How Is Chocolate Made?

How is chocolate made? This question is quite justified, since the sweet snack is probably one of the most popular sweets in Germany. Find out here how chocolate gets from the cocoa tree to the supermarket shelf.

How is chocolate made? In the beginning was the bean

The history of the chocolate bar begins on the cocoa plantations in West African countries such as Ghana or the Ivory Coast, as well as in Central and South America and Southeast Asia. There, cocoa plantations are tended and managed by farmers.

• Harvesting the cocoa beans begins with shaking the fruit. This is how the farmers test whether the beans inside the fruit are separating. If this is the case, they are ripe and can be harvested.
• Around 40 to 50 beans are needed to make a bar of chocolate. The unprocessed cocoa beans contain many tannins and therefore taste unpleasantly bitter. At the time of harvest, they are light in color.
• After the harvest comes the fermentation. For this purpose, the cocoa fruit is cut open, the beans are cut out with the pulp and then spread on banana leaves.
• Fermentation is triggered by the heat in tropical countries and the high sugar content in the pulp. Yeast and bacteria break down the pulp. Acetic acid forms and ensures that the germ in the bean dies.
• Various flavors are created during fermentation, which are important for the taste of the chocolate. It lasts three to seven days. After fermentation, the cocoa beans take on the characteristic brown color.
• The beans are then dried in the sun. This process takes three to eight days and is very important, otherwise the beans will become moldy during transport.

Further processing in the chocolate factory

After the beans have been dried, they are mostly shipped to Europe and the USA, where they are processed into finished chocolate bars.

• After arriving at the factory, the beans are cleaned by machine. Then comes the roasting.
• The cocoa beans are roasted at up to 150 degrees. This process is important because it releases flavorings again.
• The beans are then conched. The chocolate is crushed, mixed with the other ingredients and ground very finely. This mass goes into the “conche” where it is heated and aerated so that all the acetic acids and the remaining water can escape.
• Finally, the liquid chocolate is poured into molds and placed in a cooling tunnel where it hardens. The boards are packed and delivered.