Cocoa beans are seeds that are found in the pod of a chocolate tree. It is from them that cocoa powder and cocoa butter are used, used to make chocolate.
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Cocoa Bean Processing
In addition to pulp, cocoa fruits contain from 30 to 50 large seeds of an unusual pale purple color. These seeds (or beans) are about 45-50% composed of fat, known as cocoa butter, and dry matter, from which cocoa powder is obtained.
The seeds extracted from the fruit are fermented for a week in special ventilated boxes, then dried in the sun (sometimes heated air plants are used) and fried. Cocoa beans processed in this way darken and harden. The weight of the dried bean is approximately 1 gram.
After drying, the beans are exported to confectioneries in various countries for further processing. There they are fried again and then cooled very quickly. After that, each bean is split into several particles, the size of which is about 8 mm. Then these particles are treated with alkali to destroy various microorganisms and fungi. The resulting "cereal" is crushed on rollers or mills to a powder state, from which cocoa butter is then squeezed under very high pressure on hydraulic presses. After the end of the extraction, cocoa cake is unloaded from the press, which is again further crushed into cocoa powder.
Two types of cocoa beans
Cocoa beans can be divided into two groups - "consumer" and "noble." The former are sometimes called “forastero, ” which means “alien, ” and the latter, “criollo, ” which translates from Spanish as “native.” The fruits of the first group are quite hard and have a yellow color, the fruits of the second group are soft and red. “Criollo” have a pleasant nutty flavor, “forastero” are bitter and have a rather specific smell, so they have to be fermented twice as long.
Noble cocoa beans are cultivated mainly in Indonesia and America. Consumer cocoa beans occupy a leading position in the world market, they are inferior to noble in aromatic and taste properties, but they are characterized by high productivity and not too capricious.
The taste of cocoa beans depends on climatic conditions and soil in the place of growth, as well as genetic characteristics. That is why confectioners always pay attention to the growing area. During processing, cocoa beans from different regions are often mixed to get the best bouquet of aromas and tastes.
It is believed that cocoa beans contain more than 300 different substances, with one in six of them responsible for a specific, complex cocoa flavor. The composition of cocoa beans includes fats, proteins, cellulose, polysaccharides, starch, tannins, minerals, flavoring and coloring agents, salts, saccharides, organic acids, caffeine.
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