Cocoa Processing

In some countries the beans are placed between banana leaves in boxes. The temperature in the heap can get as high as 50°C. 

Most small-scale growers then try and dry their beans in the sun – a practice which is limited by the lack of sunlight hours in the tropics. Others use fires, but the smoke tends to lower the quality of the bean due to undesirable flavors it instills in the bean.

Once with the manufacturer, cocoa beans are cleaned to remove all extraneous material and roasted to bring out the chocolate flavor and color. A winnowing machine is used to remove the shells from the beans to leave just the cocoa nibs. Nibs undergo alkalization, usually with potassium carbonate, to develop the flavor and color before milling to create cocoa liquor.

The cocoa liquor is pressed to extract the cocoa butter, leaving a solid mass called cocoa press cake. The amount of butter extracted from the liquor is controlled by the manufacturer to produce press cake with different proportions of fat. Cocoa butter is largely used in the manufacture of chocolate. The cocoa press cake is broken into small pieces to form kibbled press cake, which is then pulverized to form cocoa powder. Cocoa liquor is used to produce chocolate through the addition of cocoa butter and other ingredients such as sugar, milk, emulsifying agents and cocoa butter equivalents.

This mixture undergoes a refining process by travelling through a series of rollers until a smooth paste is formed. Further processing refines the texture and taste of the chocolate before it is put into moulds, packaged and distributed.