Chocolate is one of the old-time greats. People have been eating chocolate as early as 1750 BC. In fact, ancient humans were so fond of chocolate that they used it as medicine and even in religious rituals.
Today, this delicacy is available everywhere on the planet, with companies shipping out as much as 3 million tons of it every year. So how did they do it? Our journey starts all the way in Africa, previously home to the Mayans, who were the first people to discover the secrets of the cacao tree.
But it had less to do with their detective abilities than their geographical location. You see, the cacao tree needs incredibly specific conditions to grow, like a temperature of 25° and a humidity of 80% or above—conditions only met by certain locations along the Equator of the Earth, one of which the Mayans occupied. To this day, a majority of the world's cacao supply comes from the region, and the way cacao is harvested hasn't changed much since the age of the Mayans either.
This is mainly because cacao trees are incredibly delicate, and the cacao pods don't just simply fall to the ground. For this reason, they're cut off manually, one by one. This can be grueling work, and it doesn't get much easier later on because the beans need to be taken out manually as well.
This means each worker has to sit down and channel their inner Fruit Ninja to secure the beans, which at this point are covered by a sticky white pulp. If you think that doesn't look anything like chocolate, you'd be right; the cacao beans have yet to go through a crucial process to change their look and smell. The beans and the pulp are placed in special fermentation boxes covered by banana leaves, where they're kept for 3 to 9 days.
This process is important because it not only kills bacteria and gets rid of the white pulp but also gives the beans their signature brown color and taste. The fermented beans are ready to be placed in the sun for drying. This is mainly done to remove moisture and to inhibit the growth of fungi, bacteria, or mold, but it has the added benefit of developing the flavor of the beans.
Once this is done, the beans are ready for their journey to factories across the world. After they arrive at the factory, the beans are inspected by a team of quality assurance officers. This process consists of cutting the beans to ensure they're the right color and have the required consistency.
Once they're approved by the QA team, the beans are off to a specialized processing plant where they're roasted first on screens and then in revolving cylinders, through which heated air is blown over a period of 30 minutes to 2 hours. The moisture in the beans is reduced from about 7% to about 1%. The roasting process also triggers a browning reaction in which more than 300 different chemicals present in the cacao beans interact.
The beans now begin to develop the rich flavor we associate with chocolate. Now that the roasting is done, the cacao meat, or nib, should separate easily from the shell, which is called the husk. Industries do this in a machine called the winnower.
Inside the machine, vibrating shelves separate the nibs from the husks, which are then blown away by a fan, leaving the precious nibs ready for the next stage. The nibs are then ground into a deep dark brown paste, and this is where things begin to really kick into gear. The process changes the composition of the chocolate so that it comes out of the grinder looking like a really thick syrup.
This syrup actually smells a lot like alcohol and is called chocolate liquor. If the purpose is to make cocoa powder, the liquor may be treated with an alkaline solution. What this does is darken the color of the cocoa, rendering its flavor milder while also reducing the tendency of the nibs to form clumps.
The alkaline chocolate liquor is now defatted as large amounts of fat, or cocoa butter, are removed from it. The resulting solid material, commonly called pressed cake, is then broken, chopped, or crushed before being sifted to produce cocoa powder. You remember the removed cocoa butter from before?
Well, it's not a throwaway item but a crucial component in creating chocolate candy. It's mixed with chocolate liquor in a process called conching, which gives the chocolate its smooth texture and consistency. Other items like powdered milk, sugar, or vanilla may be added, depending on the type of chocolate that's being made.
The practice was actually coined by the Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter in 1875 when he invented milk chocolate by mixing powdered milk developed by Henry Nestlé with the liquor. Now that the texture is there, it's time to give the chocolate its patented snap. This is done through a process called tempering, in which the chocolate is slowly heated and cooled.
What this does is alter the crystals within, giving the chocolate a uniform composition throughout. Once the chocolate is tempered, it's ready to be poured into molds to make bars of chocolate. A final check is done to ensure there are no air bubbles and the chocolate is pristine.
It's then wrapped in foil or paper packaging to keep it fresh. These chocolate bars may look small, but the industry makes up to $50 billion a year. If you make that many chocolate bars, you probably need a lot of aluminum foil to wrap them.
Click here to see the amazing way aluminum foil is made.
