The Journey from Bean to Bar

When it comes to enjoying the fruits of the earth, we have to consider ourselves lucky; we can enjoy Bolivian quinoa, Asian pears, South African rooibos tea, and Finnish Lingonberry jam by visiting a local gourmet food store.  Still, no matter how readily available rare items have become, it is still fun to consider just how far they have traveled in order to end up on your plate.

 

Let’s look at some of the challenges a single cocoa bean may face in its journey to your palette.

Growing--  Theobroma cacao trees grow within 15-20 degrees of the equator; it takes about 5 years of careful farming before the tree can reach its maximum yield.  Challenge: Cacao trees must be protected from direct sun, strong winds, and pests that attack the trees or try to eat the cacao fruit.

Harvesting-- Farmers cut the pods from the tree and extract the pulp-covered beans. Although there are peak yield seasons, it is always harvest season for cacao pods! Challenge:  Harvesting pods over 3 meters high can be difficult; some farmers keep cacao trees pruned and short.

Drying and Fermenting-- The pulp-covered beans are laid out, shaded by banana leaves, to ferment in open air for 3 to 7 days. The fermentation is what gives the beans that chocolatey taste when roasted!  Challenge: Keeping insects and other animals away from the drying beans.

Selling-- This is where the beans first leave the farm. They are sold from farmer to local agent, and are sometimes sold again in order to reach the docks at the port cities.  Challenge: The beans must meet inspection standards every time they change hands.

Shipping and Packaging-- The beans are placed in sacks and transferred via sea vessel to the port of destination, after which they are transferred to a warehouse for storage. Challenge:  Sometimes beans need to be dried again before shipment.



Roasting and Grinding-- Once the beans reach a processing plant, they are roasted and de-shelled, leaving behind cocoa nibs. The nibs are ground into what is called cocoa mass or cocoa paste, and then melted to form cocoa liquor.  Interesting fact: cocoa liquor contains no alcohol and is solid at room temperature.

Processing-- Cocoa liquor can be processed in several ways. Dutching consists of adding an alkali solution to the cocoa liquor, which reduces acidity, rendering a milder flavor and making it more chocolatey to the taste, (also known as Dutch processed cocoa).  Sometimes the cocoa liquor is fed into a presser which separates the cocoa butter and cocoa solids, (also called cocoa mass or cocoa cakes).  Then the cocoa solids are often ground and sold as powder.  Challenge: the chemistry of the processing must be just right in order to obtain the desired taste of the final chocolate product.

Making chocolate-- Conching is the process in which the cocoa liquor is slowly heated and mixed with cocoa butter and sometimes sugar and milk. This process adds smoothness to the chocolate, and depending on desired smoothness can last from 3 hours to 3 days.  Challenge: Mastery of this process takes many years of experience; it was Rudolf Lindt that started conching to refine chocolate in 1879.


So let’s recap on this journey: if you eat a chocolate that was grown in Ghana, processed in Switzerland, and then sold to you in Chicago, your chocolate has traveled 7,500 miles so that you can enjoy a mouth-watering bite.