Microbes, Crystals and Cocoa: teacher key

How Candy Is Made, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. How microbes ferment cocoa beans, how cooks control sugar crystals, the US rules for milk chocolate and what a 2020 study found about child labor in cocoa farming.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Where do the microbes that ferment cocoa come from?
   • Inside the intact pod
   • The surroundings, such as hands, insects or the air (answer)
   • The roasting pan
2. What happens in the second, aerobic phase of fermentation?
   • Yeasts make alcohol
   • Bacteria turn alcohol into acids (answer)
   • The beans are roasted
3. What must milk chocolate have, under US federal rules?
   • At least 10 percent chocolate liquor and 12 percent milk solids (answer)
   • No cocoa butter
   • At least half sugar
4. Why do fermenting cocoa beans get warm?
   • Breaking down the alcohol gives off heat (answer)
   • They are roasted in a pan
   • The sun dries them
5. In this passage, what does interfere with crystals mean?
   • Get in the way of them forming (answer)
   • Help them grow bigger
   • Make them taste sweeter

Words

• anaerobic: without air
• aerobic: with air
• crystalline: made of crystals
• liquor: ground cocoa paste
• sorbitol: soft-keeping sweetener