A majority of people buy their chocolate bars in supermarkets. That chocolate is mass produced and only takes a couple of hours to be made. Quality chocolate made from selected beans, however, needs a gentler approach in which every detail is important and every step is executed to perfection. The majority of chocolate eaters may not realise the patience it takes to make a premium Chocolat Philippe bar. That is why, this week, I’m taking you on a journey from the bean to the bar.
My process starts with raw cocoa beans from a single origin. Those beans have been harvested, fermented and then sun dried on the farm and arrive in bags. To kill all bacteria my first step is to roast the beans. This is a delicate step, and also the most important of the whole process, as the way of roasting the beans will determine the flavour intensity of the bar.
During this process, I monitor closely the temperature of the beans while they are in the roasting oven until they gradually reach their end temperature. The speed and moment at which I increase or reduce the temperature inside the oven is the crucial factor to accentuate specific notes of a given bean. After the roasting, the beans need to cool down for several hours before proceeding to the next step.
I usually start the next day with the second step of the process. This consists of separating the cocoa nibs from the shell. I first use a machine to crack the beans into smaller pieces. I pass this mix of nibs and shells through a winnower, which is a pretty neat system of pipes and buckets attached to a vacuum. With the help of gravity and physics, the nibs fall through the pipes while the shells are sucked into another container, leaving me with only nibs.
Now, I’m finally ready to start making the chocolate. Based on my inspiration of the day and a taste of the roasted nibs, I design the recipe for the bar I’m about to make. Once that’s decided, the nibs go in a stone grinder with a tiny bit of cocoa butter until they become a paste. When the paste is becoming fluid, it is time to add the sugar and let the grinder do its thing.
I let the stones grind the chocolate for at least 24h; by that time, the chocolate should have achieved the desired level of smoothness. With a fineness gauge, I measure the particle size of the chocolate. To leave a smooth feeling in the mouth, chocolate particles need to be smaller than 25um. While most commercial chocolate is around 5-10um, I decided that Chocolat Philippe should be around 20um. I think that chocolate can be too smooth and leave a sticky feeling in the mouth, which I don’t like.
When that is reached, the pressure on the grinding stones is released and the chocolate continues to be mixed in the machine for another 12h. This process is called conching, and helps the last acid flavours to evaporate from the liquid chocolate.
On the fourth day of the process of making chocolate, I can finally proceed to the last steps. The liquid chocolate goes into my tempering machine. Tempering is the process of first heating chocolate to 39°, cooling it down to 27° and then bringing it to 33°. That is when chocolate starts making the crystals that result in a shiny finish and a clean snap when you break it.
Once the chocolate is in the tempering machine, I fill the moulds with the liquid chocolate. The filled moulds immediately go in the refrigerator to cool down. After about an hour the chocolate is ready to be unmoulded, sealed and packed. Chocolate is like wine and matures with age. Every Chocolat Philippe bar rests for 28 days before being shipped.
It is a process that requires a lot of dedication, patience and skill to make the perfect chocolate bar. I hope this article was able to provide you with a better insight into how my chocolate is made. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me here.
