HOW LIM CHOCOLATE IS BORN
My chocolate is simple in ingredients but complex in aromas and flavors. This result is thanks to the quality of raw materials and the attention with which we carry out every single action in the long and slow transformation process.
I have tried more than 30 different beans, directly contacting producers in South America, Africa, Indonesia, Asia. Choosing the best beans means obtaining a unique and precious chocolate. Choosing serious and reliable producers means guaranteeing an excellent and safe product for all our customers, creating a supply chain that generates value and respects every protagonist, from the cocoa producer to the final consumer.
Chocolate= cocoa + cane sugar
The cocoa pods, or the fruits of the plant that contain the beans, are hand-picked by the cocoa producers during the harvest period, generally twice a year.
As soon as they are picked, they are opened manually and the beans are harvested, wrapped in a white mucilage, rich in nutrients.
The beans are left to ferment for a few days, generally in wooden boxes. Afterwards, they are dried in the sun, placed on banana leaves or on large wooden shelves. The whole process, on average, lasts from 5 to 10 days.
They are then stored in lute bags, generally 60kg each, ready to be shipped to chocolatiers customers.
SELECTION
Once we have received the beans, we carefully select them to remove any impurities, broken beans, not properly dried, etc.
ROASTING
One of the most important moments of the entire process, because thanks to the roasting the artisan chocolatier makes sure that the beans develop the sought-after aromatic profile, eliminating the acid notes and bringing out the characteristics of the chocolate.
CRACKING & WINNOWING
In English the two terms indicate the breaking phases of the beans, manual in our case. The beans are crumbled and the cocoa is stripped of the skin.
REFINING
This is the time when cocoa turns into chocolate! The beans are stone ground for many hours, so that they can combine perfectly with the cane sugar, giving rise to a velvety chocolate on the palate, rich in aromas and fragrances.
Our chocolate is not concate, but simply refined for more than 24 consecutive hours at a temperature between 50 ° and 60 ° C, obtained by simple friction of the stone wheels of the mills.
AGING
The chocolate is left to rest for about 30 days at a controlled temperature: it is said to rest, but for us this is the real phase of “ripening”.
In fact it is here that the chocolate takes shape and develops the best profile, reaching its maximum expression.
TEMPERAGE AND MODELING
The strictly manual timing phase is essential to ensure that the cocoa butter contained in the chocolate reaches the 5th stage, that is the most stable form of crystallization, responsible for the shine, the best melt and the “snap”, the famous noise that good chocolate should make when broken.
The chocolate is then poured into molds and left to cool before being packaged.
“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry –