Bean-to-bar process

The bean-to-bar process is how chocolate is made starting from raw cacao beans. It involves harvesting ripe cacao pods, fermenting and drying the beans, then roasting them to develop flavor. The roasted beans are winnowed to remove shells, leaving cacao nibs, which are ground into a paste called liquor. This liquor can be mixed with sugar, and sometimes other ingredients, and then refined, conched (smoothened), cooled, and shaped into bars. This process allows chocolatiers to control quality and flavor, producing high-quality, craft chocolates directly from cacao beans.