how chocolate is made from cacao

The diagram illustrates how liquid chocolate is mass-produced from cocoa beans through a series of streamlined steps involving the help of both humans and machinery. From an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that there are ten stages in the production of liquid chocolate, beginning with harvesting ripe red cocoa pods and ending with pressing roasted cocoa beans to produce liquid chocolate. It is also clear that cocoa beans are the primary raw materials used throughout the production of liquid chocolate, and there is only one by-product, which is the outer shell of the cocoa beans being removed. Firstly, ripe red cocoa pods are harvested from cacao trees, often grown in South America, Africa, and Indonesia. The harvested pods are then cut into two halves, allowing the white cocoa beans inside to be extracted. After that, the cocoa beans are fermented inside layers of banana leaves before being desiccated under the sun's rays. Next, the dried beans are packed into sacks of pre-determined weight of around 64 kg before being dispatched to a nearby factory by train or lorry. The eighth stage involves roasting the beans in an oven set at 350oC before crushing them to remove the outer shell. Finally, the inner parts of the beans are pressed, producing liquid chocolate.