how is chocolate made?

So let’s follow it the whole way, tree to bar, using our own cocoa from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire as our guide.

the 7 stages of chocolate-making

Here’s the whole thing, bean to bar:

1. harvest ripe cocoa pods by hand

2. ferment the beans to build flavour

3. dry the beans in the sun

4. roast the beans to deepen flavour

5. crack and winnow to remove the shells

6. grind, mix, refine and conch into liquid chocolate

7. temper and mould into the finished bar

That’s the chocolate production process in a nutshell, from cocoa pod to finished bar. The exact route changes with the recipe: dark and milk chocolate use ground cocoa mass, while white chocolate uses cocoa butter without the brown, non-fat cocoa solids. Sugar, milk ingredients and other recipe additions are blended in before the chocolate is refined and conched.

1. cocoa harvesting

It all comes back to one plant: the Theobroma cacao tree. It’s a fussy tropical species that grows in a belt roughly 20° either side of the equator. Think Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic. Ours comes from cocoa farmers in our partner cooperatives in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. It’s a patient crop: a cacao tree takes 3 to 5 years before it fruits, then keeps producing for decades.

The pods grow straight out of the trunk and branches – big, ridged, rugby-ball things. A productive tree might yield around 20 to 30 usable pods in a year, although harvests vary widely. A pod takes about 5 to 6 months to ripen after the tree flowers. Ripe and unripe pods sit side by side, so they’re picked by hand.

Pickers read each pod by eye and ear. The skin shifts colour as it ripens (green to gold, or red-purple to orange, depending on the variety), and a ripe one sounds hollow when you tap it. Cut too early and the beans are underdeveloped. Too late and they can sprout or spoil on the tree. So only ripe pods are cut, by hand and with care, to protect the spots on the trunk where next season’s flowers grow. Crack one open and you’ll find 30 to 40 cocoa beans inside, wrapped in sweet white pulp.

2. fermentation

Next up, fermentation – and this is where the chocolate-making process really kicks off. In West Africa, the beans and pulp usually go into heaps under banana leaves. Then they’re left for 3 to 7 days while natural heat, wild yeasts and bacteria do the graft. The sugary pulp ferments first into alcohol and then acids. Heat and acids penetrate the beans, stop germination and trigger the chemical changes that create chocolate flavour precursors.

Here’s what makes the difference: the method and timing aren’t fixed. Bigger heaps or smaller, a few days or a full week: each nudges the flavour a different way, which is why two beans from the same region can taste worlds apart. The bitterness mellows and the flavour precursors develop: the amino acids and sugars that become chocolate flavour once the beans are roasted. And because it all happens right on the farm, that flavour is building before the beans ever leave Ghana or Côte d’Ivoire.

3. drying

After fermentation, the beans are dried, from around 60% moisture down to about 7%, so they’re stable enough to store and ship. For 1 to 2 weeks they lie out in the sun on raised tables, mats or platforms, turned by hand so they dry evenly. It’s a fine balance. Dry them too slowly and mould or unwanted fermentation can develop. Dry them too aggressively and the beans may dry unevenly or retain harsh acidity, so the process needs close control.

4. roasting

Roasting is where cocoa finally starts to smell and taste like chocolate. Profiles vary, but cocoa is often roasted at around 120–150°C. Time and temperature are matched to the beans and the flavour you’re after: lighter for fruity notes, longer and hotter for deep and toasty.

4 things happen at once:

• more moisture is driven off
• the flavour builds and deepens
• the shells loosen, ready to come off
• most bacteria left over from fermentation are killed off, which makes roasting a key food-safety step
  

And just like that, a fermented, dried bean turns into something you’d recognise as chocolate.

5. winnowing

Winnowing is the quick one: once the beans have cooled, they’re cracked and their papery shells blown off, leaving the cocoa nibs behind. Those nibs hold the non-fat cocoa solids and cocoa butter that will become chocolate.

6. grinding, mixing, refining and conching

Grind the nibs and they turn into a dense, glossy paste called cocoa mass, sometimes called cocoa liquor (though there’s not a drop of alcohol in it). It contains both cocoa butter and non-fat cocoa solids, and it forms the cocoa base of dark and milk chocolate. White chocolate uses cocoa butter without the non-fat cocoa solids. Next comes mixing: the cocoa mass is blended with sugar (and milk powder, for milk chocolate). It’s the point these dry ingredients go in, so everything that follows works on the full mix. Then 2 steps make it smooth: 

• refining crushes the whole mix (cocoa, sugar and milk alike) until the bits are too fine for your tongue to notice.
• conching keeps the chocolate moving under controlled heat for hours, reducing unwanted volatile flavours and helping create a smoother, more even texture.

