Chocolate is a dispersion of fine solid particles (cocoa, sugar and milk powder) in cocoa butter, another fat, or a combination of cocoa butter and another fat. The composition of chocolate is roughly as follows (see Figure 5.1):

Figure 5.1: Composition of white chocolate, milk chocolate and plain chocolate


A = sugar
B = cocoa butter
C = milk powder
D = other ingredients
E = cocoa liquor

Other raw materials can be used, apart from the above ingredients. Table 5.1 includes a number of raw materials that are commonly used in one country, while often being ignored in another. In Switzerland, for instance, hazelnut paste is usually added as an ingredient; in the UK crumb is often included in the chocolate recipe; while in France bitter chocolate with a very high cocoa liquor content (up to 75%) is preferred.
(In the table, X stands for ‘Commonly used’ and O for ‘May be used’)

Table 5.1: Summary of usual and possible ingredients in different countries

Country	NL / B	NL / B	NL / B	D	CH	GB	GB	GB	F
Ingrediënts	Milk choco-late	Plain choco-late	White choco-late	Cream choco-late	Milk choco-late	Milk choco-late	Plain choco-late	White choco-late	Plain choco-late
Sugar	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Cocoa mass	X	X		X	X	X	X		XX
Cocoa butter	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Cocoa powder		O					O		O
CBE	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
Milk powder –high fat	X		X	X	X	X		X
Milk powder – low fat	O		O		O	O		O
Lactose	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
Milk fat	O		O	O	O	O		O
Whey powder	O		O		O	O		O
Blok milkpowder	O				O	X
Crumb (see page 166)	X	O			O	X
Cream powder	O		O	O	O	O		O
E442	O	O	O	X	O	X	X	O	O
Lecithin	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
PGPR  (see page 170)	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
Vanillin	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
Vanilla	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
Hazel nut pasta					X

The table gives an idea of the raw materials that can be used, however, legislation regarding the composition of chocolate has to be taken into account when preparing a recipe (see chapter 8).

Chocolate manufacture is an industrial process, where a number of mechanical operations are needed to obtain the desired result. It normally includes four processing stages:

• thorough mixing of the raw materials;
• the refining of solid particles;
• thorough mixing of the refined solid particles and liquid fat
   component(s) into a
   homogenous product, both in terms of mouth feel and behaviour;
• further processing of the refined chocolate to obtain the desired end
   flavour.

These four processes are discussed below.

Figure 5.2: Schematic view of a processing line for the production of chocolate mass (blending ingredients, pre-rolling, roll refining, conching)

1 = ingredients  2 = mixer/kneader  3 = pre-roller (so called 2-roller)  4 = roller refiners  5 = conches

The production process from liquid chocolate to finished product can be a highly industrial one or a small-scale, traditional operation carried out by a confectioner. Paragraph 5.2 discusses this process.

Figure 5.3  Schematic process from ingredients to end product  (Karlshamns)