I had never really given thought to where Chocolate came from or how to make it. I decided to research it and try it out. It is a process of many steps and it is easier and cheaper to just buy it in the store, but I like that I now know first-hand how to do it and have done it. It came out really good. I also used some seeds to try to grow my own Cacao trees, but a dang squirrel ate every one of them!

So does this mean I can count chocolate as one of my 5 daily servings of fruit?

A big giant hat's off to you. I would have never consider making chocolate from the raw fruit.

Next challenge for you.

How about making some nitrocellulose. You have to be careful with that one, IIRC when dried it's a contact explosive.

If you want a much safer product then Black Powder is another project.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
So does this mean I can count chocolate as one of my 5 daily servings of fruit?

It is a fruit after all…LOL!

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
A big giant hat's off to you. I would have never consider making chocolate from the raw fruit.

Next challenge for you.

How about making some nitrocellulose. You have to be careful with that one, IIRC when dried it's a contact explosive.

If you want a much safer product then Black Powder is another project.

When me and my brother were kids we made this. Pretty cool that it would explode when dried and you hit it. Things we got away with back when. We made homemade “firecrackers” that were extremely powerful. No one ever complained when we set them off in the backyard to see how big of a hole it would make. No way to do that today.

Cool!

At least the seeds don't need to take a trip through a wild cat's ass.

OK, that was quite educational. I never knew. Cadbury is my favorite. Thank you.

Complete scratch-you weren’t kidding! Very interesting. Thanks!

Pretty cool. Have to wonder how anyone ever even came up with this. Is the cacao butter something that comes from the process or do you have to buy that?

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
Is the cacao butter something that comes from the process or do you have to buy that?

I too wondered how someone figured it out especially when the raw seeds can be eaten from the pod but have zero flavor. I had to buy the Cacao butter. It is extracted from the seeds and sold.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Cool!

At least the seeds don't need to take a trip through a wild cat's ass.

Ha! If it did then you couldn’t make chocolate. You have to keep the pulp on the seed so they will ferment. A fermented seed can’t sprout into a new tree. Remove the pulp from the seed and then it can sprout as a tree. Natures way of making sure pods that fall from the tree can’t sprout into new trees and compete with the mother tree. Animals carry off the seeds and eat just the pulp and the a new tree sprouts from the discarded seed.

Im trying to grasp the scale of the original pod. That thing is huge and looks like and alien. The fermented beans look like raw chicken. Interesting cooking challenge.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
Im trying to grasp the scale of the original pod. That thing is huge and looks like and alien. The fermented beans look like raw chicken. Interesting cooking challenge.

About 10” long and 5” wide. Took 3 pods to get the number of seeds I did.

Well done {clap clap clap}

Dayum Mike!

I've shied away from roasting green coffee beans because I found the challenge too daunting. YIKES! THIS is on a completely other level!

More power to ya and job well done!

The fact that humans discovered and refined this process over centuries is one of the greatest accomplishments of our species.

Maybe ever.

There was some YouTube video I watched of an exotic fruit company out of Florida that grows and sells all kinds of fruits and that is how I first learned about the Cacao pod. No way was I going to order some and never even thought of trying to make chocolate.

All of a sudden one day when in my local grocery store, HEB, produce section, I saw they had the pods. They never carried them before so I couldn’t pass up the learning experience. I am surprised they are still selling them. It is cheaper and easier to just buy the Cacao nibs and butter if you want to make your own chocolate.

How did they turn out? They look a bit coarser than factory bars, but I like that.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
How about making some nitrocellulose. You have to be careful with that one, IIRC when dried it's a contact explosive.

If you want a much safer product then Black Powder is another project.

NC is much easier to make than chocolate. It is also not a contact explosive in any form. Plenty of folks have gotten killed making their own black powder, so I wouldn’t recommend that, either.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
How did they turn out? They look a bit coarser than factory bars, but I like that.

It turned out really good. Yes, it is a little gritty. To have smooth chocolate, commercially made chocolate grinds the Cacao nibs for days. They sell home devices to do it for about $300 and it will grind it for 3 days, but I am not that into this. The grinder is basically two granite wheels that slowly crush the Cacao for 3 days. I used a cheap coffee grinder. Next time I may use less dry milk and add some type of chopped nuts, but I think it tastes great.

Also text time I might use a mortar and pistol for a while after grinding the Cacao nibs in the coffee grinder to see how that does.