| 1. Chocolate is mainly made of cocoa beans, taken from the pods of cocoa trees. These trees are grown mainly in equatorial regions under bigger trees to protect them from direct sunlight. They take 7 years to produce their first fruit, which grows on their trunks and bigger branches.Once picked, the pods are opened to extract the cocoa beans. The beans are fermented under banana leaves, and then dried in the sun. Then they are packed in big jute sacks and dispatched to chocolate-producing countries. |
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| 2. When they arrive at the manufacturer, they are sorted and cleaned, and then roasted like coffee beans. Finally, they are ground into chocolate liquor. |
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| 3. That liquor is then mixed with different ingredients depending on the chocolate to be produced. For black chocolate: sugar, vanilla and lecithin. For milk chocolate: sugar, powdered milk and lecithin. |
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| 4. For white chocolate the liquor is pressed to extract cocoa butter, which is then mixed with sugar, powdered milk and lecithin. The left-over of the pressed liquor is cocoa powder, which is mainly used to manufacture chocolate drinks. |
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| 5. Next, the chocolate is “conched” in a large vat containing a marble roller which kneads, blends, and grinds the mixture at 45°C for 72 hours. This process evaporates the acidity in the cocoa beans and ensures the mellowness of chocolate. |
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| 6. In order to be used, the chocolate has to be “tempered”, i.e. heated to 50°C, cooled back down to 20°C and finally warmed back up again to 32°C, the ideal working temperature. This process gives a chocolate that has a glossy sheen and breaks perfectly under your teeth. If chocolate is too cold it becomes dull, and if it is too warm it becomes grey, as cocoa butter seeps to the surface. |
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