Chocolate as we know it comes from the cocoa tree and its cocoa pods.

Cocoa pods contain anywhere between 25 and 50 cocoa beans and from those beans we get cocoa mass and cocoa butter which in varying ratios, combine to create chocolate.

Through a process of fermenting the beans, chocolate producers can create different flavour profiles within the cocoa beans that pastry chefs and chocolatiers alike can profit from.

Once the cocoa beans have been fermented, they are ground, first into small fragments and then into a paste known as cocoa mass.

The cocoa mass paste is then subjected to a process called conching. Through this, unpleasant characteristics can be removed and a more silky texture is achieved.

This refined cocoa mass can now be turned into chocolate with the addition of milk. sugar and cocoa butter.