Friday, April 3, 2009

How Do Large Companies Make Chocolate

By Colin Joss

Any idea how chocolate is manufactured by large companies? What they require is capital, all the good quality equipment and obviously the ingredients.

As we all know that the there are not many places on the earth where the cocoa tree is being found these companies have to move as far as to South America, the ivory coast and if possible even to deep jungles of Ghana because deep in these jungles is what they want.. "The Cocoa tree"

The Cacao trees grow a fruit that has white pulp and seeds varying from 20-40. The pulp is trashed while the seeds are the cocoa beans.

After the beans are taken out, they are treated in the process of fermentation. This process makes the shells hard, develop the flavor of cocoa and the beans get darken up which over all takes a week. Once its all done they are delivered to the chocolate factory for further manufacturing.

Since companies that import cocoa beans order these in vast quantities, it is more practical to transport these back to the US by ship than by air. Once they reach the dock, it is then transferred to rail road cars on the way to the factory so they can be cleaned and stored.

Chocolates as we know taste different and this is depends on the country of origin of the beans. The first step in converting these into chocolate is to roast these in large revolving roasters at high temperatures.

Then the shell of the cocoa is removed by a specially designed hulling machine. The content inside the bean in called NIB. This is that part of the bean which is required for the making of chocolate.

The next step is to turn the nibs into its liquid form. This process is known as milling and to give you that added taste, other ingredients are added and these include chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and milk.

What really is chocolate liquor? It is a simple combination of milk and sugar. The end product of this coarse brown powder called a chocolate crumb. As for the milk, it is taken from farms where the milk is tested, pasturized, Uht Treated and then this milk is being mixed together with sugar to form a thick liquid material.

Afetr this is done, cocoa butter is thrown into it to bring out the taste and the rich creamy look of the chocolate. After this another machine which is known as steel rollers grind and refine the mixture to make it much more smoother

After all that, the mixture becomes a thick liquid often referred to as chocolate paste. Since there still may be some gritty particles, it is placed inside another machine called the conche for 24 to 72 hours.

When the paste has been smoothened, this is the time that the liquid chocolate is poured into the mold. The process is very fast inside a factory as some produce about a thousand of these a minute that is something that can never be done manually. If the chocolate comes in many varies, this is also the time that almonds and peanuts are added.

In the machine, air bubbles are removed so the chocolate is able to settle evenly. They then make their way through a cooling tunnel so the liquid chocolate is turned into a solid candy bar.

Lastly, it is wrapped up, put in boxes and delivered to the stores. They are available to be sold now.

Customers then buy these off the shelf and then enjoy its yummy taste without ever thinking for one moment how do large companies make chocolate.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment