chocolate production techniques

Chocolate production begins with harvesting cacao pods, which contain cacao beans. The beans are fermented and dried to develop flavor. They are then roasted to enhance taste, and husked to remove shells, leaving cacao nibs. The nibs are ground into a paste called chocolate liquor, which can be separated into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. These ingredients are blended with sugar, milk (for milk chocolate), and sometimes additional fats. The mixture is refined through grinding, conched (heated and stirred) to develop smoothness, then tempered—carefully cooling and heating to stabilize the chocolate. Finally, it’s shaped into molds, cooled, and packaged for consumption.