Informative Speech on Chocolate

Delicious Chocolate

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose Statement: To inform my audience about the production of chocolate.

Central Idea: How the cocoa beans are produced through several processes to make chocolate

Method of Organization: Chronological

Visual Aid: Before my introduction and before class begins, I will have a chocolate collection for people to choose from as a snack. It will not be handed out during my speech so that it will not distract others. In addition, I do not want to put it at the end because it might distract away from the other presentations.

Introduction

I. (Gain attention and interest) "Trick or Treat," is common phrase heard during Halloween but for what? Candy and chocolate! That delicious chocolate ranging from Recess Peanut Butter Cups to the ever-famous Hershey chocolate bar.

II. (Reveal topic) You are never too old to enjoy chocolate. Whether you are trick or treating to just stopping by the store for a little snack, chocolate is there. Through a bunch of long processes, chocolate makes it from the cocoa bean to the store.

III. (Establish credibility) Well like most the population, I like chocolate. I only eat chocolate on rare occasions but on those occasions, I crave it. It fascinates me how chocolate is made from a simple seed and so I have spent time researching the topic to discover the mystery.

IV. (Preview Speech) Chocolate goes through the harvesting of the cocoa bean, to the processing at the factory, to even more processes to finalize the product.

(Signpost: It starts with the harvest of the cocoa bean.)

Body

I. The harvest begins with the pods being cut from the tree.

A. After the pod is cut down, it must now be split open.

1. Imagine a coconut on TV being cracked open, the same process is applied to the pod.

2. Once open, they have to remove the bean as well as the white pulpy mass that accompanies it.

3. Cocoa beans that have just been removed from the husk taste bitter and acid-like.

B. With a white pulp and an acid taste, fermentation must now be put into affect to remove the pulp and mellow the acid taste.

1. Cocoa beans with they white pulp are put into a container, usually a wooden box.

a. According to L. Russell Cook in "Chocolate Production and Use," the temperature in the box results to over 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

b. Cook then goes on to explain that a chain reaction then occurs.

i. First, the white pulp ferments creating an alcohol and carbon dioxide mixture.

ii. Afterwards, acetic acid forms from the alcohol.

iii. Then the acetic acid turns the outer covering of the cocoa bean into shell.

iv. In addition, the acetic acid mellows the acid taste to allow for the main flavor of the chocolate.

2. After the three days needed to ferment, the drying begins.

a. Hot air blowers are used to control the climate in which the beans will be dried.

b. The drying will make sure they will not rot before they get to their destination.

C. The cocoa beans, which have lost half their weight from the beginning, are then packed and shipped in burlap sacks to be processed.

II. Arriving at the factory, the majority of chocolate processes start.

A. The first thing that needs to be done is fumigation and cleaning.

1. The burlap sacks full of cocoa beans are put into a room where they release methyl bromiae. (Cook)

a. The gas destroys any insects or eggs living in the sack.

b. After the gas, the cocoa beans are stored in a cool room until cleaning.

c. Cleaning machines separate the beans from rocks, sticks, or anything else that has attached itself to the bean.

d. The beans are then sorted by size to be sent to be roasted.

B. Roasting creates the taste associated with the chocolates taste and smell.

1. During roasting, the bean loses moisture and the shell is loosened.

2. Beans can be roasted in any degree but there are two major degrees in which they are used to create a different flavor.

a. Low degree makes the shell easier to remove and is the general flavor that the United States goes for, as explained in "The Book of Chocolate" by Carol Rinzler.

i. Low degree also creates a reddish color.

b. High degree makes dark chocolate that Germanys is known for.

c. After roasting, the bean is then sent to be cracked.

C. Inside the shell of the bean lies nibs, the chocolate part, which has to be removed by the winnower, which is a machine that cracks the shell.

1. The shell is cracked and then, like the cleaning machine, the winnower separates the nibs from the shell.

a. The shell has no commercial value, no diet to human's value, and basically no value all around.

i. Researchers are trying to think of possible ways to use the shells.

(a) Currently, its being hardly used as auxiliary fuel, filler for plastics, and fertilizers.