Harvest:

We grow, pick and open our own cocoa pods and then transport the "wet" cocoa to
our fermenting and drying facilities.
Fermentation and Drying:
Fresh harvested cocoa beans and pulp in fermentation bo
!he cocoa beans grow inside large pods which contain a pulpy white fruit. "n order
for the chocolate #avor to develop the beans must ferment in their fruity covering.
!his fermentation process creates the very comple #avor of chocolate but no
alcohol remains. !he fermentation is encouraged by placing the fresh "wet" cocoa in
a wooden bo covered with banana leaves. $iing and moisture ad%ustment are
performed daily for about & days. !he proper drying must be implemented
immediately after the fermentation period ends for successful #avor development.
We dry our beans naturally using the sun and bree'e.
(renada)hocolate*s +dmond ,rown spreading drying cocoa beans
Here in (renada, right where the cocoa grows, we have a distinct advantage over
most other chocolate-makers in that we can do our own fermenting and drying. !his
allows us to determine how to achieve the best and most interesting #avor
spectrum from our beans, one of the delicious di.erences of (renada)hocolate.
/oasting:
0ur "new" anti1ue cocoa roaster
!he proper degree of roast is essential. !oo heavy or too light a roast of beans will
not produce tasty chocolate and the margin is small. /oasting cocoa conse1uently
re1uires close attention and a keen sense of taste and smell of the roaster operator.
We now are celebrating the arrival and installation of our new roaster. "t is a gorgous
anti1ue from (ermany called the ,arth /oaster. "t is famous for doing a wonderful
%ob roasting the cocoa beans
Winnowing:
2olar-3owered 4nti1ue Winnowing $achine
Winnowing is the process of removing the outer shell from the cocoa beans. We
refurbished a 2panish-made anti1ue winnowing machine, converting it to run with
our factory*s solar-power system. !he machine 5rst cracks the roasted cocoa beans
into pieces of cocoa meat and shell. !he pieces are sent cascading down a series of
screens by means of vigorous vibration. 4s they fall through chutes under the
screens, a vacum system sucks away all the shell and dust material and forces it
into a collection bag. !he pieces of cocoa bean meat or "nibs," as they are called in
the chocolate-world, fall through the chutes and into collection buckets and are
ready for grinding.
(rinding
!he $elangeur
We use a +uropean vintage chocolate grinding machine called !he $elangeur. "t*s
basically two giant revolving granite rollers on top of a revolving granite slab. !he
intense grinding action of the heavy rollers tearing across the slab as they rotate
converts the cocoa nibs 6roasted bean pieces7 to a thick oily paste and 5nally a
thick li1uid. Heat is added to the machine to facilitate the li1ui5cation.
!he resulting thick cocoa bean li1uid is called cocoa "li1uor" and is over 89 percent
fat. "t is either used at this stage for cocoa butter pressing or is mied and re-ground
with sugar in the $elangeur to make chocolate.
We refurbished our anti1ue $elangeur, adding a solar-powered drive system.
$iing with sugar:
!he sugar is well mied into the li1uid cocoa using our $elangeur. ,oth the sugar
and cocoa solid particles are ground down smaller and smaller while more and more
fat is released from the cocoa. !he sugar:cocoa miture becomes smoother and
remains a thick li1uid known as chocolate "paste," now ready for the re5ning and
conching process to follow.
/e5ning and )onching:
Refning is the 5nal grinding of all particles in the li1uid chocolate together to
produce an even etremely smooth teture in which no grit can be detected on
one*s tongue or pallet.
Conching is a long process of intense miing, agitating, and aerating of heated
li1uid chocolate. During this long process various o.-#avored, bitter substances as
well as water vapor evaporate away from the chocolate. !he long intense miing
action assures complete coating of every solid particle with cocoa butter, giving the
chocolate a well developed and delicious #avor and teture.
We use a professional conche:re5ner machine that combines both of these
processes into one. !he 5rst period of time in the machine is the re5ning stage,
during which time the conching e.ect occurs simultaneously. !he heat generated
from the grinding action of the machine helps heat the chocolate to the conching
temperature. During the following period of time, chocolate miing, agitating and
heating continues 6conching7 until the 5nal #avor is achieved. !he chocolate is
drained out of the machine and poured into our tempering:depositing machine for
the 5nal stage of our long process.
