From bean to chocolate

Selection, drying, roasting, grinding the beans, mixing the cocoa paste with sugar and milk, tempering, molding. chocolate production results from a real know-how that no fewer than 15 steps, from harvest of the pod at the other end of the world, and the food delicious, ready to be enjoyed by young and old !



The cacao tree is a tree that grows only in fragile tropical countries.

From about 7 meters in height at maturity, it produces 500 g to 2 kg of beans per year. There are three varieties of cacao:

Forastero (70% of world production), which produces cocoa bitter flavors slightly acidic,

Trinitario (20% of world production), which develops a fine cocoa high in fat,

Criollo (nearly 10% of world production), which is the source of a fine cocoa and aromatic.

Fruit: pod

The pods, which contain the cocoa beans, grow on the trunk and branches. They need four months to mature and develop a beautiful orange yellow color. Each cocoa pod yields about 40 per year.

Harvest

The picking of pods is a very delicate operation, which involves picking the fruit without damaging or hurting the tree. For fruit placed vertically, using a curved blade attached to a pole.

The cocoa cracking and fermentation

The cocoa cracking: as soon as picked, the pods are broken with a club or a machete to extract the cocoa beans. Inside, the seeds are coated with a white pulp, called "mucilage". Each pod contains 20-50 seeds. On average, twenty fresh pods give a pound of dried beans.

Fermentation is a critical step for quality cocoa. Plus it is done quickly, the better the cocoa. The operation took place on the production sites. The seeds are placed in bins for fermentation. The mucilage liquefies and flows. As a result of natural chemical reactions, the precursors of colors and aromas develop.


Drying

To lower the moisture content of 60-8%, the seeds are sun dried on racks or in artificial dryers. This operation, which requires one to two weeks, should be neither too slow (moldy grain) or too fast (they become acidic). Throughout the duration of the operation, men and especially women of the plantation, turn and return the seeds. They sort them by hand, the rake, remove the remaining pulp and debris. In parts of South America is still practiced an ancient custom: the dance of cocoa. A dance without music, in which only the feet moving.

The seeds are brown in color, so characteristic: they are now called cocoa beans. Summarily cleaned, they are ready for operation or export.

Roasting

Like coffee, cocoa does not develop its flavor and color that once roasted.
The beans are roasted at 120 ° C and 140 ° C.

The degree and the roasting time varies depending on the origin of the beans, the type of cocoa or chocolate that is sought.

Crushing

Once crushed, the cocoa beans are transformed into a liquid paste called cocoa liquor (or cocoa paste or liquor). It is from this dough that we can make cocoa powder, bar cocoa or chocolate.

The manufacture of powder and cocoa butter

The cocoa paste, once crushed, is pressed in hydraulic presses equipped with metal filter cloths for two products, a liquid, cocoa butter, the other solid, shaped cake, cake. The deodorized cocoa butter is then poured into molds to form blocks after solidification, while the meal will be crushed and then ground to give cocoa powder.

Mixing

The cocoa paste is also used to make chocolate by adding sugar, cocoa butter, and possibly milk. The cocoa mass base is mixed with other raw materials in a mess. The mixing continues until a smooth paste. It then passes through flail-pulverizing, grinding process known to reduce the size of the mass and minimize the size of solid particles.

Conching

To make the chocolate as its basis, its creaminess and flavor, the chocolate paste shall then conching, mechanical agitation - 12 to 48 hours - depending on the desired result.


Tempering

Conching completed, the chocolate must be tempered to go from liquid to solid state. He therefore undergo a cycle of temperature to promote crystallization, fine and stable, cocoa butter. The gloss of chocolate, its stability and its "breaking" depend.

Casting

The chocolate is then poured into molds or drizzled around to coat interiors (candy, chocolate bars, rocks and logs ...).

After storage and packaging, it is finally ready to be savored by gourmets around the world!