How Is Chocolate Made
Over the centuries, there have been many different answers to the question, “How is chocolate made?” The first use of chocolate is credited with the Olmecs in Mesopotania in 1500 B.C. They discovered the cacao bean and tried to use it to make a chocolate drink. Later, the Aztecs and Mayans made their own drinks from the cacao bean. These were thought to be very bitter compared to the chocolate we know today.
The first part of the answer to “how is chocolate made” begins with the cacao bean. This bean grows on a cacao tree, and the first step in making chocolate is the harvesting of the beans. After they have been picked from the trees, these cacao beans, which have a melon-like shape, are opened up. The pulp and seeds are taken out and set in the ground or left in piles on the ground to ferment for around ten days. During this process, the beans will start to turn darker and the shells will become hard. You will start to be able to smell the cocoa developing in each bean. The beans are then dried, cleaned, bagged, and shipped to where they will be used to make chocolate.
When the beans arrive at a chocolate factory, they are roasted. This increases the chocolate flavor and lowers the acidity of the beans. They are cracked open and blown into a fan which separates the outer shell from the bean itself. These are called nibs. The nibs are ground into a liquid that is called chocolate liquor. The liquor can be poured into molds and made into unsweetened dark chocolate, or other ingredients can be added to make it into sweet or milk chocolate.
The fatty part of the nibs that is removed in the grinding is called cocoa butter. The final chocolate product will be made from the chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, vanilla, milk and sugar. There are variations in these ingredients that make different brands of chocolate taste unique. White chocolate is made with cocoa butter but without the chocolate liquor, so technically it is not chocolate.
Although cocoa butter starts to give chocolate a smooth quality, it is a process called conching that makes chocolate have an incredibly rich texture and taste. Conching is just a further grinding that uses small metal beads to break up even the tiniest chocolate particles. The longer chocolate spends in the conching process, the smoother it will be. The more expensive, very rich chocolates that have a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth feel have spent the most time being conched.
The final element in making chocolate is tempering. This is a heating process that makes liquid chocolate. It’s done to ensure that all the chocolate crystals will be the same size when the chocolate is hardened into its final form. Once all the chocolate crystals are dissolved into liquid form, the chocolate will be poured into molds to harden into the various types that are bought by consumers.
When you look at “How is chocolate made?,” you can see that there are many different processes involved, but it all ends with a delicious final product that is the number one flavor in America.