Process
Sorting
We get up close and personal with the cocoa beans and sort them by hand to remove flats, cracked beans and beans harmed by machetes during harvest.
Roasting
The beans are then roasted to loosen the shell and begin the process of maximizing the inherent flavours in each bean.
Cracking
Winnowing separates the papery shells from the cracked nibs. If left in, the shell can impart undesirable bitter and harsh flavours. These shells make great additions to various Spinnakers Beer and Sheringham Distillery Chocolate Vodka.
Winnowing
Winnowing separates the papery shells from the cracked nibs. If left in, the shell can impart undesirable bitter and harsh flavours. These shells make great additions to various Spinnakers Beer and Sheringham Distillery Chocolate Vodka.
Refining
Next the whole bean is ground down to a very fine consistency. It is during this stage that pure cane sugar is introduced, the only additional ingredient in our single origin chocolate bars.
Conching
Conching eliminates any remaining impure flavours, and allows the subtle, unique flavours of each bean to shine. Friction and heat do the work.
Tempering
A chocolate bar hardens because the cocoa butter in it crystalizes, but only one specific crystal is wanted. Tempering creates that crystal structure by raising and lowering the temperature of melted chocolate in a very precise way to the correct crystal forms.
Moulding
The last step is pouring the chocolate into molds, to be cooled and hardened before being wrapped and sent off to you for your enjoyment.