Everything about chocolate

What is chocolate or chocolate couverture?

Chocolate or chocolate couverture is a typical emulsion, its non-fatty components are scattered in the continuous phase of fat. the cocoa solids and sugar are dispersed in cocoa butter. Chocolate is subjected to aroma, taste, color and texture changes when handled.

Did you know that the cocoa has to suffer several changes to become a chocolate?

First you have to know that cocoa is a tropical fruit and where it grows they have to harvest it by hand.

The fruits are gathered and their seeds also extracted manually. There are from 20 to 50 seeds inside each fruit, covered in a white and mucilaginous pulp, rich in sugars. 

This pulp is responsible for the fermentation. Fermentation takes from 4 to 7 days. 

Then they are dried to eliminate any excess moisture. It takes anything from 14 hours to 7 days. 

  

After that the cocoa roasted. The beans' roasting time lasts 40/50 minutes. 

Then the beans are pressed and all the shells are removed.  

The manufacturing of the cocoa paste:

Once the beans have been roasted, the cocoa paste is prepared. This mass turns into a paste with a texture similar to that of chocolate as it is popularly known. 

Finally the elaboration of chocolate:

After all these ingredients have been combined the following steps are taken:

Mixing

Refining 

Conching 

Tempering

Packaging