Our Tree to Bar Chocolate Making Process

Most craft chocolate makers buy fermented cacao beans from farmers or wholesalers. They then process these beans into chocolate. Even though two chocolate makers start out with the same beans, the resulting bars will taste differently. The primary reason for this is the roasting of the beans. Other reasons are the duration and force during the grinding stage, as well as additional ingredients like the kind of sugar (yes, not all sugar tastes the same). In short, there is a lot of opportunity for flavor development in Bean to Bar chocolate.

But the main source of flavor development is actually the fermentation of the raw cacao beans by the farmers which frequently don’t get enough credit for their work. Tree to Bar chocolate makers have maximum control over the flavor development of chocolate because they also ferment the cacao beans before further processing of the beans into chocolate,

This is the path we have also chosen at Hualalai Chocolate Company. 

Harvest

We grow cacao in our small orchard near Kailua Kona on the west side of the island of Hawai’i. We are also buying cacao pods from farmers in the Hamakua and Puna regions of the island of Hawai’i. Within a day of harvesting the cacao pods from the trees, they are cracked and the beans are removed. The beans are enclosed in a sweet, tropical, tangy tasting juicy pulp. Before the fermentation we collect the juice from the pulp. The juice makes a refreshing beverage that can be consumed directly or made into slushies or ice cream. 

Fermentation

Typically cacao beans are fermented in wooden boxes. The beans in the boxes are covered with banana leaves and then fermented for 6 to 8 days.

Flavor development during fermentation comes from the yeasts introduced into the cacao bean mass. This can happen through simply touching the beans with bare hands when removing them from the pods, the outside of the pods, from the air, and also from the banana leaves. Even the wooden boxes will add yeast to the fermentation. Some farmers report that fermentations early in the season are either slower or of lower quality because the wooden boxes aren’t primed with yeast from previous fermentations. It’s obvious that this is a relatively uncontrolled process that vintners and beer brewers would likely squint at. Cacao fermentation still has a lot of room to grow compared to other foods.

Another problem with wooden boxes is that they have edges and that leads to uneven temperatures which in turn leads to uneven fermentation. Additionally they are also poorly insulated further exacerbating the problem.

Our fermentation process is a bit different. We use round, insulated, heated stainless steel containers. The goal is to stabilize temperature throughout the fermentation. We start the fermentation by adding carefully selected yeast cultures. This way we try to have repeatable conditions between fermentations. We also cover the top of the fermentation container with banana leaves but that is to prevent fungal growth. Banana leaves have anti fungal properties.

Drying

After fermentation completes we dry the cacao beans in a tent. The climate at our location calls for frequent afternoon rain showers throughout the year. It is imperative to protect the beans from exposure to moisture. Depending on the weather, drying completes within 1 to 2 weeks.  

Roasting

The dried cacao beans are then roasted. There is no “one” recipe for roasting cacao beans. Flavors vary based on the duration and temperatures during the roasting. When creating a new chocolate bar we do several test roasts before selecting a roasting profile for the cacao beans.

Winnowing

After roasting, the cacao beans are still covered in a thin husk that needs to be removed before the cacao beans can be ground into chocolate. This process is called winnowing. Special machines crack the cacao beans into small pieces and at the same time separate the husk from the bean. The resulting small cacao bean pieces are called nibs.

Grinding

We use classic stone grinders to grind our chocolate, two big granite wheels that rotate around a center axis pressing the wheels against a granite base. The cacao nibs can be thrown directly into the stone grinder but we prefer to pre-grind them in a nut butter grinder first. We then add cane sugar during the grinding to create smooth and flavorful dark chocolate in 48 to 72 hours.

The process for making milk chocolate is almost identical except that we also add milk powder and cacao butter during the grinding.

Tempering

The ground chocolate is almost ready for consumption. At this stage it can be brittle and have a suboptimal mouth feel. This is due to (mis)crystallization of the chocolate mass. A tempering machine will help crystalize the chocolate mass correctly for the best experience into a chocolate bar that melts smoothly in the mouth.