Food Factory – How is chocolate made.

Food Factory - in this series of posts we will explore how everyday foods are made in food factories.

In this post I will describing the process of making Chocolate.

There are 3 steps:

1. Preparing the chocolate nibs
2. Making a chocolate liquor
3. Making the chocolate bar.

Step 1 Preparing the chocolate nibs

The original material for chocolate is the Cocoa bean originally harvested by the Aztecs. This cocoa bean is harvested similar to coffee.  To make cocoa nibs the beans are washed sorted and prepared for the food factory to process them.

Like Grapes there are different type and flavours depending on where the plants grow and species of plant. The experts in the food factory will take these different beans and blend them to the correct level for their chocolate. (very similar process to the coffee, tea, wine industries)

Once the mix of cocoa beans has been generated, it is roasted, this is predominantly for removing the water from the bean. Water may cause flavour/quality issues so it is removed at the start of the process. Control of the roast also improves adds or improves the flavour profile of the beans.

Similar to other grains, the hard outside of the grain has to be removed. The food factory grinds this outside part of the bean off, then crunches the middle part into small pieces of cocoa. This part is called the cocoa nibs.

You might be thinking yummy at this stage, unfortunately the nibs are extremely bitter and need further processing to make the nice chocolate.

2. Making a chocolate liquor

The chocolate nibs have a high percentage of Fat which contain the oil soluble flavonoids that make chocolate flavour. The nibs are ground down, which make a thick paste of chocolate.

The Food Factory will take this material and separate out the majority of the Cocoa Butter for use in Chocolate bars. The remaining material still has a chocolate flavour but not enough fat to solidify into a bar. This material is predominantly used to make chocolate drinks through a spray drying application.

But it is chocolate bars we are targeting today. This chocolate paste at this stage is bitty, very fatty and bitter. It needs further processing to make the chocolate you are used to.

3. Making the chocolate bar.

The Process so far will be carried out in different Food Factory ’s, the production of the chocolate nibs is normally produced very close to the fields. These nibs are then shipped to the food factories in various countries to be made into chocolate bars.

So we have the very dark bitty, and bitter chocolate paste, which needs processing into smooth chocolate.  The paste is mixed with Skimmed milk powder, sugar, milk, cocoa butter. Heated up and stirred to blend all the items together.

The secret of chocolate making both in a food factory and at home, is the fat crystals have to be heated to a melting point. Before controlling the temperature to a lower point where they are allowed to reform. It is the controlling of this recrystallization that is the key to good chocolate. Done correctly the it is smooth and melts on the tongue, done poorly it is grainy and feels like sand on the tongue.

At this point you have large vats of melted chocolate, to really add that final quality to mix is “Conched”. This is a process where the chocolate mix is swirled in the tank allowed air bubbles to form and dissolve. This adds more softness to the chocolate by making tiny air bubbles in the mix.

The last stage is to pour this mix into any number of molds and cool the chocolate until it sets.

The food Factory will then take this bar and wrap and pack before distributing to your shop shelf.

Food Factory – Each week I plan to reveal how everyday food products are made.

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