How to Make Chocolate

Making chocolate takes a lot of time and effort. Cocoa trees grow to the approximate height of 25 feet high. It then takes almost 4 years before a cocoa tree produces mature fruit, and even then only a small amount of the flowers produce cocoa pods. Each pod contains approximately 25 to 40 seeds, and it takes roughly 1 year of cocoa to produce just 450 grams of chocolate. Cocoa is grown in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.

There is a process that is followed for picking and treating cocoa so it yields the best chocolate. First the pods are hand picked form the trees. Mechanical devices may not be used due to the way the trees are planted and so workers pick the pods and crack them open. Fermenting is necessary for cocoa beans so that certain liquids drain out of the bean and the chocolate flavor becomes rich. This fermentation takes approximately one week, and then the cocoa beans are spread out to dry either in the sun or with specialized drying equipment.

The cocoa beans are sold to manufacturers and then ground into a powdery paste and combined with the particular recipe of the desired chocolate type. When making chocolate there are processes that involve mixing and beating as well as a process of tempering. These processes are essential for the successful production of chocolate. Beating and mixing involves removing unwanted tastes from the chocolate, while tempering involves further mixing as well as temperature regulation for optimal stability in the chocolate chemistry. Since the fat in chocolate is of primary importance, it is extremely important for delicious chocolate that the heating and cooling processes of chocolate manufacturing be controlled to allow for the strengthening of the fat bonds. Without these proper fat structures chocolate would not look or taste the same, and chocolate candy would be softer and not smooth feeling but lumpy and with the texture of sand.

There are different types of chocolate that are made differently. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate and cooking chocolate are all made differently with different recipes. Different types of chocolates also use different types of beans, and the mixing processes and recipes vary but the first stages of chocolate making, those being the picking, fermenting and mixing of chocolate are a fundamental part of the chocolate making process.