THE CHOCOLATE MAKING PROCESS

The Chocolate Making Process

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STEP 9: Liquid Chocolate is Temporary Stored •Chocolate is frequently shipped in a liquid state to other food manufacturers, or it can be stored for short periods of time.•For longer periods, it is solidified, usually in the form of blocks. These blocks must be reheated before further processing so that they liquefy again.

STEP 2: Roasting •Bringing out the characteristic chocolate aroma•The roasting lasts from 30 minutes to two hours at temperatures of 130 degrees Celsius and higher•Mouisture content drops•Color changes to a rich brown color

Step 1. Cleaning •The process of making chocolate starts with the cocoa beans being cleaned.•The beans are carefully weighed and blended.•The separated cocoa bean husks are passed on to the chemical industry which extracts valuable compounds.

STEP 3: Shell Removal • The cocoa beans are cooled quickly and their thin shells are removed.• The inner nib is extracted, and The nibs are then ground into a fine powder.

STEP 4: Nibs are ground •The nibs pass through refining mills and are ground between large grinding stones creating a cocoa paste (cocoa butter).•The cocoa butter has important functions,and it also gives the chocolate its fine structure, and delicate, attractive glaze.

STEP 6: Other ingredients are added to the Chocolate Liquor •Milk chocolate is made by adding milk, sugar, cocoa butter and other ingredients to the bitter chocolate liquor.•The ingredients go into a mixer with rotating, kneading arms until the result is a, paste-like mixture with a pleasant taste.

STEP 7: Conching machines knead the Chocolate Paste •This process develops flavors and changes the texture during controlled temperatures.• It’s the last and most important refining process.•Machines plow back and forth through the chocolate paste, anywhere from a few hours to several days.•The chocolate no longer has sandy texture, but dissolves meltingly on the tongue.• Swiss and Belgian chocolates, are conched as much as 96 hours. • Some chocolates are not conched at all, or for only 4 to 12 hours.

STEP 8: Chocolate is Tempered by Heating, Cooling & Reheating •This process thickens the chocolate.•The storage life is also increased in this way.•The still warm conched chocolate is placed in a tempering machine so that it can be slowly and steadily cooled.

STEP 5: Cocoa is separated from Cocoa Butter •To make cocoa powder a fine paste (chocolate liquor) is pumped into hydraulic presses weighing up to 25 tons and when the pressure is applied, 80% cocoa butter is removed. • The fat drains away as a yellow liquid, and then is collected for use in chocolate manufacturing.

From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate Cocoa beans Cocoa beans stored in warehouses