Cocoa and Coffee Processing

Prof. Samuel Sefa-Dedeh

Department of Food Process
Engineering

Introduction
In 1720 Linne bestowed the name Theobroma
cacao on the tree known in Mexico as quacahautl
or caucautl.
Theobroma refers to 'Greek for food of the gods')
One of the products derived from cocoa is
chocolate. The word derives from chocolatl, the
Mexican name of the beverage.
Cocoa was prized for their food value and
employed as a medium of exchange.
An important crop in Ghana agriculture and
economy

Botanical Classification
All the members of the genus Theobroma are
woody plants
Subgroup Buttneriasceae of the order
Sterculiaceae
Family: STERCULIACEAE
Genus: Theobroma
Species: Cacao
Two main Sub-species
- Cacao Criollo
- Spaerocarpum (Forastero

Criollo
There are four types of Criollo
- Columbian Criollo
- Mexican Criollo
- Nicaraguan Criollo
- Pentagona
These have warty fruits, white and faintly
purple seeds

Forastero
Three main types
Forastero superior

Angoleta
Cundeamor

Forastero Inferior

Amelonado
Calbacillo

Forastero Amazonica
These have smooth fruits and deep purple seeds
Amelonado and Forastero Amazonico are the
most commonly cultivated.

Cocoa Hybrids
This is a cross between Criollo and Forastero.

They are referred to as Trinitario.

Commercially Criollo and Trinitario types
are classified as 'choice' from their quality
of flavour.

Harvesting
Ideal harvesting time is one month after the
pods are fully grown.
Uniform ripeness is an important index.
Harvesting involves cutting the fruit from the
tree.
This usually piled on the ground in the farm.
The pods are cut open and the beans withdrawn
either by hand or a wooden spoon
Design challenge: This is a manual operation

Harvested Cocoa Pods

Engineering Design Opportunities for Improved

harvesting handling and pod opening
Harvesting rod-knife cutting mechanism
Assembling of pods
Pod breaking to release fresh beans

Fermentation
This is the first stage in the preparation of cocoa beans
for the market.
The objective is to prepare a stable product with the
desired flavour and aroma desirable for the
manufacture of chocolate.
The main changes taking place during fermentation
are:

Breakdown and removal of pulp

Death of bean
Release of enzymes to reduce astringency
Alteration of texture of seed coat
Colour development

Methods of fermentation
Heap Method.
This is predominant in Ghana.
The fresh beans are heaped on and covered with

plantain leaves.
The heat generated cause the temperature to rise to
about 50C
To ensure uniform heating and aeration, uncover and
mix 2 and 4 days

Sweat boxes

Use a series of perforated boxes constructed without

nails, because iron discolours the beans

Results of fermentation
Well fermented beans are plump,
insufficiently fermented beans are flat
Color changes
Interior of white beans become light cinnamon,
purple beans become chocolate brown

Drying
Simple sun drying is the preferred method in
Ghana.
The fermented beans are spread on raised
platforms on raffia mats.
This yields a better flavour than artificially
dried beans.
This concludes the curing process.

Engineering Design Opportunities in

Cocoa Fermentation and Drying
This is a natural fermentation system. The
required conditions are created through regular
aeration.
Consider bulk fermentation with a mixing system
Understand the critical drying process parameters
in the indigenous sun drying
Mimick the traditional drying process (rate of
moisture loss, rate of heating, mixing and
aeration)

Cocoa processing-Introduction
Dried beans are cleaned, roasted and shelled.
Kernels are ground to give cocoa mass or
chocolate liquor
Cocoa powder: obtained by pulverising the
cake after cocoa butter (fat) is removed from
the liquor
Chocolate: made by mixing chocolate liquor
with sugar, cocoa butter and subjecting
refining processes

Cleaning and Grading

Sifting, brushing and ventilating

Sorting into large, medium and small
Large beans are the best for processing cocoa
and chocolate

Roasting
Purpose is to
develop flavour and aroma,
render the cotyledon plastic for easy grinding.
Loosen seed coat to facilitate easy removal

Roasting Temperature 100-130C

Criollo is lower 90-11OC
Forastero requires higher

Period of roasting 15 minutes to two hours

Continuous or batch operation

Roasting and Cooling

Batch roasting
Rotating drum
Direct heating or passing blast of hot air through
beans

Continuous roasting
Drum type. Horizontal drum through which hot air is
passed or the tower type, in which the beans fall
down a baffled tower with hot air

Beans discharged on to sieve and cooled by

blowing air through perforation in sieve

Breaking and Winnowing

Shell is removed as thoroughly as possible
because it impairs flavour and difficult to grind.
Brittle-roasted beans are cracked between
toothed rollers and the fragments passed
through a series of sieves.
Each sieve fraction meets a countercurrent of air
the velocity of which is adjusted to effect the
separation of shell and nib in the fraction.
Winnowing to separate nibs from shell

Grinding

This transforms the nibs to cocoa liquor

Different types of grinders are available.
Stones, steel rolls, discs or a combination

Manufacture of and Cocoa Butter and

Cocoa Powder

To produce cocoa powder .. A percentage of cocoa

butter must be extracted by pressing from cocoa liquor.
When use for the manufacture of cocoa powder, the
liquor is generally treated with alkali to improve the
colour and develop the flavour.
The process originated from Holland and is referred to
as the 'Dutch process'. It results in the production of
alkalised cocoa. Commercially this is known as 'soluble
cocoa', because the particles remain in suspension
after preparation of beverage.
Alkali may be introduced prior to roasting or at the nib
stage but more economical to mix with cocoa liquor.

