البذر ، وتخميره ، وتجفيفه .. الشُّكَلاتة والكًاكَاو .. كتاب في سبيل موسوعة علمية

Seeds, fermentation, and drying... chocolate and cocoa

Seeding, fermenting, and drying

They spread the seeds, which is the whole point, over large areas of land, and make a bed of tree leaves underneath it, and a cover over it. Then a fermentation process begins in the seeds that lasts between two to nine days, and in this process, chemical changes occur in the inside of the seed that give it the desired taste and flavor. It also separates the seed pulp from its shell. The color of the seeds changes from white to brown, the color of coffee. After that, the seeds are spread again to dry in the sun, packed in pallets, and transported to warehouses until they are sent to where cocoa (powder) and chocolate are made from them.

Here agriculture ends and industry begins. There are often wide seas between cocoa farms and factories.

(The cocoa fruit has the shape of a cucumber. Its length is between 8 and 15 inches, and its diameter is between 3 and 4 inches. It matures in about 4 months, and during that time its color changes more than once. Each fruit contains between 20 and 50 seeds. The seed is white in color. It is yellow, and its shape is almond-shaped. The seeds are contained in the heart of the fruit, a liquid that, when exposed to the air, quickly solidifies and becomes a white pulp. In the picture, the fruit is cut open by a man.
lengthwise with knife)

- roasting seeds;

The industry begins with roasting the seeds.
It is carried out in drum-shaped, rotating roasters. Roasting is a precise process, like roasting coffee, or more precise, and its foundation is experience.

During roasting, the seed skin softens and becomes brittle and becomes easily removed with a stream of air. The pulp of the seed is separated and is heavier, and both cocoa and chocolate are made from it.

- Cocoa industry;

We mean the powder that is sold in cans and the usual drink is made from it by boiling it in water and then sweetening it.

Therefore, the seed pulp is crushed between cylinders
Heavy steel. This crushing, as it grinds the pulp, dissolves the fat in the pulp, which is the well-known cocoa fat, due to the heat that accompanies the crushing and the resulting cools so that it is in a state between solid and liquid.

This is pressed through juicers that extract a lot of its fat, and what remains of it is then poured into molds to form discs, and from these discs cocoa or chocolate is made.

To make cocoa, these discs are ground, then sieved, re-grinded and sieved until fine. Dry milk and sugar are added to this flour, then they are packed in paper bags that are placed in tin cans.

This is the cocoa that we buy from the markets and make the well-known drink from it.

This flour contains only 18 percent of its weight in fat, because we do not forget that in the juicers we extracted most of the fat from the seeds, and obtained the substance known commercially as cacao butter.

(Cocoa seeds are sprinkled with water, and the workers rotate over them, crushing them with their feet to remove any dried pulp from the seeds. This is also a method by which the seeds are polished.)