How we Make Chocolate

At Chocomize we take great strides to ensure we create chocolate of the highest quality.  There are two main phases we need to make chocolate the Chocomize way.  These phases are characterized as cocoa processing and chocolate manufacturing.

Cocoa Processing

1) CleaningProcess

For our homemade chocolate to be perfect, the beans must be checked and cleaned to rid them of any unwanted substances that may have fallen into the cocoa bean sacks. It’s vital we make chocolate that is cleaned to our high standards.  Once cleaned, it’s time to remove the shell from beans.  Inside the removed cocoa bean shell we find the cocoa nib.

2) Roasting, Shelling, and Grinding

Roasting the nib directly is important for flavoring.  By separating the nib from the shell prior to roasting, we make chocolate that does not mix the cocoa butter and the cocoa shell.   Once the nibs are roasted it’s time to create the cocoa liquor.  To create chocolate liquor, we ground up the cocoa nibs. The heat generated by the grinding process causes the cocoa butter in the nib to melt into a liquid.  The cocoa liquor in Chocomize’s homemade chocolate making process needs to be finely ground in order to ensure the best quality products.   Once finely ground, the liquor is fed into presses that make chocolate butter from the liquor.  The extracted butter can be kept either in liquid or a molded form.

Chocolate Manufacturing

Now, to make chocolate that is dark our white, our cocoa liquor needs to be mixed with cocoa butter and sugar.  For our milk chocolate, a fresh touch of milk needs to be added.

After the mixing process, the blend must be refined further to reduce the size of the milk and sugar particles in the chocolate. The mixture is place into conches.  Conches are large agitators that stir the mixture under heat.   We conch our chocolate for extended periods of time to ensure the desired smoothness level is achieved.  View the process for yourself by clicking on the following: (make chocolate.)