Seed to Tree to Cacao to Chocolat in Madagascar - Dark Chocolate 100%
Growing fine cacao under the shade of the rainforests of the Sambirano valley, north west Madagascar.
The cacao pods grow from the flowers on the trees. The pods are fruits with white fleshy pulp, tasting like citrus/ lemonade/lychees around 40 seeds inside. These fleshy seeds are "fermented" in boxes/ covered by banana leaves and are turned daily and moved into boxes every 1 or 2 days . The natural sugar in the fruit is turned into alcohol and acetic acid from microbes. The whole process can take upto 5 days. If they are overfermented there is risk they become mouldy.
The now reddish brown cacao beans then are dried in the sun for upto 5 days / where they are protected from the rain. The humidity, fermentation/ quality, size and genus of the beans are checked.
The beans are then cleaned, and roasted for upto 40 minutes.
The outer husk is removed by a machine called a winnower. The husks are separated from the cacao nibs.
The cacao nibs are then ground to make a paste. The nibs contains approx 50% fat, this is called cocoa butter.
The cacao paste is further ground to a very fine grain size for smooth mouthfeel, and "conched" for upto 72 hours to remove volatile acid flavours. No chemicals are added to reduce acidity.
The fine chocolate liqour is then "tempered", a special process of melting and cooling temperatures that aligns the crystals to make a shiny chocolate, when cooled in a mould.
After moulding the chocolate is wrapped in foil and packaging.
The whole process from growing to crafting the chocolate has a direct impact on flavour and aroma of the chocolate, and it is the direction and the integrated teamwork in Madagascar that can optimise the quality.
Animation by Rebecca Robinson
The cacao pods grow from the flowers on the trees. The pods are fruits with white fleshy pulp, tasting like citrus/ lemonade/lychees around 40 seeds inside. These fleshy seeds are "fermented" in boxes/ covered by banana leaves and are turned daily and moved into boxes every 1 or 2 days . The natural sugar in the fruit is turned into alcohol and acetic acid from microbes. The whole process can take upto 5 days. If they are overfermented there is risk they become mouldy.
The now reddish brown cacao beans then are dried in the sun for upto 5 days / where they are protected from the rain. The humidity, fermentation/ quality, size and genus of the beans are checked.
The beans are then cleaned, and roasted for upto 40 minutes.
The outer husk is removed by a machine called a winnower. The husks are separated from the cacao nibs.
The cacao nibs are then ground to make a paste. The nibs contains approx 50% fat, this is called cocoa butter.
The cacao paste is further ground to a very fine grain size for smooth mouthfeel, and "conched" for upto 72 hours to remove volatile acid flavours. No chemicals are added to reduce acidity.
The fine chocolate liqour is then "tempered", a special process of melting and cooling temperatures that aligns the crystals to make a shiny chocolate, when cooled in a mould.
After moulding the chocolate is wrapped in foil and packaging.
The whole process from growing to crafting the chocolate has a direct impact on flavour and aroma of the chocolate, and it is the direction and the integrated teamwork in Madagascar that can optimise the quality.
Animation by Rebecca Robinson