How do they make Chocolate from Cocoa Beans?
The beans are fermented for about a week, dried in the sun and then shipped to the chocolate maker. The chocolate maker starts by roasting the beans to bring out the flavor. Different beans from different places have different qualities and flavors, so they are often sorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix. Once roasted and blended, the beans are ground, and the ground beans form a viscous liquid called chocolate liquor (the word liquor has nothing to do with alcohol – that’s just what it’s called). All seeds contain some amount of fat, and cocoa beans are no different. However cocoa beans are half fat, which is why the ground beans form a liquid. If you have ever ground up peanuts to make real peanut butter, that is similar – real peanut butter is a thick liquid. The difference between peanut oil and cocoa oil is that peanut oil is liquid at room temperature while cocoa oil is a solid up to about 90 degrees F. Chocolate liquor is pure, unsweetened chocolate. Eaten in this stat
