1. From Cocoa Beans to Sweet Gold
8.10.2013
Every European person consumes over 9 kilos of chocolate ever year but did you
know where chocolate is grown or how it’s made?
In this article you’re going to find out!
Making chocolate starts with the cocoa bean.
The cocoa fruit which grow on trees must be harvested
by hand because the tree grows fruit, flowers and buds at
the same time. Those flowers is pollinated by a fly called “Midge” and the fruit
grows directly at the stem of the tree. The fruits vary in
color from yellow to orange and red when they’re ripe.
After they’re harvested they are broke open and the
seeds which are the actual cocoa beans are peeled out.
Every cocoa fruit contains approximately 40 seeds,
the number of seeds varies between 30 and 50.
When the beans are finally peeled out and cleaned up they are left in a box for a
few weeks to ferment. Without the fermentation the raw seeds taste like sour
apples.
After the fermentation is done the beans need to be put in a box for another few
weeks to dry in the sunlight.
Now the cocoa beans get roasted.
In ancient times it was done in a little pan
over an open fire but now in the industrial
age it’s done in huge automatic roasting
machines.
Yet they are not made into chocolate. They
still need to be grinded into powder and
after that they are ready to be sold to a chocolate company to be made into the
delicious brown bars that children as well as adults love so much.
Here you can see fresh
cocoa beans on the left and
roasted ones on the right.