Bean to Bar Equipment

Partnered with Ideo Tecnica, Vanrooy Machinery supply complete cacao bean processing solutions. At Vanrooy we believe you should be able to complete the entire production process with ease, efficiency and consistency which is why we have teamed up with Idea Tecnica for your perfect chocolate processing solution.

Roasting & Winnowing

Dried cacao beans are roasted to darken the color and to further bring out the flavor characteristics of the cacao.

Beans can be roasted at different temperatures and for different lengths of time, depending on variables such as humidity, size of the beans, and the desired flavor.

After roasting, the beans are winnowed, or cleaned, to remove the shells. This leaves only the roasted cocoa nib, which is the key ingredient for making chocolate.

Grinding

After roasting and winnowing, the cocoa nibs are ground into a paste called chocolate liquor or cocoa mass. Chocolate liquor has no alcoholic content

Chocolate liquor can be used directly in the production of chocolate bars, or processed to separate the fat/cocoa butter, from the cocoa solid, leaving cocoa presscake.

Cocoa butter is used in chocolate production and beauty products whilst cocoa presscake can be refined further to produce cocoa powder.

Conching and Refining

Conching and Refining is where the manufacturing of finished products can begin.

To make chocolate (not bars), the chocolate liquor/mass and fat/cocoa butter are blended with other ingredients, eg sugar, vanilla, and milk powder (for milk chocolate).

This then conched/mixed and aerated at high temperatures. This process thoroughly blends the ingredients whilst removing some of the acidity of the cacao and developing the flavors for the final product.

The chocolate mixture is then transferred into a ball mill where refining takes place. The particle size is refined to such a small size that they cannot be felt by the human tongue, giving the chocolate its smooth texture. A micron count of 18-22 microns is achieved depending on the customer needs.

Storage tanks

After refining, the chocolate can now be passed through a final sieve and placed in storage tanks or pumped directly into tempering machines depending on the customer’s needs.