Thursday, September 27, 2018
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
The process of Chocolate!
Making chocolate is a long process, you grow the cocoa beans and harvest them from pods on trees, found mostly in the tropical weather of the equatorial forest (The Pacific Equatorial Forest is a tropical forest ecosystem located at 0° latitude in coastal Ecuador, in the province of Manabí) .
The estimated time for some cocoa pods to grow and to be ready for harvesting is 5-6 months.
Once the cocoa beans are extracted from the pods, the beans are covered for 5-7 days to ferment (of a substance, to undergo fermentation). After fermentation the cocoa beans are left in the sun for six days, to dry out.
At collection centers, the dried beans are weighed and checked for quality before being packed into a bag, and transported to the Barry Callebaut cocoa factory, for processing. In the cocoa factory, the beans are sorted, cleaned, dried and broken into nibs, the nibs are then roasted and then grounded to a fine liquid mass.
The cocoa liquor can be further processed into cocoa butter, and cocoa powder. Depending on the chocolate recipe cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar or milk powder are mixed, and continually needed (this process is called conching) which gives the chocolate a great texture. Other ingredients, such as nuts, may be added before delivering. Either in liquid form, blocks or in the form of drops or chocolate chips.
And that is the process of making chocolate!
By Mia Edkins
The estimated time for some cocoa pods to grow and to be ready for harvesting is 5-6 months.
Once the cocoa beans are extracted from the pods, the beans are covered for 5-7 days to ferment (of a substance, to undergo fermentation). After fermentation the cocoa beans are left in the sun for six days, to dry out.
At collection centers, the dried beans are weighed and checked for quality before being packed into a bag, and transported to the Barry Callebaut cocoa factory, for processing. In the cocoa factory, the beans are sorted, cleaned, dried and broken into nibs, the nibs are then roasted and then grounded to a fine liquid mass.
The cocoa liquor can be further processed into cocoa butter, and cocoa powder. Depending on the chocolate recipe cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar or milk powder are mixed, and continually needed (this process is called conching) which gives the chocolate a great texture. Other ingredients, such as nuts, may be added before delivering. Either in liquid form, blocks or in the form of drops or chocolate chips.
And that is the process of making chocolate!
By Mia Edkins
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)