Be nice to your chocolate; it's been through a lot!

So, we've already looked into the long gooey history of where chocolate came from, but now we need to investigate the how? What magical transformation happens to take chocolate from a shriveled old pod in the jungle to the decadent treat we all know and love? Our very own arts programming sales manager, Cassandra, investigates.

By this point, we all pretty much know that chocolate is made from cacao. The largest growers of the cacao tree are Nigeria, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and Brazil. Cacao beans are grown inside a pod, and take 5-6 months to develop. When they ripen, they turn from a greenish yellow to an orange or red. They are harvested twice a year. The pods are cut from the trees and placed on banana leaves in wooden boxes. They are left to ferment, and depending on the variety, this can take anywhere from 2-7 days. During this period, the beans darken, wrinkle, and loose their bitter taste. Afterwards the beans are sun dried for several days, then packed in burlap sacks and shipped to factories. The beans are then sorted and cleaned. The next stage is to roast the beans in large rotating drums at about 250-350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the type. At this point the outer shell is removed in a process called winnowing and the inner nib is crushed into a fine paste called chocolate liquor (sorry, no alcohol here). From here, the chocolate liquor is pressed, separating out most of the cocoa butter (the fatty part of the chocolate). The solids that are left are referred to as cocoa solids or cocoa powder. The cocoa powdered can be left natural or it can be dutched, a process that involves treating the powder with an alkali which causes it to react while baking differently than a natural powder would. At this point, there are countless ways of combining, shaping, molding, solidifying, kneading, conching, and refining the cocoa liquor and cocoa butter to get the desired effect. Chocolate comes in many shapes, sizes, flavors and forms and like anything good, it takes a lot of work to get it just right. Although this is a very brief summary of a long, complex process, I hopes it makes you stop and appreciate that chocolate bar you're eating a little bit more. It's had quite a journey!

-Cassandra

Here's a couple of fun youtube videos if you want some more information!

From Tree to Treat

A cute kid talks about how chocolate is made!