Chocolate lovers, this article is for you! If you’ve ever wondered how your favorite food is made you’ll want to continue reading. There’s actually a science behind the process.
From Beans to Bars
Chocolate starts off as a cacao bean and to get great tasting chocolate, it’s all about getting the right cacao bean. Like wine, cacao beans are fermented after they are harvested. After the beans arrives at the chocolate factory from farmers around the world, they are cleaned and roasted. The shell is removed from the beans after they are roasted in a process called winnowing, which leaves just the nibs.
From Nibs to Chocolate
The nibs are then ground to create chocolate liquor (which has no actual alcohol) and sugar is added to the melted liquor. The chocolate is then aerated which can last a few hours to a few days. After the chocolate is aerated, the temperature is raised and lowered before it ends up in molds and is cooled. It’s then removed from the mold and wrapped, making it ready to eat!
Taste Test
During this long process, chocolate makers frequently taste the flavor and quality of the chocolate. Although this sounds like any chocolate lover’s dream, it requires lots of knowledge about flavor and texture.