One thing that trips people up: cocoa mass and cocoa butter aren’t the same thing. Press the mass and the fat comes out as cocoa butter, while the dry part is milled into cocoa powder.

7. tempering and moulding

Last up, tempering – the careful heating and cooling that sets the cocoa butter into a stable crystal structure. It’s what gives chocolate its glossy sheen and that clean snap when you break off a chunk. That crystal form melts just below body temperature, which is why the chocolate melts so smoothly in your mouth. Skip it or rush it and the cocoa butter may crystallise unevenly, causing fat bloom: a pale or streaky coating on the chocolate. Temperature swings during storage can cause it too. Done right, the chocolate is poured into moulds, cooled into shape, and that’s a wrap – or in our case, chunky 180g bars, little 50g bars, Tiny Tony’s and gift packs.

how are milk, dark and white chocolate made differently?

Milk, dark and white chocolate share the same cocoa origin, but their recipes split before refining and conching. Dark and milk chocolate use cocoa mass made from ground nibs. Milk chocolate also includes milk ingredients, while dark chocolate generally uses a higher proportion of cocoa and no added milk ingredients. White chocolate skips the cocoa mass altogether and uses cocoa butter, milk and sugar, which is why it stays pale.

how is milk chocolate made?

Milk chocolate follows the same broad process, with milk powder blended with the cocoa ingredients and sugar before refining and conching. The recipe: cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk and sugar, worked together until it’s smooth and creamy. Our milk chocolate sits at 32% cocoa – chunky, creamy and dangerously moreish.

how is dark chocolate made?

Dark chocolate generally contains a higher proportion of cocoa ingredients and no added milk ingredients, producing a stronger, less creamy flavour. It’s often made alongside milk chocolate, though, so check the label: ours says ‘may contain milk’. Our dark chocolate spans 51% to 70% – from smooth and rounded to full-on intense.

how is white chocolate made?

White chocolate starts from the very same cocoa bean, but the recipe keeps only the cocoa butter. That’s cocoa butter, milk and sugar, with no non-fat cocoa solids – which is why it’s pale, sweet and creamy rather than brown. Same origin, different finish.

where is Tony’s chocolate made?

Our cocoa is grown in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Specialist processing partners turn it into chocolate, which is then moulded and packed into Tony’s bars in Belgium. Want to see the whole journey, cooperative to bar? Follow it on our BeanTracker.

what makes Tony’s different?

Tony’s chocolate goes through the same 7 stages as any other bar. What’s different is how we source the cocoa. Tony’s Sourcing Principles mean we trace our cocoa from bean to bar, build long-term partnerships with cooperatives and always pay cocoa farmers a price that enables them to earn a living income. Our annual FAIR report shows how it’s going. We’re crazy about chocolate and serious about people. Together, we can fight exploitation in cocoa: poverty, child labour and deforestation. Are you in?

FAQs

what are cocoa nibs?

Cocoa nibs are pieces of the roasted kernel left after the shell has been removed. They’re the bit that gets ground into chocolate – and yes, you can eat them as they are: bitter, crunchy and very much an acquired taste.

 

how many cocoa beans does it take to make one bar of chocolate?

There is no single number because cocoa beans vary in size and every recipe uses a different cocoa percentage. Dark chocolate generally requires more cocoa beans than milk chocolate of the same weight, while white chocolate uses cocoa butter rather than non-fat cocoa solids. Our milk hazelnut bar, for example, used 112 cocoa beans, and each product page shows its own count of impact beans. 

 

how long does it take to make chocolate from bean to bar?

Weeks at the very least, and usually months, once shipping is counted. Fermentation and drying alone eat up around 2 to 3 weeks at origin – before the beans are even shipped on for processing.

 

why is chocolate made in Europe if cocoa grows in Africa?

Cocoa grows in the tropics, but Europe is still the world’s biggest cocoa-processing region (about a third of all grinding), close to the big chocolate markets. It’s one of the old imbalances in the cocoa chain – and a big part of why where the value ends up really matters.

 

is all chocolate made the same way?

The core stages are much the same for almost all chocolate. What changes is the formulation, the cocoa percentage, the other ingredients and the exact processing conditions. Just as important: where the cocoa came from and how it was sourced.

 

can you make chocolate at home?

You can – from cocoa nibs or cocoa mass, with a fair bit of grinding, tempering and patience. Starting all the way from the pod is trickier: fermentation and roasting are hard to nail in a home kitchen. Respect to anyone who gives it a go.