WORLDS LARGEST CHOCOLATE TRAIN IN HISTORY

WORLDS LARGEST CHOCOLATE TRAIN IN HISTORY 

The Chocolate Express

A train made entirely of chocolate has set a new Guinness World Record as the longest chocolate structure in the world.

The sculpture, on display at the busy Brussels South station, is 112-feet (34.05 meters) long and weighs over 2,755 pounds (1250 kilos).

Maltese chocolate artist Andrew Farrugia spent over 700 hours constructing the masterpiece.

Belgian Chocolate Festival in Bruge: "I had this idea for a while, and I said what do you think if we do this realization of a long chocolate train, you know, because a train you can make it as long as you like."Actually it was going to be much smaller than it was, but I kept on adding another wagon, and another wagon, and it's the size it is today."

Farrugia had previously built a smaller train of 12 feet for an event in Malta , which he said gave him insight about how to build this much larger version.

There are two parts to the train. The first seven wagons are modelled after the new Belgian trains, and the rest of the train is modeled after the old train wagons, including a wagon with a bar and restaurant on board.

Three days before the event, Farrugia transported the chocolate train by truck in 25 wooden boxes from Malta to Belgium.

Farrugia said the train incurred considerable damage during the drive and several of the train's walls had completely collapsed. Luckily, with hard work and little sleep, the chocolate artist was able to fix all the damages before presenting the train to the public on Monday.

After measuring the length of the train and confirming no material other than chocolate was used, officials from the Guinness Book of World Records added a new category to the collection of world records and declared the train to be the longest chocolate structure in the world.

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Amazing Chocolate Facts

Amazing Chocolate Facts

All the chocolate we eat comes from one plant -the Theobroma cacao tree. These trees produce pods containing pulp-covered seeds. The seeds, once fermented and dried, are processed into chocolate. 

Cacao and Cocoa 

Cacao is the bean that comes from the cacao tree.

Cocoa is often used to describe the refined cacao bean after it has been processed, however the words cacao and cocoa are often used interchangeably in the chocolate making industry.

It is believed that the word cocoa came about as a result of a spelling mistake by European traders.


1. Cacao trees grow beneath the shady branches of taller trees in the rainforest

2. They don’t begin to bear fruit until they are at least three to five years old

3. Cacao trees produce flowers all year round

4. Tiny flies called midges pollinate these small flowers

5. Eventually, cacao pods will sprout from the trunk and branches of the tree

6. Cacao midges have the fastest wingbeat of any creature on earth-1000 beats per second.

7. Cacao midges are so small that they fit easily on the head of a straight pin

8. A cacao pod contains 30-50 almond sized seeds known as cacao beans. One cacao pod contains enough beans to make approximately seven milk chocolate bars


The Mayans

9. Before chocolate was eaten as a sweet, it was a spicy drink. Some of the earliest known chocolate drinkers (250-900 AD) were the ancient Mayans of Central America.

10. The Mayans gathered cacao seeds from rainforest trees and planted them in household gardens. They plucked the pods, scooped out the seeds, and using a stone, they ground them into chocolate. They mixed chocolate with cornmeal, chilli peppers, honey, and water.

11. Mayan priests presented a chocolate drink at sacred altars during special religious ceremonies. When rich Mayans served chocolate they used lavishly decorated cups made by specially trained artists.


The Aztecs 

12. The ancient Aztecs got their taste for chocolate from their Mayan  neighbours. From 1200 cacao played a key role in the vast trade empire of the Aztec people. Cacao wouldn’t grow on Aztec land, so Aztec traders travelled to Mayan country to buy the precious seeds.

13. Cacao seeds were used as money when shopping at the market for food, clothes, and even kitchen tools and utensils. Some dishonest merchants made counterfeit cacao seeds too!

14. Chocolate was a special drink reserved only for wealthy Aztecs or kings. King Montezuma is reported to have drunk 50 goblets of chocolate a day.

15. The Aztecs presented offerings of cacao to their god Quetzalcoatl, who is often depicted as a feathered serpent.


The Spanish  

16. In 1521, the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés led an army to conquer the Aztec empire. The Spanish victors carried many treasures back home with them, including cacao seeds and the Aztec recipe for the drink. Within 100 years the popularity of hot chocolate spread to the rest of Europe.

17. The Spanish invented a wooden stirring stick called a molinillo to whip their  chocolate into a froth. They also added sugar to sweeten the bitter taste.

18. Like the Aztecs, Europeans created special serving dishes for drinking chocolate. In fact saucers were invented specifically to keep chocolate from spilling on fine clothes.

19. Chocolate houses became popular places in 17th century Europe to socialise and drink chocolate. Wealthy people drank chocolate for breakfast. It was considered the height of good breeding to lie in bed and leisurely sip a cup of hot cocoa.

