White. Milk. Dark. Very Dark. It's all good. The Zaragoza tourist office offers a "Choco Tour" which provides the opportunity to visit several establishments that demonstrate that chocolate-making can be an art form.
Photo: Aidan and Colin taste testing the different variety of chocolate syrups
Photo: Demonstration of how chocolate is made and the making of lollipops
Over the course of the tour, we tasted chocolate in different textures and flavors: liquid, solid, cold, hot, milk, white, black, with candied fruit (least favorite for all of us). We learned that chocolate has historic roots in Zaragoza dating back to 1520; 2 of the 4 places we visited have been around since the 19th century.
Photo: Kelsey and Colin enjoying the results, chocolate + marshmallow lollipops
We also learned about the process of making chocolate from the picking and splitting of the cacao bean to the drying of the beans to the factories and then the stores. Surprisingly, the early part of the process is highly manual and most cacao trees are grown in Central and South America and Africa. This video is a pretty good example of some of the information we heard. If you're really interested in the history of chocolate, this is another interesting video (although some serious chocolate propaganda toward the end).
Photo: Colin, Kelsey, and Aidan at Haagen-Dazs
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