FROM BEANS TO TABLETS

BEAN-TO-BAR

Making a chocolate bar from cocoa beans is very simple and ... very complicated. It's about picking, fermenting, drying, sorting, roasting, conching, mixing, tempering, molding... and you're done. However, it is in the fine details of each of these operations that the difference between a sublime chocolate or ... inedible! Without giving you all our secrets, here is each step from the cocoa planting to the Avanaa chocolate bar.

1. THE HARVEST

The harvest is done by hand, with machetes, to harvest only the ripe pods. The flesh inside the pods is recovered, there are cocoa beans.

2. FERMENTATION

The cocoa beans, surrounded by their white and sweet pulp, are placed in large wooden boxes. The grains will remain there for several days to allow the fermentation to develop. Without this step, the chocolate would have a horrible bitter taste!

3. DRYING

Once fermentation is complete, the farmer spreads the grains out in the sun to gradually reduce their grain moisture and end fermentation. The drying time can take from 4 to 15 days depending on Mother Nature.

4. SORTING

Grain sorting is done by hand to remove damaged or poorly fermented grains and any other impurities.

5. ROASTING

As in the world of coffee, roasting is an important step to enhance the flavors of cocoa and reduce bitterness.

6. WINDOWS

Cocoa has a thin scale that must be removed to produce the best chocolate. But there is no loss: you can make infusions or even mulch for the garden!

7. REFINING

Cocoa nibs are gradually added in a blender to allow the chocolate to become creamy smooth, reduce bitterness and develop flavors.

8. TEMPERING

This step is essential to allow perfect crystallization of the chocolate. This makes it possible to standardize flavors, color and shine.

9. MOLDING

Each tablet is molded by hand, in our superb Avanaa moulds!

10. PACKAGING

Once so much energy is deployed to make this chocolate bar, it deserves a nice wrapper, doesn't it?

11. TASTING

Let yourself be surprised by our delicious chocolates with rich and complex flavors. Warning: it will be very difficult for you to go back to the bad waxy chocolate sold in pharmacies!