To get a well processed chocolate it is normally desirable to let it pass through three stages:
*Dry conching
*Pasty phase
*Liquid conching
Some of the benefits of conching are:
*Improve rheology or reduction in viscosity
*Elimination of harsh volatile for a mellower taste
*Removal of moisture and reduces lumping and graining
*Improved mouthfeel
During the conching, the small briquettes are comminuted step by step, and humidity and acid vapors are evaporated from the surface of the briquettes. Conching is the last opportunity for a manufacturer to obtain the state required for a particular product.
It is the function of conching to remove the more distasteful of flavor and yet retain the more desirable ones. The actual required flavor and hence the conching time, will depend initial cocoa flavor intensity and the product in which it is being used.
The final function of the conche is to ensure that the chocolate has the correct flow properties for the next processing stages.
What are the functions of conching process?
The word chocolate is derived from the Aztecs names for the tree, and for the drink they prepared from the beans. These words live on in Mexican today as ‘choclatl’ for the drink and ‘cacauatl’ for the tree. Chocolate was first cultivated as a crop, by ancient Mesoamerican peoples. They used cacao beans to create a frothy chocolate drink flavored with spices.
The most popular articles
-
The cocoa tree is an unusual tree, with its cultivation confined to limited areas and climatic conditions. The processing required both in t...
-
Expeller cocoa butter is the fat prepared by the expeller process from cocoa beans singly or in combination with cocoa nib, cocoa mass, coco...
-
Purple beans refer to low quality beans with purple color. The main reason for purple bean is a lack of adequate fermentation. When harves...
-
The standard method for evaluating the quality of cocoa beans is a cut test on which the interior of a certain number of beans that have bee...
-
Composition of Cocoa Beans The general composition of cocoa beans from various sources is similar. With properly fermented mature beans t...