A Bar of Chocolate 

20. By the 1800s new processes made it possible to create solid bars of chocolate for eating, not just liquid chocolate for drinking. New inventions, machines, and mass production made chocolate  affordable and not just a luxury for the rich.

21. The steam driven chocolate mill, invented in 1732, made it easier and faster to grind cacao seeds and cheaply produce large amounts of chocolate. In 1828 Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the chocolate press. Still used today, this machine squeezes out cocoa butter and makes it possible to produce solid chocolate as well as cocoa powder.

22. From Ghana, then known as the Gold Coast, cocoa beans were dispensed to other countries including Nigeria. From 1911-1976 Ghana was the world's leading coco producer supplying chocolate for most of the growing European market.

23. Ghanaian cocoa growers pooled resources to set up Kuapa Kokoo, a farmers’ cooperative.  Kuapa Kokoo trades its own cocoa in order to get a better price on the market for cocoa sold and to improve the farmers’ standard of living.

24. At a meeting in 1997 the farmers decided to create a chocolate bar of their own. With the support of Twin Trading, Comic Relief, the Body Shop and others, the farmers set up Day Chocolate, which later became known as Divine Chocolate.

25. Kuapa Kokoo’s motto is ‘pa pa paa’ which means ‘the best of the best’. You get the best of the best chocolate and the cocoa farmers get a fair and secure price for their crop.

26. One of York’s most famous sons is Joseph Rowntree, a Quaker remembered for his work towards improving conditions of working people and founding the famous Rowntrees chocolate and confectionary company. In 1827 he set up a grocer’s shop, which in time expanded into a chocolate factory, and now many of the sweets and chocolate bars that are much loved in Britain, like Kit Kat and Yorkie, are manufactured in the York factory.

27. York’s other great chocolate name is Terry’s. The firm began in 1767. The Terry’s name first appeared when Joseph Terry became a partner in 1823. At peak seasons over 700 people were employed at the plant to produce world-renowned delights such as Terry’s All Gold. The York factory closed in 2005 and moved its operation to Poland.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

A SHORT HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

It began with a little bean
The history of chocolate dates back to early Mesoamerican civilizations. As early as 1500 BC, the Olmec Indians were growing cacao beans. The Mayans and Aztecs also grew cacao and developed chocolate drinks.  Christopher Columbus, among many other  explorers, claim the credit for being the first  person to bring cocoa beans to Europe in the   early 1500s, and chocolate drinks became popular in Spain. But it wasn’t until nearly 100 years later that the flavor spread to other parts of Europe.

Chocolate Spreads Across Europe
In 1657, a Frenchman opened the first chocolate house in London. The shop was called the Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll, and due to the cost of the drink, chocolate was a beverage that could only be enjoyed by the upper class. Chocolate’s popularity continued to grow, however, and by 1674, it had become an ingredient used in cakes and rolls. The spread and production of chocolate reached another milestone in 1732, when Monsieur Dubuisson of  France invented a table mill that could grind chocolate.

The Invention of the Chocolate Bar
Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, made the next major leap, with the invention of a steam engine for grinding the beans. This allowed chocolate to be manufactured on a larger scale. Fry & Sons (which would later merge with Cadbury) can also claim one of the most important inventions in the history of chocolate - the modern chocolate bar in 1847.Before Fry & Sons could create the chocolate bar, however, Dutchman Conrad J. van Houten invented a hydraulic press in 1929 that was used to create cocoa powder. Today this process is known as “Dutching.” From there, chocolate took off. Richard Cadbury is said to have created the first known heart-shaped box for Valentine’s Day in 1861, and Daniel Peters of Switzerland produced the first milk chocolate bar in 1875, using powdered milk that had been invented by Henri Nestle a few years earlier. Rudolphe Lindt kept things moving by inventing a process called “conching,” which improved chocolate by making it more blendable.

Now it’s Everywhere!
Now chocolate comes in all flavors (milk, dark, white), with nuts, caramels, cherries and all other kinds of goodies, in cakes, pies, and cookies, and in all shapes and sizes, from bite-size pieces to monster-sized chocolates shaped like Santa, the Easter Bunny or other creatures. You can find chocolate fountains, chocolate fondue, cookbooks devoted to nothing but chocolate. It’s everywhere! And to think it all started with a simple little bean.

COCOA (Also known as Cocoa Powder, Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, Unsweetened Cocoa) - Made by slamming chocolate liquor with a hydraulic press to expel the fat, i.e. the cocoa butter. What’s left is allowed to harden, and then it is crushed into a powder. There is roughly 10-20% fat remaining in the powder. Cocoa powder is often used in low fat cooking because it retains the chocolate flavor but has much of the fat removed.

GROUND CHOCOLATE (Also known as Powdered Chocolate) - Not to be confused with cocoa powder, this is regular eating chocolate that’s been ground to make a powder. It is generally used for making drinks, and should not be used in place of unsweetened cocoa powder in recipes.

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