What is chocolate?

Chocolate is produced from the seed of the cacao tree.

Unfortunately for many home gardeners eager to have their own stash of chocolate, trees grow only in tropical regions: Central America, the Caribbean, Indonesia, and Africa.

Cacao production

Cacao production is labor-intensive. Trees require hand harvesting and machetes, as the pods can reach a size comparable to butternut squash and hold between 30 and 50 beans.

Cacao trees grown in the wild with shade can maintain production for nearly 100 years. Take that, biennials.

Cacao processing

The beans, about the size of almonds, are allowed to ferment for 3 to 7 days and then dried. This fermentation is essential — the raw seeds are very bitter.

After fermentation beans must be sorted, cleaned, and weighed before roasting.

After roasting, the beans enter a machine that cracks the seed coats and blows them away, leaving behind cacao nibs, which are 47% cocoa solids and 53% cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter (from cacao) is the main source of fat in chocolate. The cocoa solids are ground into cocoa powder, the same stuff that flavors your chocolate protein powder.

Cacao nibs left after bean cracking can be milled into a “nut butter”-like paste, called chocolate liquor (alcohol free), which can then be pressed.

The chocolate liquor on its own is dry and gritty. It can be combined with other ingredients like sugar, vanilla, and lecithin to make a more palatable product, and/or be broken down on machinery and kneaded for days to improve the texture. Careful heating and cooling will create a stable structure.