Dark chocolate also contains cocoa butter, which carries that wonderful flavor to taste buds and makes it linger.
Dark chocolate processing
It is crucial that the plant flavonoids in dark chocolate stay intact while processing. Since the native form of coca seeds is quite unpalatable, it undergoes many manufacturing processes.
Cocoa pods are harvested, fermented, dried, cleaned and roasted. After the roasting and grinding processes, cocoa beans become a thick, dark, bitter paste called ‘cocoa liquor’: the most important component of chocolate.
Dark contains a high percentage (equal to 70%) of cocoa solids, and little or no added sugar. The compounds, not only confer to dark chocolate its typical astringent and bitter taste, but also significantly contribute to its antioxidant activity.
The ideal processing temperatures after melting and pre-crystallization are different for the different types of chocolate (dark, milk and white). For dark chocolate, processing temperature is 31-32 °C.
The industry has monitored the flavonoids losses over the whole chocolate process including the tree genotype, fermentation, drying and industrial process in order to be able to obtain a high flavonol concentration in the final dark chocolate.
Production of dark chocolate