!empering and $olding:
tempering:depositing machine
!empering chocolate is the process that creates the desired crystalline structure in
the solid chocolate, which is essential to achieve the desired 1ualities in the 5nished
chocolate: a high melting point so the chocolate melts in your mouth but not in your
hands, an attractive glossy 5nish and a stability that keeps the chocolate this way.
2ome technical background is re1uired to understand chocolate tempering.
)hocolate, or more speci5cally the cocoa butter in the chocolate, is "polymorphic."
!his means that when li1uid chocolate crystalli'es 6solidi5es7 it may do so in several
di.erent ways depending on the manner in which it is cooled. ,ecause cocoa
butter contains many di.erent kinds of fat, there are several possible crystal forms
6shapes7 that can form during solidi5cation. 0nly one of these possible crystal
forms, known as form ";, has those 1ualities we desire in chocolate.
When we temper chocolate we are establishing the "seeds" 6tiny solid crystals in the
li1uid chocolate mass7 for this crystal form. We "seed" by lowering the temperature
of the 5nished li1uid chocolate to about <8 degrees F. while applying continuous
miing. 4t this seeding temperature relatively small crystals form which are desired
to create a 5ne-grained solid chocolate with the desired "snap." 4fter allowing
seeding to occur, the li1uid chocolate*s temperature is raised to about =9 degrees F.
to melt out any unwanted seeds, i.e. crystals with the wrong shape that may have
also formed. 4t =9 degrees F. the desired form "; crystals do not melt but the other
crystal forms do melt away back into li1uid. !he li1uid chocolate is now tempered
and will remain tempered as long as the temperature remains about =9 degrees F.
and miing continues. +ven though =9 degrees F. is below the free'ing point of the
tempered chocolate, the constant miing prevents solidi5cation from occurring
much like the way running water below >? degrees F. doesn*t free'e.
We temper, mold and wrap our chocolate inside our air-conditioned, ultra-clean
tempering room to assure that our products are stable and attractive.
@i1uifying:
!he ground up li1uid cocoa 6cocoa li1uor7 must be whipped up and additionally
heated in order to press out cocoa butter. 0ur solar-powered li1ui5er is much like a
very powerful blender, thinning and heating the li1uid cocoa signi5cantly.
)ocoa butter pressing:
)ocoa butter is an essential ingredient in chocolate. "t is etracted from a portion of
cocoa beans and mied together with another portion of cocoa beans along with
sugar to make chocolate. "t makes the chocolate creamy and mouth melting. !he
cocoa butter press and was invented by )oenraad ;an Houton in Holland in A<?<
but simple, small cocoa butter presses are no longer manufactured. @arge-scale,
very epensive and energy intensive presses are the only ones available these
days. !herefore, (renada)hocolate had to design and build our own small-scale
simple cocoa butter press.
!he challenge in cocoa butter pressing is achieving huge pressures. "ndustrial
presses use as much as &999 psi, re1uiring over a hundred tons of hydraulic
pressure pushing on a press cylinder. 0ur press uses much lower pressures like the
old-style presses and provides about A899 psi using a standard ?9 ton hydraulic car
%ack.
0ur press cylinder is machined out of standard seamless pipe stock 6& inch
diameter7 and sits on a ? inch thick steel press plate which contains small holes and
a 5ne stainless screen. 4s a steel piston pushes down on the li1ue5ed cocoa inside
the cylinder, clear li1uid cocoa butter s1uirts and drips out of the bottom of the
press plate and into the collection bowl. !he piston needs to be re-pressuri'ed
every few minutes by cracking the %ack a couple of times. "t takes about B8 minutes
to complete each batch in the press.
!he press is continually heated using attached gas burners.
4fter the butter stops dripping out, the cylinder is removed from the press plate and
a block of cocoa solid material is removed. !his block is ground down to make our
wonderfully rich )ocoa 3owder, used for hot chocolate, baking, chocolate ice-cream,
etc.
!he cocoa butter is added to the chocolate in the )onche so that it mies in
thoroughly and becomes one with the chocolate mass. 0ur press takes time and
patience to operate but produces a special etra-#avorful cocoa butter that helps
give our chocolate an etra rich chocolatiness
hgvsdfksd