How Beans Become Your Favorite Chocolate Bar
Chocolate seeds or beans are harvested by hand. After they are taken from the bean pods, they are laid out to dry and allowed to go through the fermentation process.
As the temperature rises to 120 degrees, the sugars in the pulp are broken down by enzymes into vinegar and other acids. The beans are further dried and roasted, followed by the removal of the dry husks to reveal the cocoa nibs. The nibs are crushed into a paste called cocoa liquor which is completely non-alcoholic. The liquor paste is about ½ cocoa butter and ½ cocoa solids. Cocoa butter is sold to the food industry as well as other industries; the bulk of the cocoa going to the food industry. The cosmetic industry only uses about 1% of the total harvest of cocoa butter for to its excellent moisturizing properties.







