ABOUT COCOA
There are different myths around chocolate, some of them are unfounded but other do have a scientific base.
Among the false statements there is the affirmation “Don’t eat chocolate, you’ll get acne”. There are different scientific proofs that deny this belief, because it hasn’t been demonstrated that chocolate causes or makes this typical teenager condition worse.
Nevertheless, some of its benefits do have been proven. The nutricional value is one of them, since it contains 6 times more calcium and phosphorus than veal meat. Another myth is that when peolpe end up a relationship, they begin to eat more chocolate; not a totally unfounded theory, because it has a scientific explanation. When people are in love, they are full with a substance called phenylethylamine, that provoques a light euphoria. Well then, chocolate also contains this substance.
Almost all of us know that the most common derivative from cocoa is chocolate, our specialty for 120 years. But a lot of us don’t know its history; cocoa was used in America by the pre-Columbian indians and arrived to Europe thanks to Cistercian and Franciscan monks, that brought it as a restorative beverage and even as medicine. But the discovery wasn’t theirs, since american populations had already offered it to Cristopher Colombus in 1502, but he rejected it because of the way they prepared it (a mixture of cocoa with shattered corn, pepper, other spices and natural aphrodisiacs).
After years of experimentation and combination with other Occidental products, the recipe that we know today was found. The origin of the word chocolate is unknown, maybe mayan or aztec, but in the first language “chokol” means hot, “a” means water and “i” is a sufix.
THE ELABORATION OF CHOCOLATE
Reception of the raw material: they can be liquid (like cocoa mass and butter) or solid (like sugar or maltitol).
➔ Entrance to the production area (30ºC of temperature) where the process begins.
Mixer: this machine mixes the different ingredients until a uniform chocolate paste is obtained.
➔ From this moment, this paste is transported by conveyor belts through different machines:
Refiner: it’s a cilinder that triturates the paste and turns it into fine powder.
Shell: is where the final mixture is made during 18 hours until the powder turns liquid.
Storage: each chocolate paste has its own deposit.
Tempering: it changes chocolate’s temperature util it’s adequate to be dosified into molds.
Dosifier or automodeling machine: dosifies the chocolate into the molds to give them their bar shape; in this part of the process, other ingredients such as nuts or dried fruits are added too.
➔ Entrance to the cold room (16ºC).
Solidification: the dosified chocolate inside the molds at a temepratrue of about 30ºC will be cooling off during 1 hour inside of the automodeling machine at a temperature of 17ºC util it turns solid.
Metal detector: this machine detects if any bar contains any iron particle and automatically rejects and throws it away
Packed, boxed and palletized: there are different kinds, depending the type of packaging (aluminum, paper, plastic, cardboard)
Storage and distribution.
THE ADVANTAGES OF MALTITOL
MALTITOL, AN EFFECTIVE SUGAR SUBSTITUTE
With a similar sweetening power as sacarose, and different from other sweeteners, maltitol doesn’t affect the flavour of products.
TOLERATED BY DIABETICS
Convenient for people who have to avoid an increase of glucose in blood, since human enzymes digest maltitol more slowly than sugar.
THE ALLIED OF EVERY DIET
Maltitol contains almost half of calories than sugar, so it is highly recommended for people who control their diet.
AN AID FOR THE ORGANISM
Maltitol stimulates intestinal transit.
… AND DENTAL HEALTH
Maltitol, does not cause cavities, as other sugars.
GLUTEN FREE
The number of celiac sprue cases have increased recently in different sectors of the population. It is not a disease, but a genetic condition based on an intolerance to gluten, a component found in wheat, barley, rye and oats, the most common cereals in our diet.
In Chocolates Torras we are highly commited with the people affected by this type of intolerance and want our products to be a total guarantee for them. That’s why we invite you to taste all our products since they are gluten free.
STEVIA
Chocolates Torras is at the forefront in the use of new ingredients giving more value to our products. That is why we have been pioneers in Spain and the first ones in Europe using stevia as sweetener, replacing sugar. Stevia is a very appreciated natural plant from South America. Its TOTALLY NATURAL components make a sweetening product much more efficient and healthy.