HOW CHOCOLATE IS MADE

• The scientific name for chocolate is "Theobroma Cacao." Cacao trees, from which coco beans come, grow around the world in a band spreading 20 degrees north and south of the Equator.

• Cacao trees produce flowers that become pods that grow on the trunk and branches. There is a mid-crop and main harvest followed by continuous picking.

• Opened pods show about 42 beans covered by a white coating. Depending on variety, pods can be bright yellow to orange, various shades of green to red.

• The beans are laid out on screen racks in the sun and covered with banana leaves where they ferment. Fermentation removes the white coating, affecting the inner and outer parts of the bean, creating its characteristic flavor. Larger operations use a heat controlled rotating process to ferment the beans. When this is completed, the beans are ready for shipment.

• Cacao beans arrive from many countries on four continents - Africa, Asia, Central and South America. They are tested dockside and if accepted are shipped to factories where they are cleaned and sifted for size, and roasted in large heated roasting ovens.

• After roasting, the beans are sent through a machine that removes the shells in a process called winnowing. This reveals the "nibs" which are pressed between heated rollers making a thick mixture called "Chocolate Liquor." Under hydraulic pressure Cocoa Butter is drawn off leaving "Cocoa Cake."

• Milk plus Chocolate Liquor forms a substance called Chocolate Crumb. This mixed with Cocoa Butter and other ingredients go through a refiner to produce fine thin flakes. Next, they are "conched," a process that takes a set number of days, that removes moisture and any remaining harsh flavor, mixing and ventilating for perfect flavor.

• Warmed chocolate is made slightly cooler by adding additional chocolate - a process called "seeding," and then the temperature is raised up again. This process is called "tempering" and it produces a finished piece of chocolate which is non-grainy, has a high sheen, and snaps when cooled and broken. Properly made, nothing replaces the taste of real chocolate!

HOLIDAYS

VALENTINE'S DAY

              As if making more candy than usual, handling all the extra customers that come into the store, and waking up each morning to the kind of weather which most of us endure in mid-February isn’t enough, the days just prior to Valentines Day can also be filled with calls from local newspapers and TV stations for Valentines Day information.  Their most frequently asked questions are, “How did Valentines Day start,” and “Is it true that chocolate makes you fall in love?” This is some material that you and your local media partners might find interesting and informative. 

LEGENDS OF SAINT VALENTINES 

There are many legends that surround the origins of St. Valentines Day, a holiday that has withstood many depressing eras.  The socio-economic forces involved with the holiday have contributed to its continuity – like lovers of all ages focusing on this bright spot amid the bleakness of winter, and the suppliers of goods that emphasize the message of affection.

The genesis of St. Valentine’s Day is clothed in a number of legends, some of which include the following:

• On February 14, 273 A.D., a Roman priest named Valentine was beheaded by Emperor Claudius II.  The Emperor had outlawed marriages because he felt they decreased the male’s zest for battle.  Valentine was condemned to death because he ignored the emperor’s decrees and continued to perform marriages for young lovers.

• Another St. Valentine (there are reports of up to eight around this time period) was a Roman martyr who had been jailed.  Valentine wrote love letters to his jailer’s daughter with the last note signed, “Your Valentine.”  Other sources cite this Valentine as restoring the sight of his captor’s daughter.

• Yet another legend Valentine was a young Christian priest who lived in Rome in the 3^rd Century A.D. he was martyred because of his faith, and a feast day was kept on the anniversary of his death.  The date was February 14.

The legend of St. Valentine says that while imprisoned in Rome, the young priest wanted to assure his loved ones of his well being.  Just beyond his cell window grew a cluster of violets.  He picked some of the heart-shaped leaves, and on them he scratched the words, “Remember Your Valentine,” and sent them off by a friendly dove.  The next day, he sent more messages saying simply, “I love you.”

• Some etymologists point to a medieval Norman French word, “gelatin,” meaning “a lover of women."  They say it was once written and pronounced with a “v.”

• In England, the Romans, who had taken over the country, had introduced a pagan fertility festival held every February 14.  After the Romans left England, nearly a century later the pagan ritual was abolished by Pope Gelsius who established St. Valentine’s Day as a celebration of love in 496 A.D.

• During the Middle Ages, Europeans believed that birds chose their mates each year on February 14.  People developed their own adaptation of this ornithological myth and began the practice of drawing lots, letting fate decide the names of each person’s “Valentine.”  Small gifts and sweets were exchanged, and this became a common procedure for the amorously inclined young men and women of this period.

• Ancient Romans celebrated a festival in mid-February called Lupercalia in honor of Lupercus, the Roman equivalent of the Greek god, Pan.  Festivities included a matchmaking ritual in which young men drew the names of young women, who either became their dancing partners during the “Rites of Pan” or their partner for the year.

• The Frenchman, Charles duc d’Orleans, sent love poems to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on February 14, 1415.  These may have been the first written valentines and, as the ideas caught on, such notes were accompanied by chocolate and other sweets.

• The 17^th century diarist, Samuel Pepys, records that lovers exchanged mementos like gloves, rings and sweetmeats on St. Valentines Day.  Shakespeare suggested, “Sweets to the Sweet” in Hamlet.

