The life of Chocolates

People love chocolates but very few know how they are produced and then served to the people. It isn’t really a complicated procedure, but if you are a die-hard fan of chocolates, you should surely know the entire history of chocolate harvesting and production.

Let’s get some delightful education:-

Cocoas are basically trees famously grown in Africa. Chocolate making methods vary from maker to maker, but here’s a basic technique to how it is made.

1. Harvest:

The first stage is harvesting. Ripe cocoa pods are harvested twice a year. The seasons may vary from regions to regions but the making process starts immediately. The pods are cut open with knives and the pulp containing the cocoa beans are removed. Then these pods and pulps are kept in large wooden containers. The pulp ferments for five to seven days while in the boxes.

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2. Drying:

After this, the next step is drying the cocoa beans. This is a normal process of spreading them out in the open sunlight. Since mostly the beans are exported around the world, it needs days to dry out completely. Otherwise if there are semi-wet cocoa beans placed in a sack, it will be mostly damaged.

3. Roasting:

Drying and roasting process are completely different. If you would’ve noticed, many shops sell roasted cocoa beans like coffee beans. The chocolate makers roast the beans and not the farmers. Usually ovens are used to roast them but the process can vary from maker to maker. Post the sweltering; there is a lot of tasting done to see if it is done in the right temperature.

4. Winnowing:

Winnowing, basically, means sorting out. The beans usually have a thin shell type covering which needs to be removed to get fine chocolate. The shells are cracked opened and thrown away. A giant fan is used to blow away all the shells. The leftover are called nibs, which are the pure cocoa beans.

5. Grinding:

Post the winnowing, grinding of the nibs is done. Equipment, called stone rollers, is used in this procedure. Once it is in liquid form, the mixture is called, cocoa liquor. There are then two parts made with this mix, the chocolate pure part and the left over is the cocoa butter. Then the mass is put into a machine called conch to refine it further. During this process, milk, sugar and other ingredients are added to the pure chocolate.

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6. Tempering:

To bring shiny finish to the chocolates, tempering is done. It is a way to bring the mixture to a certain temperature to make it soft and crumbly. The tempering machine keeps the melted chocolate circulating at exactly the exact temperature to make the final step easier.

7. Molding and shaping:

The final and last step is molding and shaping the liquid chocolates into cubes. The liquid is placed into a plastic container with shapes. Then they are kept to cool. Once done, they are ready to be wrapped and sold!

We hope this was an informative article on chocolates. Once you are done reading this, send chocolates by post to your friends, family and loved ones and make them happy!

admin

Author’s bio: She is a world renowned chef who specializes in baking and confectionary. Having several years of experience in this field, she contributes interesting articles to the website http://www.expressgiftservice.co.uk and many others.

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