From Cocoa Bean to Cocoa Mass
Before becoming a smooth and creamy paste, chocolate begins its life as a bean encapsulated within an imposing pod.
Cocoa beans
The fruit of the cocoa tree is called a cabosse. This pod is a large green, red, or violet berry which turns yellow or orange when ripe. Each pod contains on average around 40 beans which are odourless but bitter to the taste.
Harvesting
Mature pods are harvested and split lengthways with a knife to extract the seeds which are left to ferment and dry. It takes between one and two weeks of sunshine (100ºC) to dry them. From this point the seeds are properly called cocoa beans.
The roasting process
Just like coffee beans, the cocoa beans are roasted and then ground to obtain cocoa mass which is blended with icing sugar (used because it is less granular) and cocoa butter to form a paste which is pressed between rotating cylinders to squeeze out any granules.
The ‘conching’ process
To remove any remaining solids and make the paste even smoother, the cocoa mass is put into a 60ºC drying oven for two days. Then a rolling machine slowly kneads the paste in a process known as ‘conching.’ The quality of the chocolate is hugely dependent on the degree and duration of this conching.
…and finally
The temperature is gradually reduced and the paste allowed to set. It is now ready to be transformed into delicious chocolates !
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