• In America, the pilgrims sent confections such as sugar wafers, marzipan, sweetmeats, and sugarplums to their betrothed. Great value was placed on these gifts because they included what was then a rare commodity, sugar.  After the late 1800's sugar beet became widely used and more available, and sweet gifts continued to be valued and enjoyed.

As the candy-giving custom grew, American colonists made homemade candies with love notes scratched in the surface.  By the mid-nineteenth century, candy-makers were preparing deliciously flavored sugar lozenges, pressed into hearts and imprinted with words of love – the beginning of the modern day conversation heart.

 

Red and white confections became popular with red representing the “Passion” and white, the “Purity” of love.  By the turn of the century, heart shaped boxes of chocolate began to appear in confectionery shops from coast to coast.

EASTER AND PASSOVER

Information about candy during the various holiday seasons in which candy plays an important part of the holiday itself.

Here is some information about the role of candy in Easter and Passover traditions that we hope you find helpful.  We also hope you have the opportunity to talk with your local media about candy this holiday season.  It’s great free publicity from which you can reap rewards throughout the year.

Incidentally, the date of Easter each year is set as follows:  it is the first Sunday after the first full moon which follows the Spring Equinox.  The earliest day upon which Easter can fall is March 22, the latest is April 25.

The eight-day observance of Passover begins on the 15^th night of the Jewish month of Nissan, this year, April 3.

Often, the dates for Easter, as followed by the Eastern Church (Orthodox) differ from the Western Church.  That is because the Eastern Church uses the Julian calendar to determine when the Spring Equinox and the full moon occurs, while the Western Church uses the Gregorian calendar.  The churches of the west and east typically celebrate Easter on the same date once every three or four years.  In other years they are typically one, four or five weeks apart.

EASTER

The first symbol of Easter was a chicken breaking out of its shell representing Christ’s resurrection.  Many pagan traditions have found their way into Christian religious observances. Rabbits are one such symbol.  Rabbits symbolize the fertility of Springtime.  The rabbit is also the symbol of the Egyptian moon, and the moon is used to determine the date of Easter each year.

The hare (rabbit) is also a very important Easter symbol in Germany, almost as important as Santa Claus is in North America is for Christmas.  The hare is responsible for laying eggs and hiding them. This probably evolved from children hunting for Easter eggs and scaring away rabbits which happened to be in the area.  The hare and egg provide a link between the pagan faith’s welcoming of Spring and Christianity’s Easter celebration.

The custom of decorating eggs goes back many thousands of years.  When you add a few strokes of icing to the surface of a chocolate Easter egg, you are carrying on an age-old tradition.  Long before the Bible was written, the egg was a sacred object and it was ornamented as part of numerous religious and superstitious practices.

Very probably, most of our own ancestors regarded the egg as a sacred symbol.  Numerous races and many religions and creeds venerated the egg.  In its name were conducted a great number and variety of sacred and mystic rites.

The life hidden within the shell of the egg is mysterious and unknown.  Who knows whether the creature that emerges will be good or bad?  Therefore, great hopes and prayers are associated with the unborn life that is yet unseen but lies asleep within the egg.

The word, “Easter” is derived from Eostre or Ostrara – the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn.  The festival in her honor was celebrated on the first day of Spring.  It was she who changed a bird into a rabbit, and thus this four-footed little creature joined the egg as another Easter symbol.  In our Easter baskets we always include delightfully decorated eggs and rabbits.  At the beginning of the 19^th Century, the first sugar and pastry Easter bunnies became popular in southern Germany.

Although in North America the religious significance of the egg has almost disappeared, its position has remained as one of the principal symbols of Easter.  Children roll them on the White House lawn.  Almost every candy, food, drug and chain store throughout the length and breadth of the country sells Easter eggs and rabbits.  Usually, they are made of hollow chocolate, but may as well be chocolate covered marshmallow or cream filled nut and fruit.  Many are solid chocolate.  Decorated with pleasingly colored icing and attractively designed special icing flowers and other sugar and candy ornaments, the effect is a delight to behold.

PASSOVER

Like Easter, Passover is celebrated in the Spring.  The Seder, the traditional meal celebrated in Jewish homes on the first day of Passover, includes the eating of hard-boiled eggs as a symbol of the hope and joy that things are to grow again.  It is likely that the Last Supper was a Passover (Seder) meal.

Easter in Latin and Greek is Pasha, the Hebrew translation of that word is Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover.  Since the egg is so closely associated with Easter, expressions like Paste egg, or Pasch egg evolved, all of which are modernized versions of the Latin equivalent of the Hebrew word for Passover.

While candy and confections are not identified with the Jewish celebration of Passover the way they are with Easter, and many seders are ended with the eating of chocolate products that are kosher la Pesach – kosher for Passover.  No corn syrup or lecithin can be used in the preparation of this chocolate that can be either dark or light – kosher dairy.  Passover confections include chocolate bars with nuts, raisins and dried fruit.  Recently, matzo bread (an unleavened flatbread) dipped or half-dipped in chocolate has become a popular product.

