- Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which are from the cocoa tree.

- The pods are shaped like rugby balls & hang directly from the lower branches & trunk.
- Amazingly, one tree produces only enough beans for 1kg of chocolate per year.
- The pods are harvested & smashed open with a machete.
- The seeds or beans are scooped out & left to dry in the sun before being shipped.

THE CHOCOLATE MAKING PROCESS

- The beans are blended with beans from different countries according each
manufacturer’s recipe.
- The beans are 1st cleaned to get rid of foreign objects like twigs & stones.
- Thereafter, the beans are roasted – time & temperature are very important – the higher
the temperature the more bitter the chocolate & therefore more sugar is needed (which
is common in the US). In Europe the beans are roasted at a lower temperature for a
longer time & therefore have a richer flavor, so less sugar is needed.
- These are then ground to produce cocoa mass.
- Sugar is added & the mixture is kneaded into dough.
- The dough is then refined through 5 revolving steel rollers, which reduces the solid
particles to a very fine powder.
- The powder is put into a giant mixer with paddles – the friction of the paddles creates
heat, which melts the powder into liquid.
- This liquid chocolate is “loaded” into thermostatically controlled tankers for national &
international distribution.
- Chocolate is then molded into the familiar blocks that we buy in the shops.
- Nuts, mint, fruit, caramel etc are added for variation.
- Good quality chocolate should not contain anything that you don’t recognize – so if you
see an ‘E’ number, artificial preservatives or hydrogenated fats don’t buy it. The flavor
must linger for several minutes. Good chocolate can linger for up to 45 minutes!