Chocolate comes from cocoa beans that grow on trees! 🌳 First, the beans are picked and dried. Then, they are roasted (like popcorn!) and crushed into a paste. This paste is mixed with sugar and milk to make yummy chocolate! 🍫
Finally, the chocolate is poured into molds to make bars or candies. Yum!
Chocolate starts with cocoa beans, which grow inside colorful pods on cocoa trees. 🌱 Workers harvest the pods, scoop out the beans, and let them ferment (like making yogurt!) for a few days. This gives chocolate its flavor!
Next, the beans are dried, roasted, and cracked to remove their shells. The remaining "nibs" are ground into a thick paste called chocolate liquor (but it’s not alcoholic!). This paste is mixed with sugar, milk powder, and sometimes vanilla to make sweet chocolate. 🍫
Finally, machines stir and cool the chocolate to make it smooth and shiny before shaping it into bars or candies.
Chocolate production is a fascinating journey that combines agriculture, chemistry, and craftsmanship. Here’s how it works:
1. Harvesting: Cocoa trees grow in tropical regions. Workers cut ripe pods (which hold 20–50 beans each) and extract the beans and pulp.
2. Fermentation: The beans are piled in boxes for 5–7 days. Microorganisms break down the pulp, and chemical reactions develop the chocolatey flavor.
3. Drying & Roasting: Beans are dried in the sun, then roasted at high temperatures to deepen the flavor.
4. Grinding & Conching: Roasted beans are cracked to separate nibs from shells. Nibs are ground into a paste (cocoa mass), which is pressed to extract cocoa butter. The mass is mixed with sugar, milk powder, and cocoa butter in a conche machine, which kneads the mixture for hours (or days!) to create a smooth texture.
5. Tempering & Molding: The liquid chocolate is carefully cooled and reheated to form stable crystals, giving it a shiny finish and crisp snap. It’s then poured into molds and cooled.