From Cocoa Beans to Sweet GoldFrom Cocoa Beans to Sweet GoldFrom Cocoa Beans to Sweet GoldFrom Cocoa Beans to Sweet Gold 8.10.20138.10.20138.10.20138.10.2013

Every European person consumes over 9 kilos of chocolate ever year but did you

know where chocolate is grown or how it’s made?

In this article you’re going to find out!

Making chocolate starts with the cocoa bean.

The cocoa fruit which grow on trees must be harvested

by hand because the tree grows fruit, flowers and buds at

the same time. Those flowers is pollinated by a fly called “Midge” and the fruit

grows directly at the stem of the tree. The fruits vary in

color from yellow to orange and red when they’re ripe.

After they’re harvested they are broke open and the

seeds which are the actual cocoa beans are peeled out.

Every cocoa fruit contains approximately 40 seeds,

the number of seeds varies between 30 and 50.

When the beans are finally peeled out and cleaned up they are left in a box for a

few weeks to ferment. Without the fermentation the raw seeds taste like sour

apples.

After the fermentation is done the beans need to be put in a box for another few

weeks to dry in the sunlight.

Now the cocoa beans get roasted.

In ancient times it was done in a little pan

over an open fire but now in the industrial

age it’s done in huge automatic roasting

machines.

Yet they are not made into chocolate. They

still need to be grinded into powder and

after that they are ready to be sold to a chocolate company to be made into the

delicious brown bars that children as well as adults love so much.

Here you can see fresh

cocoa beans on the left and

roasted ones on the right.