How Chocolate Is Made

At the factory, the cacao beans are first sifted for foreign objects. The cacao is weighed and sorted by type so that the manufacture knows exactly what type of cacao is going into the chocolate. Next, the cacao beans are roasted in large, rotating ovens, at temperature of about 210-290 F. Roasting last from half an hour to two hours. The heat brings out more flavor and aroma. And it dries and darkens the beans. Then, the cacao beans are cracked and winnowed, that is, their outer shells are cracked blown away, leaving the crushed and broken pieces of cacao benas, called nibs. Now, on the chocolate, which we'll make with the other half of our chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor by itself is bitter and not very smooth and creamy. To sweeten it up and improve the texture, the manufacturer will add things like sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla and milk. The cacao and the sugar are still pretty grainy at this point, so the manufacturer runs the mixture through a series of steel rollers to refine the texture.

What happens when cacao beans are roasted at a quite high temperature?