Making milk chocolate

Everyone loves a piece of chocolate, and milk chocolate is probably the most famous and popular of them all. It contains up to 10% cocoa beans and up to 12% milk powder, either liquid or condensed milk. Sugar is also added, and vanilla is often used to brighten the flavour. This makes milk chocolate very sweet and, in addition to the basic ingredients, it can also contain a huge variety of additives, such as caramel, hazelnuts, strawberries, biscuits, etc... This means that there is something for everyone in milk chocolate. Milk chocolate is the most widely used chocolate around the world, so when you think of chocolate, many people think of that milky taste, but few people associate it with dark, bitter chocolate.

1870 - the first milk chocolate bar produced

The creation of the most popular, sweet milk chocolate is credited to the Swiss Daniel Peter who, in 1870, after eight long years of experimentation, succeeded in inventing a process for making a hard, milk-flavoured chocolate bar.

But of course, for chocolate to arrive beautifully packaged in the shop, it must first be made. Today, thanks to technological advances, this process is no longer as time-consuming and complicated as it used to be. Interestingly, despite the development of technology, the process of making milk chocolate has not changed much over time. One of the processes for making milk chocolate that is very popular in North America is the Hershey process.

It was invented by Milton S. Hershey, and the disadvantage of the process is that it does not look as much at the freshness of the milk, so it is cheaper and the chocolate is of lower quality.

The details of the process are a trade secret, but experts note that the process uses butyric acid to prevent the milk from fermenting further. This gives the chocolate a distinctive flavour that Americans have become so accustomed to that other chocolate manufacturers now simply add butyric acid to milk chocolate because it makes it easier to sell in America.

From cocoa seed to cocoa mass

Otherwise, it basically starts with the cocoa beans maturing and then being left to ferment in their own white, sweet, slimy liquid for just under a week. During the fermentation itself, the mucilage liquefies and drains away, while the temperature rises steadily. At a certain point, the seeds start to germinate, but the high temperature causes them to die immediately. Although the germination time itself is very short, it is nevertheless essential, as it gives the final product its traditional chocolate flavour. Once the fermentation is complete, the drying process begins. Traditionally, the beans were dried on trays or in bags in the sun, but nowadays this is done in large kilns.

During the drying process, which takes a week or two, the grains lose more than half their own weight, as the enzymes produced during fermentation remain active and continue to function. This is followed byroasting, which for chocolate takes place between 99 and 104 °C. This part of the process is crucial for the development of the flavour. The process is completed by cleaning, which involves removing the thin, dry husk from the cocoa beans so that they can be ground into a cocoa mass. This provides the basis for different types of chocolate. For milk chocolate, milk powder, liquid or condensed milk is added to this mass, followed by what is known as ''conching''.

"Conching"

This process was invented by Rodolphe Lindt, who forgot to switch off the cocoa mixing machine one Saturday evening in 1879. When he returned to his workshop on Monday morning, he was surprised to find light and soft liquid chocolate from which the bitter taste he had previously tasted had evaporated. So, quite by mistake, he invented ''conching'', the process of rolling and smoothing the cocoa mass over a long period of time to achieve the lightest and smoothest possible texture. "Today, ''conching'' is one of the fundamental processes in chocolate production.

Pouring chocolate into moulds

This process is followed by moulding, in which a thin layer of the resulting liquid chocolate is poured into moulds. This layer becomes the top part of the chocolate bar once it has set. This is followed by the possible filling of the chocolate with additives. There are many possibilities - from whole or crushed hazelnuts, raisins, biscuits... The only limit to the filling of chocolates is the imagination of the manufacturer. The chocolate mousse is then drizzled on top of these additions and placed in the fridge for a while, before being coated once more with a thin layer of chocolate, which is then smoothed out. The bottom of the chocolate bar is made in this way, and then the product is placed in the fridge once more to set. But that''s not the end. Once the chocolate is made, it is time for the judging and tasting, which is certainly a job that any chocoholic would love to do.

Milk chocolate thus has a long journey from the cocoa plantations themselves to the factory where it is made, on to the shop and then to our homes. It is a good thing that the industry has progressed so much over the centuries that everyone can now afford it, otherwise it would still be limited to the elite and many would be very disadvantaged. But you can''t do without chocolate, can you?