From cacao- bean to chocolate

After the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus the Spaniard Hernando Cortex brought cacao as raw- material to Europe.

Cacao Trees

Cacao trees only grow in a tropical humid clima .Rawcacao is the term for fermented and dried cacao beans ( seeds of the cacao tree).

Roasting of the cacao

After the purification , the rawcacao is heated kiln-dried or roasted) in special facilities. The proceeding of roasting reduces the proportion of water, looses the cacao shell from the cacao seed and serves for the development of the aroma.

In an installation for bursting and husking the roasted cacao beans are roughly cut into small pieces and separated through air stream and sieves from the shells.

Grinding of the cacaosmash

The cacaosmash is grinded and rolled in special mills and drums so it gets very fine. Frictional heat and the release of cacaobutter out of the cells let develop the liquid cacao paste.

Manufacture of Cacaopressbutter

The cacaopaste goes into presspots of a cacaobutterpress.Under high pressure the cacaobutter is pressed out of the cacaopaste. The remaining solid particels = the cacaopresscake has a leftover of cacaobutter of 10-12 % esp.22-24%. By further treatment resp.smashing and grinding out of the presscake the intensive or low removed of oil cacao power is formed. The cacaopressbutter, a very valued and steady vegetable fat, is an essential ingredient of the chocolate.

Mixing of chocolate- ingredients

In a machine for kneading the ingredients of the chocolate are automatically weighed and thoroughly blended.

Superfinish

In high capacity steel rolling mills the blend will be rolled extremly fine , that the chocolate gets at least a good glaze and structure.

Conchiering

The chocolate paste comes into so called "Conchen" - these are big heatable nad cooling containers with slow or quick moving strong stirring mixers and wipers. The chocolate in the first ( crumbly) phase forms a large surface and warms up by friction, thus with the water disagreeable aromas can disappear. By heating up the consistency of the chocolate slowly goes into a liquid phase in which the stirring whisks can work with high speed. Before ending the conchiering process, which takes at least 16 hours , additional cacaobutter is intaken. to adjust the chocolate to the desired fat- and cacaobuttercontent. Conchiering is a a very essential process in the manufacturing of chocolate for it major influences the characteristical properties of the chocolate like taste, glaze, watercontent and fluidity attitude.

Tempering, filling and packing of the chocolate

The ready liquid chocolate then is dispatched through a tempering automat in which it is cooled down shortly before solidification point ( bitterchocolate= +30-32° C, milkchocolate = +28-29° C) and immediatelly after this slowly warmed up for some degrees. This temperature balance is the determining factor for the cracking consistence and the glaze of the chocolate. A dosing automat pumps the liquid chocolate -paste accurat in weight into metal or plastic forms , which come finally into large refrigerating plants. The solid bloc of chocolate then will be packed into sacs and cartons.