I will explain how to make chocolate from cocoa at home in 5 stages;
- Harvesting.
- Processing the Cocoa Seeds.
- Roasting.
- Grinding.
- Storage.
Harvesting:
Use ripe cocoa for your chocolate. For the species of cocoa tree shown, the Yellow cocoa pods are the ripe ones. If you are buying, ensure you select the ripe ones.
Processing the Cocoa Seeds
Break the cocoa pods and remove the seeds from the stem holding them. Then store the seeds in a bowl and cover it for about a week. After a day or so, a type of juice will form depending on the amount of seeds being processed. It’s a fermented juice and its drinkable.
After a week, wash the seeds, spread them on a tray and dry in the sun for about 3 days. Look at the image below to see how sun dried cocoa beans look.
Roasting
Place the sun dried cocoa beans in a frying pan and roast the beans at moderate heat. Stir the beans frequently to ensure that all sections of the beans get hot and get done. When the beans are well roasted, they will give off a popping sound like popcorn. The outer shell of the cocoa beans will be very easy to remove. Roasting will take about 30mins or more.
After roasting, let the beans cool then remove their outer shells. Just apply slight pressure and the shell will crack and expose the real cocoa beans.
Grinding
Grinding the roasted beans is hard work. You need patience here. I advise you to use a high powered blender. A blender rated 650W or more will be ideal. You can also use a hand or manual grinder.The goal is to grind the cocoa beans to be as smooth as possible.
Start bringing the beans dry. As you grind continuously it will eventually pasterise. The thick paste may be too strong for your blender/grinding machine to continue, you can add very little water to make it easier for the blender. If you are using a hand rotated manual grinder or a very powerful motor grinder then roasted cocoa beans are easier to blend.
After the beans have been grinded to a consistent smooth paste, you can then add sugar, milk and other flavors to taste and blend all together. Blend all to as smooth as possible.
Storage.
Your chocolate creme is ready to consume after a smooth blend. To preserve your chocolate and get it tasting better, refrigerate it.
