After the beans are removed from the pods, they are placed in large heaps or piles. This is called fermentation, and takes about a week. During this time, the shells harden, the beans darken, and the rich cocoa flavor develops. After drying, the beans are ready for transport to the chocolate factory.
Railroad cars carry the cocoa beans from the docks to the chocolate factory where they are cleaned and stored. Cocoa beans from different countries each have a distinct flavor. After arriving at the factory, the beans are stored by country of origin until they are blended to give them a certain taste.
Cocoa beans are roasted in large, revolving roasters at very high temperatures. A special hulling machine then takes the dry, roasted cocoa beans and separates the shell from the inside of the bean - called the “nib.” This is the part of the bean actually used to make chocolate.
The nibs now are ready for milling. Milling is a grinding process which turns the nibs into a liquid called chocolate liquor - a smooth, dark stream of pure chocolate flavor which, by the way, contains no alcohol. Now it is ready for the rest of the ingredients.
The main ingredients in chocolate are the chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and milk. Tanker trucks bring the fresh milk to the factory every day where it is tested, pasteurized, and then mixed with sugar. The whole milk-sugar mixture is slowly dried until it turns into a thick, taffy-like material.
At the heart of the chocolate factory is the central blending operation where the chocolate liquor is combined with the milk and sugar. This new mixture is dried into a coarse, brown powder called chocolate crumb. The chocolate crumb powder is used to make milk chocolate. Cocoa butter is added to the crumb which brings out the rich taste and creamy texture of the chocolate. The crumb travels through special steel rollers which grind and refine the mixture, making it smoother.
The crumb becomes a thick liquid called chocolate paste. The paste is poured into huge vats called conches. Once inside the conche, large granite rollers smooth out the gritty particles from the crumb. This process can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to complete.
Now the chocolate paste has the smooth, familiar look of milk chocolate and it’s ready to be made into chocolate products. The paste is tempered, or cooled in a controlled manner to the right texture and consistency. Other ingredients, like almonds or peanuts, can be mixed into the paste during tempering or added directly to the moulds.
Most chocolate bars are made by pouring the liquid chocolate paste into moulds. The moulding machines can fill more than 1,000 moulds per minute with chocolate. The filled moulds then take a bumpy, vibrating ride to remove air bubbles and allow the chocolate to settle evenly. Finally, they wind their way through a long cooling tunnel where the liquid chocolate is gently chilled into a solid candy bar.
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