The Importance of Cocoa Beans Roasting
1. Cocoa beans roasting and cooling
Cocoa beans roasting is a very important part of the process of making chocolate, which can promote the unique aroma of cocoa beans, while also loosening the nuts and hard seed coats. Every chocolate industry has its own secret baking recipe, and the chocolate produced has its own flavor. The roasted cocoa beans will emit a unique chocolate smell.
Cocoa beans roasting by machines
The roasting process of cocoa beans is carried out in a dry and hot state. During this process, the cell tissue of the cocoa beans undergoes physical and chemical changes. Cocoa bean roasting plays a role in these aspects:
(1) Remove the residual moisture of the beans.
(2) Make the bean husk crisp and expand the bean grains, making the bean meat and the shell easy to separate.
(3) Separate soybean meat and germ.
(4) The loose cocoa bean cell tissue structure makes it easy for the oil to ooze out, so that the processed cocoa paste has good plasticity and is easy to grind.
(5) Promote the starch granules in the cocoa bean cells to become soluble particles and increase the solubility of cocoa powder.
(6) Promote changes in cocoa bean cytochromes and increase oil color.
(7) Enhance the aroma and flavor of cocoa beans and cocoa products.
2. Roasted cocoa beans to chocolate paste.
Roasted cocoa beans can be cooled naturally or machine-cooled after roasting, then the cocoa beans peeled by winnower and grind into cocoa liquor by machines, the cocoa liquor extracted into cocoa butter and cocoa cake. The cocoa cake will be grinded into fine cocoa powder.
The next step is to produce chocolate, the cocoa butter goes to the butter melting tank to melt into oil, then go to the chocolate conche for refining, adding sugar and other ingredients. Generally speaking, the main ingredients of chocolate are cocoa raw materials and sugar. If it is pure chocolate, add cocoa butter; if it is milk chocolate, add other spices such as milk and vanilla to flavor it. In the refining process, the chocolate mixture is heated in a vat, and a large mixing paddle is rotated to carefully blend it. This is the last step of the manufacturing process. Finally, with a little bit of cocoa butter and emulsifier lecithin, the chocolate products made can have an indispensable smooth taste.
