How do large companies make chocolate? For one, they need capital to be able to buy the equipment they need and also the ingredients.
Cocoa beans cant be harvested in a lot of places in United States. So these companies have to go places like the Ivory Coast, South America and Ghana.
These trees grow a melon like fruit that is harvested by hand and inside, there are 20 to 40 seeds which are the cocoa beans.
After the beans are taken out, they are treated in the process of fermentation. This process makes the shells hard, develop the flavor of cocoa and the beans get darken up which over all takes a week. Once its all done they are delivered to the chocolate factory for further manufacturing.
When companies import cocoa beans they have to import it in large quantities and this much large a quantity is not done by air it is usually done by ship. As soon as the ship gets to the dock the seeds are then transfered to the company or the munufacturing area through rail road cars so that they can be cleaned and stored at a point.
The chocolates taste different because of the cocoa that comes from different countries. The process of making chocolate is then started by roasting the cocoa at a very high temperature in revolving roasters.
Then the shell of the cocoa is removed by a specially designed hulling machine. The content inside the bean in called NIB. This is that part of the bean which is required for the making of chocolate.
The nibs are then turned into a liquid state through a process called milling. Then ingredients are added including cocoa butter, milk, sugar and chocolate liquor. These all are to give an additional taste to the chocolate.
Chocolate liquor is a combination of milk and sugar. The end product of this coarse brown powder called a chocolate crumb. As for milk, this is taken from the farm where it is tested, pasteurized and mixed with sugar until it turns into a thick, taffy like material.
Afetr this is done, cocoa butter is thrown into it to bring out the taste and the rich creamy look of the chocolate. After this another machine which is known as steel rollers grind and refine the mixture to make it much more smoother
After all that, the mixture becomes a thick liquid often referred to as chocolate paste. Since there still may be some gritty particles, it is placed inside another machine called the conche for 24 to 72 hours.
The liquid form of chocolate is poured into the mold after the paste smoothens up. Large companies do it very quickly and efficiently as they produce thousands of these in one minute. If any dry fruits or other ingredients are a part of the final product then this is the stage where they are added.
The air bubbles are then set free from the machine through a cooling tunnel so the chocolate is evenly settled and the chocolate paste is turned into the solid form.
Lastly, it is wrapped up, put in boxes and delivered to the stores. They are available to be sold now.
Customers then buy these off the shelf and then enjoy its yummy taste without ever thinking for one moment how do large companies make chocolate.