How is Divine Chocolate made?Where does chocolate come from?

Does it start as a baby and grow up to be a strong chocolate bar? No!Does it come from the clouds?No! Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cocoa tree, which grows in the tropical rainforest!

At Divine, cocoa farmers work on their small family farms in Ghana and São Tomé to harvest cocoa pods from their cocoa trees. Inside each pod rests 20-50 cocoa beans.

Let’s make chocolate! Here’s how the fruits of the cocoa tree are turned into the chocolate bars and treats you eat:

HarvestFirst, farmers harvest the cocoa pod and remove the beans with a sharp knife. The

beans are white and taste super bitter.

FermentationThen, the beans are put into heaps with big plantain leaves placed on top.

Here they undergo “fermentation.” This means the beans break down and their chocolate flavor begins to form.

Drying & Bagging the Beans!Next the beans have to dry. They are spread out on long tables in the sun.

Once dry, the beans are put into bags, weighed, and sold to a person who buys Fairtrade cocoa. When cocoa is Certified Fairtrade, it means the farmer gets a fair amount of money

for their work.

First, the beans are cleaned.

Second, they are roasted at 250-300F — this makes the beans even more chocolatey!

Third, the beans are crushed in a process called “winnowing.” The hard shells are discarded and the inside is kept. This is called a cocoa nib!

Fourth, the factory takes the cocoa nibs and mashes them into a thick, creamy mass.

Finally, they separate the cocoa butter and the cocoa powder.

Factory!At the factory, there are five big steps before they can make a chocolate bar!

We are now ready to make chocolate! Cocoa butter, cocoa powder, sugar and milk are added and mixed for a few days. This is

called “conching.”

Once the chocolate is cooled through “tempering,” it is ready to go into the chocolate bar molds!

Now, hundreds of chocolate bars are molded and wrapped in a special package unique to the flavor! The bars are packed up and taken to the stores for you and me to buy off of the

shelves!

A good thing about buying Divine Chocolate is that the money you use to buy the chocolate goes back to support farmers. This means they have good lives and can continue growing cocoa for more

people to enjoy in their chocolate bars!

Thanks for supporting Divine Chocolate!