Chocolate manufacturers

History and pioneers
The Spanish Conquistadors of the 16th century were already interested in chocolate. In 1528, Cortez took the first cocoa to Spain, along with the equipment needed to prepare the exotic drink, and it soon met with great approval in the Spanish court. In 1615, the infanta Anna of Austria, who grew up in Madrid, introduced drinking chocolate to the French court when she married King Louis XIII. In Paris it became a badge of status and the fashionable drink of the aristocracy, and from there it spread throughout the whole of Europe. Whereas in the 19th century, the importance of drinking chocolate declined, solid chocolate, which had its origins in France in the years following 1830, grew in importance.
In 1819, François-Louis Cailler opened one of the first mechanised chocolate production facilities in Corsier near Vevey, establishing the oldest brand of Swiss chocolate still in existence today. Philippe Suchard set up a chocolate factory in Serrières in 1826. He was followed by Jacques Foulquier (predecessor of Jean-Samuel Favarger) 1826 in Geneva, Charles-Amédée Kohler 1830 in Lausanne, Rudolf Sprüngli 1845 in Zurich, Aquilino Maestrani 1852 in Lucerne, later moving to St. Gallen, Johann Georg Munz 1874 in Flawil, and Jean Tobler 1899 in Berne.
Daniel Peter founded a chocolate factory in Vevey in 1867. After many attempts, he succeeded in combining chocolate with milk, an obvious but difficult move, thus inventing milk chocolate in 1875. Rodolphe Lindt opened a chocolate factory in Berne in 1879. He developed “conching”, a process which created the world’s first “melting chocolate”. Many other Swiss entrepreneurs set up companies over the next few years, their activities helping to shape the reputation of Swiss chocolate, which soon became known throughout the world.

Chocolate Production:

Storage
The imported raw cocoa is first subjected to detailed quality control checks. In the laboratory, specialists make sure that the cocoa beans are healthy, perfectly fermented, and comply with the check plan. Then the cocoa is stored in air-conditioned silos.
Cleaning
Before the processing itself, the raw cocoa is cleaned thoroughly using sieves and brushes. The residues of wood, sand and very fine dust are removed by means of powerful air currents, and metal pieces are captured by magnets.
Mixing
The beans are weighed out and mixed according to specific recipes. The proportions of the different varieties of cocoa form part of the closely guarded trade secrets of each chocolate factory. The aromas of beans from individual origins, in carefully calculated proportions, determine whether the flavour of the chocolate in question is stronger or more delicate.
Crushing and shelling
The crushing machine breaks the cocoa beans into medium-sized pieces. These crushed cocoa beans are separated from the husks using a sieve and vacuum equipment, and the husks are then used by other industries.
Roasting
The main aim of roasting is to develop the aroma. For a long time it has been known that roasting certain foods not only makes them more digestible, but also more aromatic. We need only think of coffee, almonds, or hazelnuts. Depending on what they are to be used for, the cocoa beans are roasted to a greater or lesser extent: for cocoa powder for instance, more intense roasting is the aim, with finer roasting for chocolate.
Grinding
The mixture of still relatively coarse crushed cocoa beans is now broken down in special mills and then, depending on the process used, fed into rollers where it is ground to form a fine cocoa paste. The heat produced by the pressure and grinding of this process liquefies the cocoa butter in the beans (approx. 50% of the bean), and a thick liquid paste appears. This is dark brown, has a characteristic strong smell and flavour, and gradually solidifies as it cools. Individual manufacturers may alter the order of these basic processing steps according to their specific expertise and requirements, or additional steps may be added, for instance the addition of further cleaning processes to eliminate fungus, micro-organisms and undesirable residues.
Cocoa butter
Part of the cocoa paste is fed into large hydraulic presses which remove most of the cocoa butter. This is a fine, valuable fat with a distinctive aroma. When filtered and cleaned it looks similar to ordinary butter, but it is considerably harder. Later, when combined with the cocoa paste, it will give the chocolate its fine texture, attractive shine, and pleasant delicate lustre.
Cocoa powder
Pressing the cocoa butter out of the cocoa paste produces, almost as a by-product, “cocoa cake” which still contains 10 to 20% fat depending on the pressing. This is ground and sifted to produce cocoa powder, to which sugar may be added. This powder represents a homogenous product which is different from chocolate because of the lower proportion of cocoa butter, and also because it has not been refined, or conched.
Three basic types
Cocoa paste, cocoa butter, sugar and powdered milk are the four basic ingredients which go into chocolate. By mixing them according to certain key recipes, the three main types of chocolate are obtained which also form the fundamental basis for all other product development:

• Dark chocolate: cocoa paste + cocoa butter + sugar + vanilla or vanilla extract
• Milk chocolate: cocoa paste + cocoa butter + sugar + powdered milk + vanilla or vanilla extract
• White chocolate: cocoa butter + sugar + powdered milk + vanilla or vanilla extract

The Swiss food regulations stipulate the upper and lower limits on proportions in the mixture. However, there is enough leeway to give the recipes used by the different manufacturers their own unique character.
Kneading
Cocoa paste, cocoa butter, sugar and flavourings (such as vanilla), with powdered or condensed milk for milk chocolate, are now put into the mixer together, where they are finely distributed and kneaded. This gives rise to a homogenous, paste-like mixture which already has some of the appeal of chocolate, but is still gritty in texture and does not yet have a fully rounded flavour.
Rolling
In large rolling mills, the paste is broken down and refined using pressure and shearing force, until the particles are only 15 to 20 thousands of a millimetre across.
Refining (Conching)
The chocolate paste is still too bitter and too sharp, the individual elements have not yet combined with one another to create a single flavour, and the fine rounded aroma is absent. In the “conches”, the chocolate paste is warmed to about 80°C by internal friction, brought about by intensive movement and strong shearing force, and it liquefies. The hours of powerful movement cause the chocolate to be aerated: the undesirable bitter smells gradually subside and the desired aromas are able to develop to the full. At the same time, the chocolate paste becomes completely homogenised, with a fine film of cocoa butter surrounding each of the microscopic particles. Now the chocolate melts on the tongue and has that delicate fineness which we all love so much. As the manufacturing process has developed, other refining methods have come into use. The removal of unwanted flavour elements, and homogenisation, are no longer achieved simultaneously in the conche but in separate processes. These modern processes promote a consistent quality and allow considerable savings in terms of time and energy.
Tempering
After the temporary storage of the chocolate mixture and immediately before the moulding process, it is tempered—an important process, which will later give the set chocolate a soft lustre, a silky sheen and a rounded flavour, and which also extends its shelf life. During tempering, the chocolate mixture is heated to 50°C while being moved gently, then it is cooled to 28°C and heated again to a little over 30°C. By this time it has reached the right flowing consistency and preliminary level of crystallisation, so that when it has been poured into the moulds and has set, it can be removed from the moulds without difficulty.