| CHOCOLATE MIXERS |
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Cocoa Pre-Processing
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Coco Bean Processing |
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Choco Mix Mill |
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Cocoa Melangeur |
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| Conche
Mixer |
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| Chocolate
Refiner |
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| Mixer |
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Process Description:
Flow Chart and Details
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| Cocoa Process |
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| Chocolate liquor is
mixed with the butter in varying quantities to make
different types of chocolate . The basic blends
of ingredients, in order of highest quantity of
cocoa liquor first, are as follows. |
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- Plain dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa
butter, cocoa liquor, and (sometimes) vanilla
- Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter,
cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
- White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter,
milk or milk powder, and vanilla
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| Usually, an emulsifying
agent such as soya, lecithin is added, though a
few manufacturers prefer to exclude this ingredient
for purity reasons and to remain GMO-free (soya
is a heavily genetically modified crop), sometimes
at the cost of a perfectly smooth texture. Some
manufacturers are now using PGPR, an artificia emulsifier
derived from castor oil that allows them to reduce
the amount of cocoa butter while maintaining the
same mouthfeel.
The texture is also heavy influenced
by processing, specifically conching. The more
expensive chocolates tend to be processed longer
and thus have a smoother texture and "feel"
on the tongue, regardless of whether emulsifying
agents are added.
Different manufacturers develop
their own "signature" blends based on
the above formulas but varying proportions of
the different constituents are used.
The finest plain dark chocolate
couvertures contain at least 70% cocoa (solids
+ butter), whereas milk chocolate usually contains
up to 50%. High-quality white chocolate couvertures
contain only about 33% cocoa. Inferior and mass-produced
chocolate contains much less cocoa (as low as
7% in many cases) and fats other than cocoa butter.
Some chocolate makers opine that these "brand
name" milk chocolate products can not be
classed as couverture, or even as chocolate, because
of the low or virtually non-existent cocoa content.
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