Chocolate Fabrication

Chocolate is produced from the cocoa pod of the cacao tree. We find different species divided in between the tropical regions of the world.

Its cultivation is very demanding and the fruit, called the cabosse or pod, is picked twice a year when it is ripe. The cacao tree exists in different varieties, such as the criollos, the forasteros and the trintarios which produce different cocoas of different flavours and aromas.

The ripe cabosse retains a colour particular to it’s variety and produces a characteristic tinkle when shaken.

Harvesting, Fermentation and Drying

This process happens on the cacao tree plantation. The fruit (the cabosse) is split with a machete and emptied of it’s beans and pulp. The beans are placed in tubs and covered with banana leaves. The temperature varies from 45° to 50° C. They are left to sit for around one week with regular stirrings. The fermentation rids the beans of their pulp, reducing the bitter taste and developing the precursors of flavour.

The first fermentation happens in an anaerobic fashion under the banana leaves. A second fermentation, called lactic fermentation, happens very rapidly. Then, the juice runs and air penetrates the mass of beans, favouring the third fermentation, acetic fermentation. The high temperature kills the germs of the cocoa bean. During this phase the beans change colour. During harvesting they are white or purple, and after fermentation become chocolate brown.

At this stage, the beans are dried in the sun, or in dryers, during 15 days and are sometimes washed. They are regularly turned to assure an even drying. Drying, like fermentation, plays a role in the aroma of cocoa. They are then shipped to the chocolate factory where the rest of the treatment takes place.

Roasting, Crushing and Conching

As with coffee, the beans are roasted to increase aroma. This phase takes place after cleaning the grains in a roaster. The beans are cooked with their shell, then shelled. Then they are crushed and and transformed into shards, which are called nibs. In general, the roasting lasts for 40 minutes at 140°C.

The grains of cocoa are transformed into a liquid paste: the cocoa mass. The cocoa butter is then separated from the mass by pressing.

Adding Ingredients and Conching

The preceding stages make it possible to obtain a cocoa mass to which various ingredients will be added according to the chocolate which one wants. Dark chocolate is made by mixing "solid" cocoa, cocoa butter (for melting) also named "oil cake", for taste, and sugar. The more sugar there is, the less the percentage of cocoa. Powdered milk is added if one wants milk chocolate.

To obtain dark chocolate cocoa butter and sugar are added to the paste.
To obtain milk chocolate cocoa butter, powdered milk and sugar are added to the paste.
To obtain white chocolate cocoa butter, powdered milk and sugar are added to the paste.

Conchage is the heating of the cocoa in order to increase the homogeneity, the flavour and the consistency of the future chocolate. It is done at approximately 70°C in a mixer which slowly mixes the chocolate concoction. During this stage, emulsifiers can be added. Almost all industrial chocolate contains the emulsifier soya lecithin, which prolongs the homogeneity of the mixture.

Tempering and Moulding

The tempering of chocolate consists of bringing the cocoa butter to its most stable crystalline form. It can crystallize in six different forms. Among these six states, the tempering brings it to it’s most stable form: beta of cocoa butter.

Tempering gives to the chocolate, once cooled, a brilliant and smooth aspect, hardness and creamy characteristics, and a longer shelf life.