We learn that if the fruit were planted for its eventual product outcome, one would award the Haetz or HaAdamah to the final product. 1) Would this not touch on the controversy regarding the bracha for chocolate. 2) Also, a product not so radically altered as chocolate would be Florida orange juice which, even without the presence of pulp (which, it seems, would militate in favor of a Haetz on the juice) should be Haetz since the oranges were grown exclusively for the juice.
Dear Rabbi Becker,
1) Yes, the Gemara's principle that the final product for which the fruit was planted rates the most specific blessing, is directly relevant to the question of what blessing to recite on chocolate. Contemporary Poskim rule, though, that the blessing is "she'ha'Kol" (among them are Rav Moshe Feinstein, Igros Moshe OC 3:31; Rav Shmuel ha'Levi Wosner, Shevet ha'Levi 7:27; Rav Moshe Sternbuch, Teshuvos v'Hanhagos 1:187; and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Minchas Shlomo #91 (Rav Auerbach wrote that in theory the blessing should indeed be ha'Etz, but we recite the blessing She'ha'Kol in accordance with the prevaling practice, which has as its basis the fact that the chocolate has changed completely from its original form)).
The only practical implication that the Gemara's principle has on chocolate is if one is eating chocolate and fruit, one should not recite "ha'Etz" on the fruit (which one normally does when one has before him a "ha'Etz" and a "she'ha'Kol"), because then he enters into a doubt whether he may recite a "she'ha'Kol" on the chocolate (for it may have been exempted by the "ha'Etz"). Therefore, one should recite the "she'ha'Kol" on the chocolate first (having in mind not to cover the fruit with the "she'ha'Kol").
2) As far as orange juice goes, this is also a detailed discussion in the Poskim, based primarily on the Chazon Ish (Teshuvos OC 33:5) who wrote that the juice of oranges is contained within the little sections of flesh of the orange, and when the orange is squeezed the juice exits and nothing is left of the body of the fruit itself. Most contemporary Poskim conclude that one should recite "she'ha'Kol" on orange juice, even if there are pieces of pulp in it (since the pulp is subordinate to the juice). This ruling is based on the Rema 202:7 and Mishnah Berurah 202:42.
Best regards,
Yisroel Shaw