Although the cocoa tree and beans have been around for centuries, up until the mid 1800’s the only form of chocolate commercially available was drinking chocolate.  In the early 1800’s Italians had started the process of making block chocolate, but it was crumbly and coarse. In 1879 the Swiss Rodolphe Lindt started his unique water-wheel powered factory in the Kanton of  Bern.  Lindt knew that if the chocolate was constantly moved back and forth in a vessel, a process called conching, it would result in  smoother chocolate.  He also knew that by adding additional cocoa butter to the chocolate would further increase its smoothness and the ability to melt on the tongue.  Another Swiss, Daniel Peter was responsible for pioneering and perfecting milk chocolate in 1875.

Good chocolate starts from good cocoa beans.  The cocoa tree originated in South America, and by the 1800’s was planted all over the world, in countries on or as near to the equator as possible.  There are three basic varieties of the cocoa tree, the Criollo,  which is found naturally in Ecuador and Venezuala.  The Criollo is a delicate tree, susceptible to weather fluctuations, with yields lower than Forastero  the more common  variety. However the beans from the Criollo tree are finer in flavour, and reserved for the high-quality chocolates, only 10% of the entire world’s cocoa production are from Criollo trees.  The Forastero tree and it’s hybrids are commonly found in West Africa .  This tree has good resistance to weather fluctuations and is easier to harvest.  

The third variety is called Trinitario, which is the a hybrid of the two, and can have various characters of both parents. Often a Trinitario bean is spoken of as having a strong or weak Criollo influence.

TYPES OF BEAN

After harvesting one of the most important procedures that will determine the final flavour to take place is the fermentation process.   Here the beans are separated from the skins and white fruit and mounded into piles and covered with bananna leaves.  Daily the piles are uncovered and stirred or moved around to encourage even fermentation, then re-covered, and repeated for up to 6 days.  This process removes any fruit residue still clinging on to the beans and from the heat generated in the pile any sprouting of the beans is stopped.  It also changes the flavour profile from bitter to its typical intense, rich flavour.  A properly fermented Criollo bean will be gold-brown, and a Forastero bean violete brown.  After fermentation the beans are dried, where they will loose up to 60 % of their weight.  The beans are spread out on large cement patios, much like coffee beans, and raked constantly under the hot sun to encourage even drying.
After the drying, the beans are bagged and shipped to various chocolate factories around the world.

PROCESSING

At the factory, the beans are cleaned and roasted, much like coffee.  Great skill is used to blend varieties of beans and to roast them at particular stages.   Once cool, the beans are ground through various rollers until a cocoa paste, or cocoa liquor as it’s commonly called in the industry, is produced.  The paste is then fed into hydraulic presses and the cocoa butter is extracted.  The resulting cocoa cake, which still retains about 15% cocoa butter is broken up and milled into powder. 

BLENDING

This is where the experience, reputation and skill of the chocolate producer comes in, the blending:  Cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and soya lecithin, an emulsifier, are blended in huge vats and the mixture agitated or conched for anywhere up to 72 hours.  As a rule of thumb the longer the conching is, the finer the chocolate.