How is Chocolate Refined?

The fineness of the ground chocolate material has reached the requirement, but it is not lubricated enough and the taste is not satisfactory. Therefore, further refining is needed to improve the quality of chocolate.

How is Chocolate Refined?

• The first step is to remove excess water and purify the fragrance;
• The second step is to re-add the cocoa butter and other ingredients, spend a few days stirring and grinding into a finer state of small molecules to form a fine and smooth texture.

Generally, the longer the refining time, the better the quality of the finished chocolate and the higher the price.

Changes in the chocolate refining process:

① Changes in moisture
The water content of the chocolate directly affects the quality and shelf life of the chocolate, as well as the characteristics of the chocolate production operation.

In the refining process, due to the long-term heating of the material, the movement of the material molecules is greatly accelerated, and the water molecules in the material, especially the water molecules in the free state, are quickly lost. In addition, as the particles of the material become smaller during the refining process, the surface area increases, which is equivalent to expanding the evaporation area, resulting in a decrease in the water content of the material.

Comparison of water content: 1.19% before refining, 0.95% refining for 24 hours, and 0.91% refining for 72 hours.

② Viscosity change
There are many factors that affect the viscosity of chocolate materials: material fineness, material composition, fat content, phospholipid content, material temperature and so on.
When the water content of the refined material decreases, the viscosity of the material decreases.
In modern chocolate refining, surfactants such as phospholipids are added to the material to make the thick state of the chocolate material become thinner, so as to reduce the viscosity of the material. In actual production, the amount of phospholipid added is controlled between 0.3% and 0.5%.

③ Changes in particles
After the chocolate material is refined, its particles are further reduced, effectively changing the shape of the plasmid, smoothing and polishing the polyhedron particles, so that the chocolate material has a good smooth taste. On the other hand, refining makes the material particles evenly dispersed and reorganized.

④ Change of emulsification state
During the chocolate refining process, the interface of the material increases. Under the action of constant pushing and friction, the participation of the surfactant phospholipid makes the material particles more evenly dispersed in the liquid fat medium. At the same time, a very stable emulsified structure will be formed. This highly uniform structure has extremely high stability after further temperature adjustment and cooling and solidification. That's why the finished chocolate tastes so delicate and smooth.

⑤ Changes in color, aroma and taste
Through refining, the chocolate material plasmid and fat are fully emulsified, and the particle size and shape change, resulting in changes in the optical properties of the object's appearance. The color of the refined chocolate becomes lighter, brighter and softer. Milk chocolate performance is more obvious.


Chocolate Refiner Machine
Refining chocolate requires the use of corresponding equipment. The refiner has the dual functions of grinding and refining, and is used for fine grinding of chocolate slurry. It is a refining machine that is more commonly used and widely used in industry.

• It has a good effect on dehydration and deodorization, and can maintain the natural color and fragrance of chocolate.
• In addition, the chocolate refiner is double-jacketed for heat preservation, the temperature can be controlled and adjusted, and the heat preservation performance is good.

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