Chocolate or cocoa is a food made from roasted and ground cacao
seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on
its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed
in some form since at least the Olmec civilization (19thβ11th century
BCE), and the majority of Mesoamerican people, including the Maya and
Aztecs, made chocolate beverages.
The traditional types of chocolate are dark,
milk and white. All of them contain
cocoa butter, which is the ingredient defining the physical properties
of chocolate (consistency and melting temperature). Plain (or dark)
chocolate, as it name suggests, is a form of chocolate that is similar
to pure cocoa liquor, although is usually made with a slightly higher
proportion of cocoa butter. It is simply defined by its cocoa
percentage. In milk chocolate, the non-fat cocoa solids are partly or
mostly replaced by milk solids. In white chocolate, they are all
replaced by milk solids, hence its ivory color.