Manufacture of and Cocoa Butter and

Cocoa Powder Contd
Pressing
Production of cocoa butter requires the
pressing cocoa liquor leaving a cake containing
only 10% fat or less
Use hydraulic press exerting a pressure of 300 to
600 kg per square cm

Calculation of amount of fat to be

expressed
F = 100(T -t)
100-t
F = fat which must be expressed
T = Fat content of the cocoa liquor
t = required fat content of the cocoa powder

Cocoa powder

From the press, cocoa cake is very hard and must be

broken up.
It is first reduced to lumps about the size of beans
before reaching the pulveriser.
This involves the use of a disintegrator or stone mill.
Temperature control between 2S and 30C by passing
cold air below the pulveriser to prevent the
liquefaction of the fat. Otherwise the colour of the
cocoa powder will deteriorate and it will appear dull
and lustress.
Flavouring may be added-vanillin, cinnamon, almond,
malted barley, groung hops to produce beverage.

Chocolate Manufacture
The operations include:
Mixing
Refining
Conching
Tempering
Cooling

Mixing
Cocoa mass and very fine sugar are weighed and
delivered into a melangeur or kneading machine.
The amount of cocoa butter to be added to
obtain chocolate mass can be calculated from:

x = F.C. + (100 - S - C)
x = The required fat content of the chocolate mass
F = The fat content of the cocoa liquor used
C = The amount of cocoa liquor in the chocolate mass
S = The amount of sucrose in the chocolate mass
required

Example on mixing
The chocolate mass with 35% cocoa fat and 60%
sucrose is to be manufactured. The cocoa liquor
contains 55% cocoa fat. How much cocoa butter
must be added?
35 = 0.55xC + (100 - 60 - C)
C + 11.11kg
The quantity of cocoa butter present in cocoa
liquor is given: (11.11) x (0.55) = 6.11
Therefore 35 - 6.11 = 28.89 kg fat/100kg
chocolate mass must be added.

Mixing cont'd
Flavour and lecithin may also be added
If milk chocolate is being manufactured the
milk is introduced at this stage.
This is in the form of milk powder or block
condensed milk.
If liquid condensed or fresh milk then need
preliminary processing to eliminate most of
the water.

Refining
Refining rolls are used to reduce the size of
coarse particles in the mass by passing
through the rollers.
Through efficient refining the dimensions of
the sugar particles are reduced to between
30 and 25 microns or smaller

Conching
This is a process designed to improve the flavour
and texture of chocolate.
Conching consists of subjecting the refined
chocolate mass to intensive stirring at high
temperature (85C) for varying lengths of time
(1- 7 days)
During the process, cocoa butter is added to
bring the chocolate mass to a suitable working
consistency. Lecithin and volatile flavours may be
made

Conching Cont'd
It is postulated that the following physical and
chemical changes occur during conching.
- separation of the agglomerates into fine particles
- Emulsification of the particles in the fat
- Removal of moisture, air and acid materials
- Increased fluidity
- Rounding off the corners of the larger sugar
crystals to give greater smoothness

Conching cont'd
Several types of conching equipment are
available
The equipment has a shell-like appearance
(concha or shell in Spanish)
The equipment is designed to combine the
processes of mixing, emulsification and
aeration and must be capable of sufficient
grinding to separate adhering sugar particles
and possibly to round off their edges

Tempering

The conched chocolate is stoved in the hot room or in a doublejacketed container prior to being tempered.
The aim of tempering is to condition the chocolate until it is in an
ideal state for deposition into moulds or for coating centres
During carefully regulated tempering, crystallization of
about 3% of the total fat takes place
In bulk the chocolate is tempered in batches in a water
jacketed kettle equipped with scrapers, stirrers ot by
continuous tempering machines which pass the chocolate through
the appropriate temperature cycle over water- cooled rollers or
down a spiral ribbon space in a water- cooled cylinder

Tempering Cont'd
In order to avoid supercooling and to check
the tendency of the grains to coarsen, it is
usual to cool the chocolate to below the
desired temperature and then to bring it back
by cautious reheating
Temperature of tempered chocolate will
generally be in the range 86 to 92F

Cooling

Highly polished metal moulds are warmed up to the same

temperature as the tempered chocolate which they are to
receive.
They pass beneath the depositing tank and an exact
weight of chocolate is forced into each tin.
The filled tins proceed to cooling tunnels, subjected to
mechanical shaking for the liberation of air bubbles
If it is chocolate-centered goods being manufactured,
the centres (which can be nuts, fruits, caramel etc.) are
passed under an enrobing device in which each centre
receives a baptism of chocolate from the enrober tank.