Every time you become one of the multitude of American candymakers who decorate chocolate eggs and rabbits, or work on Easter baskets, or prepare Passover chocolates, you are joining with your ancestors helping to welcome the arrival of spring and the joyous Christian and Jewish festivals of hope, rebirth and deliverance. 

Confectioners – we have reason to be proud of our work at Easter.  We are in the presence of a meaningful tradition and an ancient and honorable past.

Sweetest Day (always the third Saturday in October), this year is October 21st.  While the holiday is much more important for candymakers in some regions than in others (Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities) It is a holiday that is gaining in popularity every year throughout the country.  Some RCI members even report that Sweetest Day sales exceed Mothers Day! 

For our members who would like some background, over 60 years ago, a Cleveland man, believing that the city’s orphans and shut-ins too often felt forgotten and neglected, conceived the idea of showing them that they were remembered by the distribution of small gifts.  With the help of his friends and neighbors, he distributed these small remembrances on a Saturday in October.  During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to participate in the celebration ceremony, which came to be called “Sweetest Day.”  In time the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the underprivileged was broadened to include everyone and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small remembrance.  And soon the idea spread to other cities all over the

country.

Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October as a day to make someone happy.  It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.

Sweetest Day is not based on any single group’s religious sentiment or on a family relationship.  It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning. 

Because for many people, remembering takes the form of gift-giving, Sweetest Day offers an unusual opportunity for selling all kinds of gift items.  Falling midway between Fathers Day in June and Christmas in December, Sweetest Day provides an occasion for the opening of Fall merchandising programs and the promotion of various products, not the least of which is candy and boxed chocolate.

 HOW TO PROMOTE HOLIDAYS IN YOUR STORE

• Be sure your RCI Sweetest Day poster is displayed early (around October 1st) and conspicously, where there is heavy store traffic.

• Remind customers when talking with them of the coming of Sweetest Day.

• Let your local newspaper know about Sweetest Day and what preparations your business hade made to help customers celebrate it.

• Be prepared to explain Sweetest Day and to make suggestions regarding appropriate gifts, keeping in mind that the possibilities are limitless.

• Be sure that merchandise advertised for Sweetest Day is prominently displayed.

Remember, the joy of living is the joy of giving, and Sweetest Day gives you the opportunity of spreading happiness through the customers you serve!

HALLOWEEN AND CANDY

Halloween has “sweetened considerably though the centuries.  Its evolution can be traced from ancient Celtic rites where druids probably offered human sacrifices all the way to the mild pranks and “Trick or Treats” safaris of today.

The sweetness of today’s celebration is dramatized by the huge amount of candy and chocolate that will be “extorted” by squeals of “Tricks or Treats” this year.  This mountain of goodies would supply energy for 3,000 children to punch doorbells and carry away sweets from every home in the United States.

While today’s Halloweeners use their energy to punch doorbells, the pre-historic celebrants probably ended up by punching each other, according to most authorities.  Halloween apparently started as a “Feast of the Dead” and primitive New Year’s Eve rolled into one in Western Europe because the year was dated from what now is November 1st.  There was much dancing, eating and drinking around a bonfire and this usually led to brawling as well.

Both the fires and chants were used to drive away evil spirits in the form of ghosts, goblins, witches and assorted demons.  Fire has been used for this purpose since cave men discovered if frightened animals away from their homes.  If fire worked for enemies they could see, primitive man logically believed it would work for his invisible foes.

In addition, the fires and chants were used by Druids to predict what would happen to those gathered about the fire within the next year.  Fortune-telling still is associated with Halloween, but happily human sacrifices to pagan gods to insure success in the New Year are not.

As civilization began to develop, men became less frightened of spirits as they decided some of them were good, especially ancestors.  Then Halloween added another dimension.  It also was the night when spirits of departed forebears came down from the hills to warm themselves by the fire and gather provisions for the winter.

Therefore, the Feast of the Dead became a celebration devoted to both good and evil spirits.  But as bonfires still were built outside of homes, evil spirits apparently still were believed to dominate Halloween.

The development of the ”Tricks or Treats” portion of the Halloween celebration apparently began in Ireland.  But fortunately this custom also has changed greatly.  Early “Tricks or Treaters” were rascals who carried clubs and sticks.  They threatened the owner of each house with a beating if he didn’t give them meat, sweets and drinks for a wild fest.  This custom mellowed into token “raids” by youths with everyone gathering for a joyful feast.

“Tricks” spread to most parts of the United States long before “treats.” 

Halloween in rural America in the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries was a time for farmers to clean their shotguns and load them with buckshot to scare away “ghosts” who appeared in the form of schoolboys.  There are no estimates available on the number of wagons which had to be taken down from barn or church roofs on November 1.  But the energy expended must have been tremendous, not including the heavy coatings of lye soap which had to be removed from a large portion of the windows in both city and country.

Today, Halloween is celebrated chiefly by little bands of grade school “ghosts” who go from house to house demanding candy and chocolate.  Nearly all families are prepared with confections to treat their un-sinister guests.  But the spirit remains and a cat in an alley still can send a group of simulated little ghosts scurrying in the opposite direction from one of the “real-live ghosts” who still roam on Halloween.