There are so many places to find chocolate. Chocolate even comes in every form possible. Chocolate bars, lollipops, chocolate chips, cookies, even drinks! It’s everywhere! It is an amazing process that the little tiny cocoa bean has to go through before it reaches your tummy!
Where Did This Stuff Come From?
The Ivory Coast in Africa is the foremost leading producer of the main ingredient in your chocolate, the cacao plant. This plant produces pods that encase the cacao beans that are used to make the cocoa that we use in our chocolate products. Cacao plants do very well in tropic areas thus why they are found in abundance in Africa. There are other producers of cacao plants but Africa is the leading producer in the world! The actual pod kind of looks like a coconut and is chopped from trees just like the coconuts are. It takes millions and millions of little beans from the cacao plant to produce the chocolate that we find in our foods. Chocolate dates back as early as the Mayans. Chocolate was said to be consumed heavily in drinks during the peak time of their civilization. In 1100 BC it was even noted that in Honduras they were drinking chocolate as well. I wonder if they had had hot chocolate or creamy cool chocolate milkshakes?
From the Plant to the Table
After picking out the cocoa beans they can definitely not be directly consumed. They need to be put through a fermentation process. Fermenting of these chocolate beans takes about five or six days at least. Every so often the beans have to be stirred. They give off heat during the fermentation process so stirring them keeps them fresh. After the fermentation process they are laid out in the sun and dried over a period of time. Next, the beans take long trips all over the world to be sold to chocolate vendors.
While in the chocolate factories, the cocoa beans that have already been dried are taken through a roasting process. During this roasting process they get their toasty brown color. The smell of cocoa and taste of chocolate is brought out during this process as well. The roasting process is a top secret process for each chocolate manufacturer; the way they roast is they way they bring out their unique chocolate taste. After roasting the cocoa beans are shelled and crushed up into little chocolate nibs. These nibs are then ground down to produce cocoa liquor. Next up the liquor is taken through a process where they separate the cocoa butter from the solids. Cocoa butter is the main and essential ingredient in the chocolate that we consume.
Cocoa butter is processed and ground, during this process the cocoa butter is ground as fine as possible. The finer it is after grinding the better the chocolate tastes. There are some products on the market that have a very small content of cocoa butter if at all, which in turn makes the taste of the product less satisfactory. Conching is the next step in the chocolate making process. In this step, the cocoa butter is mixed with pure cane sugar and some of the solids as well; after they are mixed they are exposed to very high heat. Tempering the chocolate follows conching, this is simply a cooling time. Tempering is a vital part of the final product that hits your table. It has to be done just right or the chocolate will not be at the right consistency for making any types of edible chocolate. After the tempering the chocolate is finally ready to be poured into its molds! After it is set it is packaged and sold all over the world.
What a long process for a little bean! Making chocolate is hard work. You must have the right ingredients in order to turn out a great product that people will crave!
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