How Chocolate is Made?

            Do you know how we got chocolate from? Well this time we will know the amazing world of chocolate. So we can understand exactly we are eating.

           

            Chocolate starts from a tree called cacao tree. The first cacao trees grew wild in the Amazon basins in the North Brazil. The cacao trees like climates within 10 to 20 degrees of the equator. Especially in place such as South America, Africa, and Indonesia.  The trees need warm, humid weather and loose rich soil. They also like shaded sunlight with little or no wind.

The cacao tree produces a fruit about the size of a small pine apple. In side the fruits are the tree's seeds. They are also known as coco beans. Three main varieties of cacao beans are grown today. The criollo bean is a native of Central America. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of the cacao trees are criollo. These trees are small and hard to grow. The forastero cacao is much easier to grow and makes of 70 percent of all the cacao grown. The forastero is more bitter than the criollo. The third type of cacao bean is the trinitario. It is a cross between the criollo and the forastero. About twenty percent of the cacao beans produced are forastero.

Next, the beans are fermented for about a week, during fermentation the beans become darker and wrinkled and lose their bitter taste. After fermentation the beans are sun-dried for several days. After that they are shipped to the chocolate maker. The chocolate maker starts by roasting at 250 to 350° degrees for thirty minutes to two hours  depending on the type of bean to bring out the flavour. They are roasted in large revolving drums. The cacao beans give off a wonderful aroma during the roasting process. Different beans from different places have different qualities and flavour. So they are often shorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix.

The next process is winnowing. The roasted beans are winnowed to remove the meat nib of the cacao bean from its shell. Then the nibs are blended. The blended nibs are ground to make it a liquid. The liquid is called chocolate liquor. It tastes bitter.

All seeds contain some amount of fat and cacao beans are not different. However, cacao beans are half fat, which is why the ground nibs from liquid. It is pure bitter chocolate. Doyu understand so far? Well, sorry. I guess time is up for today. So see you and bye.