Should one make an Haetz or Shehakol when eating chocolate?
The bracha on chocolate is Haetz
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Wow 
If I may ask further, at what point does an item transition from source to processed (haetz/ha’adama to shehakol)?
As you can understand the halachos of bracha are varied and many. So keep asking specific questions. But to clarify, chocolate is not Haetz because of the reason you stated. Rather the only way to eat it is post processing. Similar to olives which are inedible without processing.
so is an olive not haetz?
Thank you very much for the clarification. No of course olives ARE Haetz. Actually its a typo on my part. It should have read " olives which are inedible without processing"
My apologies.
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Do you have any further sources on this? Cacao beans are enjoyed roasted. Chocolate is a further food that is made from them. NOt sure I understand the first form it’s edible in thing. Is this different than peanut butter?
We make the more specific Bracha (in this case Ha’etz) when the food is consumed the way it was primarily meant to be eaten. When an alternative method is used to prepare the food, the bracha is degraded (Ha’adama or Shehakol). Since a primary use of the cacao bean (today anyway) is for chocolate, that makes chocolate the “Ikkar” and not an alternative product derived from the bean.
A similar example we always like to mention is wheat. It’s primarily used for bread, cake pastries… you can also roast wheat kernels and eat them. The Gemara says the blessing on roasted wheat kernels is Ha’adamah. Obviously cake isn’t. Similar idea here.
Peanut butter is also Ha’adama.
Thanks for the response–still not sure I understand though.
Wheat seems to be the opposite–chocolate is more like cake and roasted cacao beans are more like roasted wheat kernels. Yet chocolate gets haets while cake loses haadama.
I didn’t know that about peanut butter either. Amazing. I “know” that Pringles are supposed to lose their haadama because the food doesn’t look like potato anymore–does that rule have any bearing here?
I’m not sure what you mean
Your comparison is good though. Chocolate is Ha’etz and cake is Mezonot. Roasted cocoa beans and roasted wheat kernels aren’t normally eaten and the Bracha is degraded.
Regarding Pringles, we say Ha’adama. Those who say Shehakol reason that it lost it’s form. Those who disagree reason that losing the original form only affects the Bracha when there’s a Kilkul in the food. (For example beans that disintegrated) Not when it’s in its preferred state.
Wow–thanks for explaining!
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All chocolate? White, milk, and dark?
All of the above
Being a nudnik here–I was reviewing and I still don’t understand why cake isn’t haadama when making flour and baking is the preferred way of eating wheat, the ikar. Today there is just no other way to eat wheat.
Good question. The reason here is because bread items have a higher status than their original form and as a result they get a "better’ bracha.