From cocoa bean to bar: how chocolate is made
Fermentation, roasting, grinding — the journey every craft chocolate bar goes through.
Cocoa beans on their own are bitter and hardly smell of chocolate. The familiar aroma appears after fermentation and drying, which happen where the cocoa trees grow.
In the workshop the beans are roasted, shelled and broken into cocoa nibs. These are then ground for a long time until the mass turns silky.
The length of each stage shapes the bar's character: fruity, nutty or honeyed notes. That is why two bars with the same cocoa percentage can taste completely different.
