Task 5 - Explanation Text
Task 5 - Explanation Text
Have you ever wonder the process of making chocolate? Well, let me explain
about it so we can know exactly what we eat. Chocolate starts a tree, called cacao. It
grows in equatorial regions, especially South America, Africa, and Indonesia. Cacao tree
produces fruits, or pods, which are about 5-12 inches long. Beside the fruit, it also
produces tree’s seeds, called coco beans.
Cacao pods are ripe when they turn a vibrant yellow or orange color. They are
typically harvested twice a year. After being chopped off, the pods are opened and their
seeds are removed. Afterwards, beans are cleaned by hand so they are ready for the
next step. The beans are fermented for about a week later. Fermented beans must be
carefully dried and they are placed either on wooden boards or bamboo mats under the
hot sun. Once dried, the beans are graded, packed into sacks. Coco beans are also
checked for quality. They are then shipped and exported directly to the chocolate
maker.
Once received by the processor, beans are cleaned and roasted at low
temperature to bring out the flavor. Different beans from different places have different
qualities and flavors. So they are often shorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix.
The next process is winnowing. The roasted beans are winnowed to remove the nib (the
meat of the beans) from its shell. Nibs are finely ground into cocoa mass. Then, they are
placed under extremely high pressure, this paste yields two products: cocoa powder
and cocoa butter.
Lastly, cocoa mass can simply be combined with more cocoa butter and
sweetener to make good chocolate. The ingredients used are dependent on the type of
chocolate being made. Dark chocolate requires only cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and
sugar. Adding milk powder makes milk chocolate. On the other hand, white chocolate is
made by cocoa butter, sugar and milk powder.