The illustration demonstrates the sequence of producing liquid chocolate from cacao beans.
Overall, ten primary stages are employed in the process, which starts with cultivating cacao trees and progresses through preparatory processing of cacao beans, culminating in treating them for producing liquid chocolate.
In the initial stage, cacao trees are grown in regions such as South America, Africa and Indonesia until they produce ripe red pods. Subsequently, these red pods are split open to extract the internal cacao beans, which are then wrapped in broad leaves for fermentation, ready for the following steps. After that, these beans are sun-dried before being gathered into large bags.
This is followed by transporting step; dried cacao beans are dispatched by trains or lorries to the factory, where the production of liquid chocolate takes place. During which the cacao beans are then roasted in an oven at around 350 degrees Celsius. Next, they are crushed to remove their outer shell, awaiting the final step. Finally, liquid chocolate is produced by pressing these crushed beans by means of special machinery.