Band 9: IELTS Process - Chocolate Production You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The illustrations show how chocolate is produced. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

The diagrams illustrate the process of producing chocolate from cacao beans.

Overall, there are ten stages in the process. It begins with growing cacao trees in tropical regions and ends with pressing the beans to produce liquid chocolate.

First, cacao trees are grown in tropical areas such as South America, Africa and Indonesia. When the cacao pods are ripe, they are harvested and opened to remove the white cacao beans inside. After that, the beans are spread out and left to dry in the sun for several days. Once they are completely dry, they are packed into large sacks and transported by train or lorry to a factory for further processing.

At the factory, the dried beans are roasted at a temperature of about 350°C. They are then crushed by a machine so that the outer shells can be removed, leaving only the inner part of the beans. In the final stage, these bean pieces are pressed to produce liquid chocolate, which is then used to make different kinds of chocolate products.