Bean To Bar Chocolate

Behind the scenes look at what goes into crafting each one of your favorite bakes

The Cocoa Fruit

Cacao flowers grow into pods when tiny insects called midges pollinate them. Tiny flowers , up to 100 000 in number per season, grow on the branches and trunk of the tree throughout the year. These grow into small, green pods called cherelles, but take 5–6 months to develop into mature pods  between 100mm and 350 mm long. They weigh from 200 g to more than1 kg and exist in a wide variety of shapes and colours depending on the variety.

What’s inside the Cocoa Pod ?

Each pod contains beans, the seeds of the fruit that are shaped like a flat almond, surrounded by a sweet pulp. The pods are carefully removed from the tree and then opened. Each pod contains about 30-45 cacao beans and the farmers scoop them out of the pod. The raw bean itself doesn’t taste much like chocolate; that taste will be developed in the processing.

Fermentation Process

The beans and pulp are fermented for three to seven days. It is a process in which the bean is killed, so that it cannot be spoiled by germination. The sweet pulp attracts microorganisms that launch fermentation. Correct fermentation is the key to produce a good flavour in the final chocolate For high-quality chocolate, farmers rigorously monitor the process to ensure that the beans ferment consistently. Some farmers ferment them under banana or plantain leaves or in plastic tents, while others ferment them in wood or plastic boxes. Fermenting the beans removes tannins and makes them less astringent. This stage is crucial for creating the best flavors possible. Unfermented beans will not have that signature chocolate taste and will be bitter, and improperly fermented beans will have off-tastes.
A look inside the beans

Drying Process

In most cases, the wet beans are dried in the sun in a single layer in a drying shed. Failure to do this will result in moulds growing on the beans. These give the chocolate a strong, nasty flavour and so cannot be used. After the beans are dried to approximately 7 percent moisture content, they are stable and ready to be made into chocolate! Many of the tastes we find in chocolate develop during the fermenting and drying stages. fter this four-step process, the beans are often shipped to other countries for bean-to-bar companies to make into chocolate in their factories or at home.This is how the process begins.

Roasting

Chocolate makers use everything from conventional kitchen ovens to coffee roasters to roast the beans, and the temperature and time can vary. But the roaster, temperature, and timing hugely affect how the chocolate tastes, so this is one of the most important steps in the chocolate-making process. Almost all chocolate makers roast the beans. Chocolate makers may conduct tests at different temperatures until the beans have reached a consistent flavour profile. The roasting gets rid of any moisture that would have developed during transit or storage and helps develop the flavor. It also kills microorganisms such as bacteria on the outer shell, effectively sterilizing the beans.

Winnowing

After roasting, each cocoa bean needs to be cracked to reveal the cocoa nibs inside. The beans are also checked for any unwanted elements. The cracked beans are then sorted into nibs and inedible husks in a process called winnowing.

Grinding & Conching

The cocoa nibs are then ground into tiny particles in a machine called a melangeur for upto a day which would then result in chocolate liqueur.
The cocoa nibs are then ground into tiny particles in a machine called a melangeur for upto a day which would then result in chocolate liqueur.Then it moves into the next process called conching where it is ground again with sugar and other ingredients, often in machines called roll refiners or ball mills or the same melangeur, to make sure all the particles of cocoa, sugar, and anything else are the same tiny micron size. It goes through this process for upto 48 -72 hours where the chocolate releases volatile acids, making it even smoother and closer to the chocolate we’re used to eating.

Tempering & Molding

The final chocolate must be then heated and cooled to the correct temperature to have a nice snap and sheen. Depending on the type of chocolate ,the temperatures would vary. It is then poured into the desired shape in the form of a mold and cooled till it sets. After this process, the chocolate is shelf stable and ready to be eaten!

That’s how literally we take the words “MADE FROM SCRATCH”. The resulting chocolate is Sugarfree (Maltitol free), Vegan , Keto , Gluten free and ready to go into your favorite bakes. This makes us the only bakery who makes their own chocolates to be used in desserts , allowing us to make desserts which are not only unique but with complete control over what actually goes inside everything we make.