Production of Chocolate

Chocolate is a key ingredient in many foods such as milk shakes, candy bars, cookies and cereals. Despite its popularity, most people do not know the unique origins of this popular treat. Chocolate is a product that requires complex procedures to produce. The process involves harvesting coca, refining coca to cocoa beans, and shipping the cocoa beans to the manufacturing factory for cleaning, coaching and grinding.

These cocoa beans will then be imported or exported to other countries and be transformed into different type of chocolate products. Top five cocoa producing countries: Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Cuba. At this slide you can see that African countries produce almost 75% of the Worlds Cocoa. So we go directly to the production of chocolate.

Chocolate production starts with harvesting coca in a forest. Cocoa comes from tropical evergreen Cocoa trees, such as Theobroma Cocoa. Cocoa needs to be harvested manually(вручную) in the forest. The seed pods(семена) of coca will first be collected; the beans will be selected and placed in piles(сваи). These cocoa beans will then be ready to be shipped to the manufacturer for mass production. Step #1: Roasting and Winnowing the Cocoa

The first thing that chocolate manufacturers do with cocoa beans is roast(жарят) them. This develops the color and flavor of the beans into what our taste expect from chocolate. The outer shell of the beans is removed, and the inner cocoa bean meat is broken into small pieces called “cocoa nibs.”

The roasting process makes the shells of the cocoa brittle. It achieves with the process called “winnowing”(веяние через сито). Step #2: Grinding the Cocoa Nibs Grinding(шлифовка) is the process by which cocoa nibs are ground into “cocoa liquor”, which is also known as cocoa mass. And then the cocoa liquor is mixed with cocoa butter and sugar. Step #3: Blending Cocoa liquor and molding Chocolate

After the mixing process, the blend is further refined to bring the particle size of the added milk and sugar down to the desired fineness. The Cocoa powder or ‘mass’ is blended back with the butter and liquor in varying quantities to make different types of chocolate or couverture(глазурь). Milk Chocolate – sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, Lethicin and Vanilla. White Chocolate- sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, Lethicin and Vanilla. Plain Dark Chocolate – cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, Lethicin and Vanilla.

The most important component of chocolate is the fat and the special processes known as conching and tempering. The fat can combine together cocoa, milk and sugar to form the solid(твердый) chocolate. Conching involves mixing and beating the semi-liquid mixture to develop the flavor, removing unwanted flavors and reducing the viscosity. Tempering is the final crucial stage. It is a complex process which involves mixing and cooling the liquid chocolate under carefully controlled conditions to ensure that the fat in the chocolate crystallizes in its most stable form. Without the right tempering, the chocolate would be very soft.

Tempered chocolate is used in a number of ways to produce Cadbury’s famous brands. Finally the chocolate is packaged and distributed around the world. In conclusion, Chocolate made from this cocoa is over 5 million metric tons. However, the preference for milk or dark chocolate also varies and has changed over the years with the preference now leading the dark chocolate.

Chocolate companies invest millions of dollars into and machinery to the production all types of chocolate, especially for dark chocolate. Nowadays you know the complex process about the production of chocolate which consists of several stages such as cleaning, roasting and winning cocoa beans. Grinding and mixing components, conching and tempering. And if you want to produce chocolate, you could do it by yourself.