HOW CHOCOLATE IS MADE

Producing chocolate is a time consuming and complicated process.

• The first step is to harvest the cocoa pods containing the beans and ferment them for about six days, after which the beans are split from the pods and dried. The finest chocolate is produced when the drying process is done naturally by the sun for about 7 days, accelerated or artificial drying is quicker but produces the vastly inferior chocolate used in most mass produced products.
• The next process is shared with coffee in that the beans are first roasted then graded, and ground.
• The resulting powder is pressed to extract the fat or cocoa butter,
• The residue or cocoa powder or, as it is called in the trade, 'cocoa mass'.

This powder or 'mass' is blended back with the butter and liquor to make the different types of chocolate or covertures as follows:

• Plain Chocolate - cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and sugar.
• Milk Chocolate - cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder and sugar.
• White Chocolate - cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder and sugar.

The finest plain chocolate covertures contain at least 70% Cocoa solids. Whereas the best Milk chocolate and White Chocolate covertures contains 33%+ Cocoa solids. Inferior and mass produced chocolate contains much less cocoa, (as low as 7% in many cases) and strictly speaking these "Brand Name" milk products can not be classed as covertures or even chocolate, because of the low or non-existent cocoa solids content.

• The penultimate process is called "conching" A conche is a type of container filled with the refined and blended chocolate mass, kept liquid as a result of fractional heat. The length of time given to the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of chocolate. The finest chocolate is conched for a minimum of a week! After the process is completed the chocolate mass is stored in heated tanks at about 45-50°C, ready for final processing.

The final process is called Tempering, because cocoa butter exhibits a polymorphous or unstable crystal formation the mass must be cooled very carefully to encourage the crystals to stabilise in the right order to produce the desired properties of snappy bite, tender melt and a good gloss in the finished product.. All this is achieved by the tempering process, first the mass is cooled in stages from about 45°C to about 27°C and then warmed up again to about 37°C followed by cooling down to it's solid state. Every chocolate candy,gourmet chocolate,chocolate fudge, white chocolate,peanut butter fudge,homemade candy,homemade fudge,mackinac island fudge and mackinaw island fudge has gone through this process before getting itself its own name.

WHO LOVES CHOCOLATE?
The average U.S. citizen eats 12 lbs (5.45kg) of chocolate annually, second only to the Swiss who consume a staggering 22lbs (11kg) per person per year' Unfortunately the bulk of the money spent by the average Briton and American was wasted on mass produced, low grade high sugar products. The Swiss however spent their money far more wisely as anyone who has tasted Swiss chocolate will testify. But you don't have to go to Switzerland to get good Chocolate! Can you try to imagine the number of chocolate candy,gourmet chocolate,chocolate fudge,white chocolate,peanut butter fudge,homemade candy,homemade fudge,mackinac island fudge and mackinaw island fudge consumed by a American during his life span?

Event's went full circle when English colonists (Quakers maybe?) carried chocolate (and coffee) with them to England's colonies in North America. Destined to become the United States of America and Canada, they are now the worlds largest consumers - by far - of both Chocolate and Coffee, consuming over half of the words total production of chocolate.

Chocolate was first eaten in solid form when bakers in England began adding cocoa powder to cakes in the mid 1600's. In 1828 a Dutch chemist, Johannes Van Houten, invented a method of extracting the bitter tasting fat or "cocoa butter" from the roasted ground beans, his aim was to make the drink smoother and more palatable, however he unknowingly paved the way for chocolate as we know it. Chocolate as we know it today first appeared in 1847 when Fry & Sons - founded 1728 in Bristol, England - mixed Sugar with Cocoa Powder and Cocoa Butter to produce the first solid chocolate bar then, in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters, found a way to combine (some would say improve) cocoa powder and cocoa butter with sugar and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate. and the rest, is history.... This forms the base for all the varieties of chocolates, fudge and candy be it Mackinac island fudge, peanut butter fudge, white chocolate, homemade candy or chocolate gift baskets.