Three Cheers for Chocolate

From Cocoa Bean to Grocery Shelf

The cocoa manufacturing process, according to Emily Korns, a registered dietitian and Manager of Health and Science Communications at Mars Inc., involves the following:

• Pod breaking
• Bean fermenting
• Bean drying
• Bean cleaning
• Bean roasting
• Bean winnowing
• Nib grinding
• Liquor pressing
• Cake alkalizing
• Cake milling

Unfortunately, some of this lengthy process takes away from the bean's natural health benefits. For instance, careful bean fermenting is necessary to develop the best chocolate flavor, but "significantly reduces the amount of flavanols," says Korns. "Unfermented beans contain the highest level of flavanols, but they taste bitter, without any chocolate flavor."

Flavanols are also lost during the bean-roasting process, since the high temperatures destroy them. Interaction with other ingredients, such as carbohydrate- and protein-containing ingredients, during batch processing also reduces flavanol content.