Cocoa pod is a fruit that grows on the cacao tree—it is the size of mid-sized papaya.
Each pod has over 50 cocoa beans covered in a white pulp.
After harvesting the cocoa pods, they are split open and placed in trays or covered with large banana leaves.
The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast ferment (break down) the pulp, and within 5-8 days, the pulp vanishes, and brown beans emerge.
These brown beans are then dried for a week and then shipped to chocolate manufacturers.
The first thing that chocolate manufacturers do with cocoa beans is roast them.
Roasting makes the cocoa beans’ shells brittle, and so, they are easily removed (imagine taking a peanut out of its husk).
What is left (the equivalent of the peanut) after the shell is removed, is called the chocolate nib.
When they grind the chocolate nib, it becomes a paste because of the fat content in it—this paste is called cocoa mass or cocoa liquor.
This paste can then be processed further to separate cocoa butter (53%) and cocoa solids (47%).
Now, as per food authorities,Different countries can have different mandates. The definition included here is the most commonly accepted definition. for chocolate to be called chocolate, it must be made up of at least 10% cocoa solids.
And it doesn’t matter if it contains any cocoa butter or not.
So, a 100gm chocolate bar can have sugar, flavour, butter (cocoa or not), milk solids, etc., but at least 10g of its weight must come from the cocoa solids.
Similarly, white chocolate must be made up of at least 20% cocoa butter for it to be called white chocolate.
And it doesn’t matter if it contains any cocoa solids or not.
