Chemistry of Chocolate Making

The delicious chocolate we enjoy consuming goes through a strategic process to become what we consume. While on a vacation in Costa Rica I was able to tour a Cocoa Farm. The tour was my favorite visit of the massive biodiverse forests of Costa Rica. As I went through the tour I saw the many concepts synonymous with science techniques utilized in Chemistry.

The process begins with the Cocoa tree. The tree can grow the fruit on any part of the tree and it is tedious work to hatchet off the spoiled fruit so that the tree may solely produce healthy fruit. The Cocoa tree fruit is ripe when it has turned a yellow color. The fruits are harvested year round, having high and low seasons.

The Cocoa fruit had a slimy covering over a bitter seed. The seed was purple when bit into and crunchy, like most nuts. The Cocoa fruit is fermented for 1-7 days depending on the choice of the farmer. The fermentation time provided very different tastes between the chocolate. The cocoa seeds are then dried to completion, if not then mold may be produced that is not good for the final product.

The chcolate began to really tast like choclate after the dryng process. The coca is then roasted for 45 minutes and placed into a processeor that grind the cocoa seeds. Now, on the outside of the seed is a thin shell. So a difussion vacuum like tool is used to removed the heavier shells, and let the smaller cocoa powder separate.

The cocoa powder is then placed into a large bowl and differentent additives are added to the cocoa. Sugar, milk, oranges, spices, seeds, and nuts are examples of some of the additives to the chocolate. For the chocolate to get it’s creamy texture, it is mixed in a large mixing bowl for three days. The cocoa seeds have about 40% oil in them and with enough friction over time, they get into a rich creamy texture.

The coca is then cooled through an extensive cooling process. Moving the liquid chocolate from a bowl over warm water, to over a bowl with ice cold water. Just until the chcolate is at the right temperature to be shaped and frozen just before being sold.

The chcolate tasting offered many options. And this was the process of that particular farm in Costa Rica. In the future I hope to attend other cocoa farms and see any differences in the science and technique of cocoa making.