The Journey from Chocolate bean to Chocolate bar

When you eat a choco bar we just simply think of its taste and texture and not really more.

Do anyone thought of its huge journey from Chocolate bean to Chocolate bar. Where it comes from? Where it is sourced? And the origin of it.

No right?

But before we dive in knowing about converting from the Chocolate bean to Chocolate bar, there could be many definitions lined up on what is bean-to-bar chocolate? To be put in simpler terms it is when the cocoa beans are turned into chocolate products. The journey from sourcing the Cocoa from the Cocoa tree to the chocolate bar is not complex but it requires several steps in between the journey and the careful treatment to get the best from the finished product. The below guide shows how the Cocoa bean to bar chocolates are made after several processes.

The first step includes Harvesting:

And the process begins from Harvesting and it is done twice a year where the harvest time could vary from region to region, and the process of turning into the chocolate begins immediately. Here the cocoa pods that are harvested and after its ripes, they are cut open and later the white pulp are scooped out. Not all the harvest turns out to be great it depends on the geographical conditions, soil type and mainly on the climate conditions. These have an adverse impact on the bean profile and the flavour of the chocolate.

The different bean provides unique tastes :

Fermenting:

The collected Cocoa pods and the pulps are put together in the wooden containers where the pulp extracted is allowed to ferment for five to seven days. Each of the Cocoa pods contains 30 to 40 seeds and each seed begin to ferment when it is been exposed to the seeds and the fermentation process is the very first step for the bean to enhance its flavour. During the process of fermentation, the beans are turned to help them more evenly.

Drying the beans:

After the fermentation, the next step in the process is drying up the bean and it is usually done by splitting up the bean over the sun and most of the bean is stored in the sack after it dries up completely. Due to climatic conditions, the bean couldn’t be made wet where it is placed near the wood fires to infuse the smell of the wood smoke into the bean. The bean with high moisture content has to be quickly made wet to retain the flavour of the chocolates.

Roasting the beans:

The next step in the process is roasting the beans which are done by the chocolate makers and not the farmers. This is because soon after the beans are dried it is transported and the roasting of the beans is done by the chocolate makers and not the farmers. The process and the equipment involved in the roasting process varies from one chocolate makers to others. Some of them use the standard ovens to roast the bean evenly and accurately as possible. The roasting the bean with less and high temperatures have a significant impact on the bean flavours.

Cracking & winnowing:

It is the next process after roasting the bean, the next step involved is cracking. The beans are then cracked by machine or with hands and to remove the outer shell and the process is known as winnowing. And the leftover shells are removed using the fans or with the blowers known as nibs.

The above two steps are done using machinery and it requires melanger.

Tempering:

The chocolates need to be tempered where the temperature of the chocolates are raised and lowered so it creates the right kind of crystals and this can be done traditionally been done with the hands and with recent innovations in machinery, the tempering can be consistently done with the same ideal temperature.

Moulding:

The tempered chocolates can be poured on to the moulds and gently tapped to avoid the air bubbles. The cooled and the hardened chocolate bars are now ready for the quality check and the inspection and it is carefully wrapped in a foil to keep it fresh.

And that’s a quick wrap on how the chocolate bars is been made before which it involves huge and complex processes.

About us:

Century chocolate melanger products are mainly used in cocoa refining industries to derive the fine chocolate butter. The Machinery is manufactured with modern state of art technologies, machines are built with a high standard of engineering. We are extending our services to more than 23 countries worldwide & serving across countries like USA, UK, Canada, France, Brazil, Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain, Africa, Poland, Indonesia, Sweden and many more. We manufacture all kinds of chocolate machinery which caters to small and large scale industries. For any trade enquiries and assistance contact us via:020 80171343 and drop in your enquiries to Century Melanger we would gladly help with kind assistance.