Are you wondering “how is chocolate made?” Author Ayla Marika explains how chocolate is made and processed on an industrial scale. Using drawings, she shows the steps that cocoa travels to become chocolate, and an overview of factory-produced chocolate.
If you’re curious about how chocolate is made commercially you’re in luck. In this fun and informational article, you’ll discover the steps that raw cacao pods go through, to become packaged chocolate at the store.
Although the industrial process I’ll describe here is of little practical use to home chocolate-makers, it is nonetheless a good introduction to chocolate as a whole including what chocolate is made from, where it comes from, and the theory of how cocoa travels from bean to bar.
This article is an excerpt from my critically-acclaimed graphic non-fiction book How Food is Made: An illustrated guide to how food is produced. If you’re interested in learning more about the book and finding out how other factory foods are made, I encourage you to check out my book How Food is Made: An illustrated guide to how everyday food is produced available in Paperbook and eBook.
But for now, let’s dive into chocolate and in particular, how is chocolate made.
This article was originally published on 7 November 2022, and updated on 21 May 2025 to improve readability and helpfulness.
What is Chocolate Made From? Overview
Guest Post by Ayla Marika, Author & Illustrator of How Food is Made: An illustrated guide to how everyday food is produced
Chocolate is a versatile treat made from the bean (technically, seed) of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. Cacao bean as is, is very bitter and must be fermented to bring out the chocolate flavour we recognise. It is then roasted, sugar and flavors are added, and the mixture is refined (conched) for several days until it resembles chocolate, after which it is tempered and molded. More on this further down.
The three main types of chocolate are white, milk and dark, each denoted by the percentage of cocoa that they contain. Dark chocolate contains more of the bitter cocoa mass, the percentage of which is marked on the label (i.e. 70%).
Milk chocolate contains milk powder or condensed milk and has less cocoa mass than dark chocolate. White chocolate contains no cocoa mass at all, but contains cocoa butter.
The main ingredients found in factory-produced chocolate are:
- Cacao Bean (theobroma cacao) – more in this article
- Sugar
- Milk (liquid, powder)
- Lecithin (eg soy lecithin)
- Flavours (eg vanilla)
How is Chocolate Made? The Factory Process
Industrial Chocolate Making Process – Steps:
Below is an outline of the steps used to manufacture chocolate commercially. Be aware that different manufacturers may use slightly different processes and equipment.
These steps are highly simplified, to give an overview of ‘the process for how chocolate is made, for people with little knowledge of professional food production. They are also covered in greater detail throughout the articles on this website.
- Cacao been pod (theobroma cacao)
- Cacao beans and pulp removed from pod
- Cacao beans and pulp fermented (2-10 days)
- Cacao beans dried then roasted
- Beans cracked and winnowed
- Hulls discarded
- Cacao nibs kept for chocolate
- Nibs ground forming cocoa mass (this paste may be pressed to extract cocoa butter)
- Cocoa mass heated forming chocolate liquor
- Milk, sugar, lecithin and flavors added
- Chocolate passed through rollers to smoothen it (grinding)
- Chocolate mixed in a conche (<6 days)
- Chocolate tempered by repeated heating and cooling
- Chocolate poured into molds and allowed to set
- Chocolate is done!
How is Chocolate Made Industrially – Infographic:
Chocolate History and Culture
The earliest evidence of cacao consumption is dated to 1,900 BCE and comes from the Olmec people from the Mexico region. Cacao was considered a valuable gift from the gods in Mesoamerica and cacao beans were used as form of currency by the Aztecs. Cacao was consumed by the Olmecs, Aztecs and Mayans as an unsweetened, bitter beverage. This beverage could be non-alcoholic or alcoholic (made from fermented cacao). The word chocolate is thought to originate from the Aztec word ‘chocolātl’.
Christopher Columbus became aware of the cacao bean on a trip to the Americas, which he then introduced to Europe. It is believed that the Spanish also came across cacao during their conquests. Spain was the first country to consume cacao in a sweetened form, adding sugar or honey to taste. As chocolate grew in popularity, demand increased. In South America, natural forests were cleared to make way for cocoa estates from the late 1500s. The first cocoa plantations were established in West Africa in the 1800s.
During the industrial revolution, chocolate became more refined due to the invention of new machinery that could be used for chocolate production. One of these machines was the chocolate conche, invented in Switzerland in 1879 by chocolatier Rudolpf Lindt. To this day, Switzerland is considered by many to be the home of some of the world’s finest chocolates.
Unfortunately, the ‘big chocolate’ industry is rife with child labour and child slavery—even today—particularly in West Africa where 60% of the world’s cacao bean is grown. A study in 2016 showed that over 2 million children are involved in child labour and slavery as a direct result of chocolate production.
This article is an excerpt from my book:
How Food is Made
An illustrated guide to how everyday food is produced
Written and Illustrated by Ayla Marika
If you like this article, please consider purchasing the book to learn even more!
Final Thoughts on How is Chocolate Made
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on how chocolate is made industrially, and that you now have a good overview of commercial chocolate production.
This article is an excerpt from my graphic non-fiction book How Food is Made, where I use infographics and simple text to explain how 60 everyday processed foods are made, from raw to supermarket. If you’re curious to learn how many other processed foods are created, including liquorice, sugar, nougat and even chewing gum, please head over to my author website where you can read more articles like this and view samples from the book.
I also hope that this answer to your question “how is chocolate made” has inspired you to try making chocolate at home for yourself. After all, part of my reason for creating the Chocolatiering website is to help educate people about how they can grow and create their own chocolate. So, if you feel inspired to start making your own chocolate, you can read the full step-by-step process for making bean-to-bar chocolate at home in this instructional article by Chef Prish and more chocolate-making tutorials here.
Happy Chocolatiering!
Copyright Notice: This article, including all text, images, and the infographic, is the intellectual property of the original author and is used on this website with permission. The website holds a limited license to display this content on this specific page only. Redistribution, reproduction, or reuse of any part of this post beyond this page is not permitted without the author’s explicit written consent. © 2025 Ayla Marika. All rights reserved.
