The diagram illustrates how cocoa beans is converted from its raw form to the various finished products. From an overall perspective, the process can be divided into three broad steps which are: collection of the cocoa beans, pressing and refining, and the final processing before sale to the consumer is approved.
At the onset, the whole beans pod is gathered, and then left to dry after the shell has been removed. The dried beans is then pressed to produce cocoa liquor. This liquour can either undergo further pressing or refining. The refined material is mixed sugar to form industrial chocolate. On the other hand, the extra-pressed liquor yields either cocoa cake which undergoes grinding to yield cocoa powder, or plain cocoa which can be converted to industrial chocolate.
The cocoa powder can be sold directly to customers or used to make industrial cakes and drinks, while the aforementioned industrial chocolate is subjected to further processing to produce finished chocolate products ready for public consumption.