Ever wonder where chocolate comes from? With Valentine’s Day coming up, we thought we’d do a post entirely devoted to the chocolate process.
To start, chocolate grows on trees (sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?) Here’s a video showing where the magic begins:
Isn’t it cool how the cacao grows straight out of the trunk? In case you were wondering, there’s about 30-40 seeds in each of those football shaped pods in the video. If you were to bite into a seed straight from the pod, it’d be bitter. That’s why we’ll continue on in our quest to figure out where chocolate comes from.
Once workers have the beans, what comes next is one of the most important steps in the process – fermentation. The beans, still sticky with pulp, are placed in earthen pits or wooden bins and covered with banana leaves, then left to ferment. The heat of fermentation changes the bitter flavors in the beans into something more edible, more chocolatey. The sugars in the bean turn into acids, the color changes from pale to dark brown, and the pulp residue melts away. The length of the fermentation process depends on the type of bean; the higher quality beans may need only a few days, where others may need a week or more.
After fermentation, the beans are dried in the sun for about a week. The flavor continues to develop during this time. Some manufacturers try to speed this process along by drying the beans over a fire, which gives them a smoky, inferior flavor.
Once the beans are dry, they are ready to be shipped to a factory, where they are turned into chocolate.
Laughing Man chocolates are fairly traded and Rainforest Certified. Our chocolate represents the ultimate combination of quality and sustainability. Our cocoa bean are either sourced through direct relationships or from trusted partners the farmers have chosen. Our chocolates are also all natural. They have no preservatives and are kosher.
Whether you give it away or keep them to yourself Laughing Man Chocolate is another way to make ALL BE HAPPY a reality.