COCOA

highly concentrated powder made from chocolate liquora paste prepared from cocoa beans, the fruit of the cacaoand used in beverages and as a flavouring ingredient. The cocoa bean is the seed of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a tropical plant indigenous to the equatorial regions of the Americas. From the processed cocoa bean comes the fluid paste, or liquor, from which cocoa powder and chocolate are made. Chocolate is sold directly to the consumer as solid bars of eating chocolate, as packaged cocoa, and as baking chocolate. It is also used by confectioners as coating for candy bars and boxed or bulk chocolates, by bakery product manufacturers and bakers as coating for many types of cookies and cakes, and by ice-cream companies as coating for frozen novelties. Cocoa powders, chocolate liquor, and blends of the two are used in bulk to flavour various food products and to provide the flavours in such chocolate products as syrups, toppings, chocolate milk, prepared cake mixes, and pharmaceuticals. highly concentrated powder made from chocolate liquora paste prepared from cocoa beans, the fruit of the cacao (q.v.)and used in beverages and as a flavouring ingredient. Additional reading R. MacRae, R.K. Robinson, and M.J. Sadler (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Food Science, Food Technology, and Nutrition, 8 vol. (1993); and Y.H. Hui (ed.), Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology, 4 vol. (1992), are general works that cover all aspects of the science of food. P. Fellows, Food Processing Technology: Principles and Practices (1988), is an introductory text. R. Paul Singh The cocoa and chocolate industry from the growing of cocoa beans to the finished cocoa and chocolate products is covered in L. Russell Cook, Chocolate Production and Use, 3rd ed., rev. by E.H. Meursing (1982). John Simmons (ed.), Cocoa Production: Economic and Botanical Perspectives (1976), a basic source, includes a worldwide survey of research. G.A.R. Wood and R.A. Lass, Cocoa, 4th ed. (1985), discusses cocoa production in various countries. L. Russell Cook The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica