melt in your mouth.  Cocoa butter melts on your tongue and gives you a sense of “coolness” by taking away heat from your tongue.  Chocolate contains 600 different flavor molecules.  The chocolate then gives off a sweet sensation.

Activity 4: Finding the Best Tasting Chocolate

My top 5 favorite chocolate that I tasted today was Ghirardelli peppermint chocolate, Reese’s, Symphony (Hersey’s), Milky Way, Hersey’s kisses. 

Reese’s – They are made by The Hershey Company.  They are milk chocolate coating with peanut butter inside. They were created by 1928 by Harry Burnett Reese who created it in the basement of his house. He quit working on his dairy farm to start a chocolate company. He started The H.B. Reese Candy Co., which would later by bought by The Hershey Company in 1963.  He used Hershey chocolate to create his peanut butter cups. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reese's_Peanut_Butter_Cups)

Ghirardelli peppermint – The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is the US division of Lindt & Sprungli.  The company was started in 1852 and is the second-oldest chocolate company in the US. It was started by Domenico Ghirardelli who apprenticed with a chocolate factory. He started his store in San Francisco, California and called it D. Ghirardelli & Co.  The company roasts the cocoa beans themselves in San Francisco.  They remove the other shell on the bean and roasting the inside for the bean. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghirardelli_Chocolate_Company)

Symphony – The Symphony milk chocolate bar is made by The Hershey Chocolate Company.  It is made similar to the original Hershey’s bar but with varying amounts of some ingredients in order to give a creamier flavor.  They called it the symphony bar because it is suppose to be a treat to the mouth like music is to the ears. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_(candy))