The manufacture of this delicacy begins when the cocoa beans are broken to remove the seeds, the main base of chocolate. At this point, they are still bitter, but the real sweetening happens in industries. There, the raw material is decomposed, receives sugar and milk, is stirred, undergoes several temperature changes and, in the end, is molded to take the shape of the bars sold in supermarkets.
Appreciated all over the world, chocolate is an old acquaintance of mankind – it is believed that the Aztecs were the first chocoholics in history. In the 16th century, they already collected cocoa beans to make xocoatl, an aphrodisiac drink that could only be drunk by emperors. “Unlike the chocolates of today, the Aztec drink had a bitter and peppery taste, as it was prepared with wine or mashed corn and pepper,” says industrialist Getúlio Ursulino Neto, president of the Brazilian Association of the Chocolate Industry (Abicab).
In 1528, Spanish colonists took the novelty to Europe, sweetening the mixture with cinnamon and vanilla and serving the drink hot. Around 1700, upon arriving in France and England, the invention gained milk and spread throughout the world. Decades later, in 1765, chocolate bars began to be manufactured in the United States.
In Brazil, cocoa cultivation began in the 19th century, in the region of Ilhéus, in the south of Bahia. Today, the country consumes around 310,000 tons of chocolate per year, around 1.8 kilograms per inhabitant. In addition to being tasty, chocolate is an excellent source of energy, mineral salts, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium. The drama is that, despite so much benefit, excess brings some undesirable love handles. “You shouldn’t consume more than 100 grams of chocolate a day, as the product is very high in calories. A simple tablet contains, on average, 540 calories, around 20% of an adult man’s daily requirement,” says nutritionist Elizabeth Torres, from the University of São Paulo (USP).
– (Fernando Leal and Shirley Paradizo/)
Yummy under construction
Before becoming sweet, cocoa beans receive sugar and milk in a complex industrial process
1. The chocolate production process still begins on the cocoa farms with the removal of almonds, the seeds of the fruits that serve as raw material for the candy. Each cocoa contains between 20 and 50 seeds, with a high fat and water content. To eliminate part of the liquid, they are dried in the sun for eight days.
two. After drying, the almonds are bagged and taken to the industries. At the factory, the first stage of production is called roasting, a heating process that eliminates moisture once and for all and gives rise to the peculiar aroma of cocoa. Then, the seeds are cooled and sent to the crusher, which removes the shell from the almond.
3. When they are already peeled, the almonds are ground, a stage in which the seeds are chopped into tiny pieces. As the fruits have a fat content of more than 50%, the product resulting from grinding is not a powder, but a pasty and fragrant mass. This is the basic ingredient for different types of chocolate.
4. Now, the cocoa mass passes through a pressing machine, which separates the ingredient into two products. The first is cocoa butter, which will be reintroduced in the next step. The second is the so-called cocoa pie, a kind of “cake” that crumbles easily. Part of it is dissolved and mixed with sugar to make powdered chocolate. Another portion is cooled and broken into tablets, which will be used in chocolate making.
5. In the next phase, known as malaxação, the differentiation between the types of candy begins. In the production of dark chocolate, the cake and cocoa butter receive sugar and milk, forming the traditional chocolate mass. Half bitter chocolate takes all these ingredients, except the milk. The white one is made only with cocoa butter, sugar and milk.
6. In any type of chocolate, the resulting mass passes through refining cylinders, where the sugar crystals in the mixture are crushed and broken into microscopic particles. This improves the texture of the candy, making it softer and more enjoyable to eat. It is this process that determines the “fineness” of the most coveted chocolate brands.
7. After refining, devices known as stirrers keep the mass moving, removing acidity and moisture from the candy. At another time, the chocolate undergoes several temperature changes to crystallize the cocoa butter and leave the paste in the ideal consistency to be molded.
8. In the last step, molds are molded so that the chocolate gains the desired appearance. In the case of crunchy bars, a filling of chestnuts, almonds or rice flakes is placed before filling the moulds. Finally, the chocolates are cooled until solid and ready for automatic packaging.