Date: 20 March 2014
Time: 2:23 AM ET
Mood: Very hungry after looking at pics of chocolate xD
Ah, chocolate. Remember all those good times we've had eating chocolate? Whether it was from a night out trick-or-treating or celebrating Valentine's Day with a box of them, chocolate has always been at the centerfold of the sweets variety. There are many different forms of it too: ranging from dark chocolate to milk chocolate, chocolate bars to chocolate ice cream to chocolate cake; there's essentially something out there for everyone. However, what if I was to tell you that in the future - and the very near future to boot - the chocolate that you know and love will be completely different....or even non-existent.
Daily Music - "IDGAF" by Watsky
Before I start, let me get into the background of how chocolate is made. The main ingredient of chocolate is the cacao bean, which normally grows on the tropical trees of Theobroma cacaos. These trees, which literally translate to "food of the gods - cocoa" are found naturally in Central and South America, but can be grown anywhere around the tropics. Anyways, these cacao beans are taken into factories where they are analyzed by weight and sorted by type so they know what kind of chocolate they are dealing with. Next, the specified cacao bean is stripped of it's outer shell and crushed, leaving these small pieces called "nibs." This is the pure essence of chocolate, however, alone it cannot - or rather shouldn't - be eaten as it tastes really bitter. So to compensate for this, the nibs are pressed into a paste called chocolate liquor and are combined with a variety of ingredients which include sugar, coconut butter, vanilla, and milk. To add texture, the chocolate is then pressed in a steam roller, stirred, cooled, heated and then repeating the process.
Daily Comic - "Frickin' Fishy Bastards" by Zac Gorman of Misc. Comics
But let's get down to the real issue here. As of today, there is currently a shortage in the supply of cocoa, meaning that the demand has been gradually outweighing the supply; by October of this year, it is projected that the gap will spread to 70,000 metric tons; in the last twelve months, the price of cocoa beans has risen 30% above it's normal pricing. Even worse, it takes even more of the amount of cocoa than it normally does to produce the same amount of chocolate, as Heinrich Stubbe of Stubbes Chocolate in Ottawa simply put it: ""The consumer is more educated. They want higher cocoa. They want more quality." The future of candy bars has also been projected to be in jeopardy as soon as 2020, as cocoa might be replaced by more sugar, chemical flavorings, and palm oil, ultimately making the normal chocolate of today much, much sweeter in the future. So while chocolate bars might still be produced, they won't taste anything like they do today.
Daily Video - "Luigi's Ballad" by animator Egoraptor (sung by Starbomb)
While it is possibly true that the production of cocoa might increase through escalated labor work in major cocoa production areas like Ghana and the Ivory Coast, it is also possible that nothing will be done and will lead to chocolate's impending demise. How do you feel about this? Would you be okay with a more sweetened chocolate? How would you react if chocolate was one day just gone from our culture? Comment below as I would love to hear what you have to say about this!
‡ As always, the "Daily Bloggity" is self written by myself and includes just some of my opinions on different mediums. If you have a subject that you might want me to touch on, feel free to PM me or comment below! I would love to hear some of your ideas! Tune in tomorrow at 5PM Eastern Time for the next edition of the "Daily Bloggity!" Cheers! ‡
- elheroeoscuro
