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Chocolate production

It all begins on the cocoa plantation. The cocoa fruits, interestingly enough, do not grow on the branches but they grow over the trunk. Inside the fruit there are fifteen to forty cocoa beans. These are peeled and dried before processing. Dried cocoa beans are fried and later cooled, crashed and peeled by the air. After this, the beans are grinded and the seeds are mashed into sparse purre. This happens because the  seeds are full of cocoa butter. In the next process, this yellow butter is separated by press from other matter which is processed into a brown cocoa powder.  This cocoa matter is again mixed with the cocoa butter, sugar and other ingredients in a blending machine. This creates a chocolate matter which is further refined and aerated. This is the right moment when the chocolate batter can become a chocolate praline. First, the matter is warmed to the right temperature and then it goes into the molding line. The machine pours the hot chocolate into the molds. These are turned so the matter which has not become solid yet can pour out. Then, the molds are turned again for the filling to be poured into it. Finally, the top layer of the chocolate closes the chocolate praline.

All may seem easy and known but the quality of chocolate depends mostly on detailed recipe and a thoroughnes of its execution. Different brands use different recipes and tinker with the details to obtain different flavored chocolate.

The transnational group Callebaut, from where we get our products, concetrates on the production and distribution of semi-finished chocolate or chocolate ready for final consumption on a world scale.

Not far from Brussels, a high quality work station can be found which focuses exlusively on the production technology of chocolate and chocolate research. There are modern labarotories equipped with gas chromotographs, microscopes and other special equipement for the chemical analysis of finished products. In the testing room, the trained tasters are discussing the taste and olfactory properties of certain samples. The observed range of taste sensations of fullness, shades and durability, all carefully cataloged and recorded. The classic dark chocolate has not been the only type produced for a long time.