The manufacture of chocolate demands the most scrupulous care in the
selection of the different kinds of cacao beans, and the mode of mixing
them. A sustained and undivided attention must guide the manufacturer
in order to insure continuous perfection in quality.
Upon the arrival of cacaos in the factory all the bags are opened, and
their contents spread out in a well-aired apartment, in order to dry
the beans and to free them from all humidity previous to the roasting
process.
When thoroughly dried they are placed in a hopper of a separator,
having six compartments formed of metallic grating, whose meshes
being of unequal size mechanically separate the large grains from the
smaller, the flat from the round, and thoroughly free them from all
particles of dust and foreign substances, so that after this first
cleaning and picking the beans are ready for torrefaction (or delicate
roasting), in grains of equal size.
The cacao beans are then roasted in a spherical apparatus having a
rotary motion, heated by a slow and regular fire, whose temperature
does not exceed 130° F.
In roasting some qualities we use, with excellent results, an imported
steam roaster, ours being the only one used in the United States at the
present time.
Each kind of cacao bean is roasted in accordance with its natural
qualities, the maturity of the fruit, and the size of the kernel.
When the cacao beans are sufficiently cooled they are carried to the
hopper of a machine called, in French, _Tarare_ (which is a cracking
and fanning machine combined); they fall into the cracker, where they
are cracked and separated in different sizes by sieves and boards,
which conduct them to the different cases, where they are found
perfectly cleaned.
During the operation the wings of the ventilator, revolving with great
rapidity, carry off into a special room the shells and dust which have
been separated from the grain during the crushing process.
Theory, as well as experience, shows that the proper roasting of cacao
is indispensable to the manufacture of good chocolate. Cacao acquires
different qualities according to the degree of heat to which it is
submitted.
The Italians carry this roasting to excess: their chocolate is more
bitter; it dries and irritates the stomach. The Spanish scarcely
brown their cacaos; hence the aroma is slightly developed, and their
chocolate is more fatty with less flavor, and heavier for digestion.
The process used by the French is the best, being between these two
extremes, and hence their chocolate is reputed excellent, as gratifying
equally the senses of taste and smell. After very careful examination
of the various systems of manufacture, the French has been adopted by
the house of Huyler’s.
The cacao beans thus roasted, cleaned and separated into broken grains,
are then mixed together in the proportions desired, and herein lies the
secret of the manufacture. It is next carried to the drying room, and
from there to the _mélanger_ where it is subjected, along with sugar,
to a first trituration. It then passes on the refiners, which have
from three to five polished granite cylinders, where the chocolate is
subjected to a crushing sufficiently complete to produce a fineness
of quality, and so perfect a union of particles that will present a
chocolate paste of the most delicious taste, and which will melt or
dissolve in the mouth.
After this long-continued grinding to reduce it to the necessary
fineness, the paste is placed in the drying room, heated by steam from
80° to 100° F.
Then the paste having been mixed again in a special _mélanger_
is subjected to pressure in a screw press, in order to drive out the
air so as to insure the preservation of the chocolate. It is next
weighed out in half and quarter pounds, placed in molds on a table,
and submitted to a vigorous shaking, the effect of which is to make the
paste take the exact shape of the molds, which reproduce on the tablets
the name of _Huyler’s_. These molds are at once sent down into the
spacious cellar, specially constructed for the chocolate.
This cellar is flagged with immense stones, and surrounded with thick
flat stone tablets, sealed endwise into the wall, and extending as
shelves, on which the warm molds are deposited.
When the chocolate is ready to be taken from the molds it is sent up to
the folding room, where the employees first wrap it in pure tinfoil, to
keep out moisture and heat (the two great enemies of chocolate); it is
then wrapped, sealed, stamped, packed and put aside, waiting to be sent
to the salesrooms of the house.
As to the processes of manufacture they are under the supervision
of Mr. John S. Huyler, and watched also with attentive and delicate
care by a superintendent, whose great experience (here and in France)
in every branch of chocolate-making and profound knowledge of cacao
beans, assure to those products a uniformity of manufacture, as well as
qualities that invariably answer the description in the price-lists,
and respond in the most desirable manner to the tastes of the consumers.