Chocolate, in our humble opinion, is one of the great discoveries ever made. We’re very proud of our Australian hand-crafted chocolates that use as many natural and local ingredients as possible.
But did you know that the process of chocolate making is actually a fascinating one? Chocolate in its original form looks very different from the end product. In this article, we’d like to give you an insider’s look into the world of chocolate.
Chocolate was first discovered by the Olmecs, an ancient civilization from what is now known as Mexico. Looking at a cacao pod, it’s hard to imagine how these first chocolatiers figured out how to harvest it and turn it into the chocolate drink they used in rituals and as medicine.
Since its discovery, chocolate has seen a lot of changes and refinement, but some of the basics of harvesting cacao remain. Our chocolate has also come a long way since we started making it in 1932, but one thing that hasn’t changed is its quality and the love that goes into making it.
So, we thought we’d take you on the journey from “bean to bar” of Davies Chocolate.
How chocolate is made in a nutshell.
The steps involved in making chocolate are:
- Growing and harvesting the cocoa pods
- Scooping out and fermenting the beans
- Drying out the beans in the sun
- Roasting the beans
- Winnowing (or cracking) the bean shell to get the inner bean out
- Grinding the beans
- Blending the cocoa liquor
- Tempering the chocolate
1. Growing and harvesting the cocoa pods
Cocoa comes from the Theobroma cacao tree. This tree grows in tropical climates within 15° of the equator. It can take 3-5 years for the tree to bear fruit (or pods). The pods are large and can be purple, yellowish, or orange. Each pod must be individually harvested, and workers use a curved knife to remove them from the trees. We work with sustainable plantations in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) and South America.
2. Scooping out and fermenting the beans
The pods are cracked open with a machete or on a rock, and the beans are scooped out. The beans (or seeds) are surrounded by a soft, white, mucilaginous pulp. Each pod yields about 20-50 beans. These beans are then covered and left to ferment for eight days. The fermentation process activates enzymes in the beans, and this develops their chocolatey flavour and reduces their bitterness.
3. Drying out the beans in the sun
The process of drying out the beans takes about 1-2 weeks. This is done so that the beans won’t rot. Usually, beans are laid out on a flat area and dried out in the sun, with workers turning them intermittently. Some larger plantations also use electric dryers. The bean will turn from a reddish colour to brown once dry.
4. Roasting the cocoa beans
Once the beans are dry, they are inspected, cleaned and roasted. Roasting them really brings out the richness of the chocolate flavour, much in the same way that coffee beans are roasted to bring out their flavour. Roasting also kills any bacteria present from fermentation and makes the bean easier to winnow (crack open) to separate the inner bean from the shell.
5. Winnowing (or cracking) the bean
This process is usually done with a machine that cracks open the bean shell to get the inner bean out. That bean is the chocolate gold.
6. Grinding the cocoa beans
The beans are then ground to make a paste known as chocolate liquor. Despite the name, there is no alcohol present. Chocolate liquor is a mass of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the fat of the bean. This cocoa liquor has 300+ chemical compounds and is responsible for the addictive, aphrodisiacal and euphoric properties of chocolate. It’s the reason we can’t say no to chocolate.
This cocoa liquor can be further separated into cocoa powder and cocoa butter. This is done by compressing it heavily to extract the butter. The butter doesn’t actually have a chocolatey flavour. Cocoa powder is often used for chocolate drinks because the butter has been extracted and it is, therefore, less fattening. Our chocolate arrives at the processing factory in Melbourne as cocoa liquor, cocoa powder and cocoa butter.
7. Blending
This is the second-last step of producing the chocolate that will then be used to make all the different treats we have in our shop. The cocoa liquor is blended with cocoa butter, sugar, milk powder, soy lecithin and vanilla in varying quantities to make the different types of chocolate.
At this point, it gets sent to the Davies Chocolates factory in Sydney.
Our factory in Sydney uses three types of chocolate:
- Dark – a blend of cocoa mass, sugar, milk fat, soy lecithin and vanilla
- Milk – a blend of cocoa mass, sugar, milk fat, soy lecithin, vanilla and salt
- White – a blend of cocoa butter, sugar, milk powder and vanilla
8. Tempering
If you’ve watched any cooking show, you’ll likely have heard of tempering. This is necessary as a preliminary to all other chocolate processes. It makes the chocolate smooth, shiny and has a satisfying snap when you break it. The basic process is to heat the chocolate, cool it slightly, agitate it, and heat it slightly again. The result is beautiful, smooth, shiny chocolate.
Once the chocolate is tempered, we hand-craft it here in Sydney into the many shapes, sizes and flavours of our chocolate selection using only Australian ingredients. We ensure that every chocolate in every box is gluten and palm oil-free and made to the highest quality.
We have 40 different chocolate treats in our selection. We use local suppliers for almost all ingredients we need to create the flavours, texture and colours in our chocolates. And we’ve been making high-quality chocolates since 1932, so it’s fair to say we are pretty knowledgeable about all things chocolate.
So, that’s the process of Davies chocolate from bean to flavoursome deliciousness. If you would like to browse our selection of delicious hand-crafted Australian-made chocolates, head to our shop now.