We had our annual cooking trip to the chocolate factory . We got to taste all types of chocolate from all around the world while learning about how chocolate is ACTUAL- LY made . The steps to making chocolate are really detailed and a lot more complicated than you might think . Most of the chocolate you eat comes from central and south America where they harvest the cacao beans . They go through so many steps to end up at your local store !
After arriving , we watched a documentary about the owner of the Zotter Chocolate Museum and his family . We also learned about the types of chocolate and how white Chocolate isn ’ t exactly made from cocoa beans ! Seeing the processes of fermenting , drying , grinding , and mixing was really educational . We sat in a projecting room where we left out bags . Then , we headed towards the first taste testing section ...
The first taste testing section was just cocoa beans with the skin ! It was already fermented and dried and in my honest opinion it tasted pretty good . It had a salty flavor but the aftertaste was super bitter . Then we saw a live chocolate fountain – but strangely to me it had zero sugar and no milk . This was a showcase of just pure grinded cocoa beans . Since the cocoa beans are around 20 % oil , if you grind them 6 times , they become a silky liquid form . We tasted it raw and of course , it was really bitter . In the next station we added brown sugar , white sugar and milk powder into this bitter chocolate base . This improved the taste a lot while highlighting the original bitterness unlike a lot of chocolates sold today .
In the next station , we got to taste lots of flavored chocolate fountains . There were hazelnut , rice , soy , almond , and milk chocolate fountains . They had sugar , milk and other flavoring added to the mix already . The stations developed to more complicated flavors as we walked . There was a water fountain to cleanse your palette . Meanwhile , our tour guide told us that by the end of today , everyone would have eaten about 1 kg of chocolate . 1 kg of chocolate sounded INSANE . But I just kept going since it ’ s not everyday you get to taste so many types of chocolate .
We got to smell different spices and seasonings commonly found in chocolate . For example mint , lavender , rose petals , coconut shreds and much more . We also got to taste some of Zotter ’ s chocolates . Raspberry , passion fruit and milk ‘ choate ’ mini chocs .