Part One of Four: We get into the really good bits!

This post, is the beginning of a four part series (please don’t hit that exit button!).

We’ve done this, because the chocolate making process is HUGE and each stage has an impact on the flavour of the chocolate bar.

A big part of this website is to highlight the flavours in chocolate and cacao. And we realised that to really appreciate why different chocolate bars have different flavours, you need to have some understanding of the production line.

So! Here’s a 30 second birds eye view of how we get from cacao bean to chocolate bar.

There are three simplified (probably overly simplified) phases.

• Phase one: The farmers create cacao beans: So You grow a tree, wait for the fruit to grow, once its ready you pick the fruit and pull out the seeds. Growing a fruiful tree can take 3 – 5 years. And it can take 5 to 6 months for the fruit to grow and ripen
• Phase two: The farmers get the beans ready: Once you pull the seeds out of the fruit they are fermented (turning the seeds into beans). They are then dried, and then delivered to a chocolate maker. This can take a minimum of two weeks.
• Phase Three: The chocolate makers craft their bars: You roast the beans, shell and winnow the beans to get the cacao nibs out of them, And those nibs are then ground, conched and then molded into bars! Which can also take weeks!

So as you an see it’s a HUGE process.

And those three phases form the next three parts.

Phase one: Create a cacao bean, Phase two: The farmers get the beans ready. Phase Three: The chocolate makers craft their bars.

And each of these parts will help to explain why chocolate has it’s own flavour notes!

And then we can get into the fun stuff – exploring flavour notes, testing different bars (because who needs an extra excuse to try more chocolate…?!)

So yes, we will acknowledge that to get to the formal eating of chocolate we’ve got to do a few “lesson type sessions” and cover a few potentially bland topics.

But we’re finding ways to make them interesting (well hopefully!)

We didn’t want to launch into an episode on chocolate trees or fermentation, because if you’re not already into chocolate, funky foods or agriculture it might not be that fascinating. (And to be honest given how detached we were from the chocolate supply chain, it was initially a little overwhelming).

So we’re hoping you can see why we didn’t just dive into growing trees… and we’re hoping that this has given a little more clarity on where this is going. And that you’re intrigued about the work cacao farmers and craft chocolate makers do… and maybe just a little excited.

And that’s it! That’s the first part. We hope the overview is helpful and that your mind is ready for the next part because we’re going tropical and planting cacao seeds!

In the meantime, keep buying chocolate, and if you’re curious have a read of the ingredients, see what you can find. And try to save some for the next part. Thanks heaps for talking beans with us and hopefully we’ll see ya soon!

Where to next?

Well we said this had four parts – so your next stop is….

And if you’re still not so sure, check out what events or makers are in your area:

Talk Beans with us!

Got any questions? Feedback? Want to hi say? Reach out below – we’re always happy to chat!

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