History of cocoa press

During eighteenth century, chocolate was still consumed in liquid form and was mainly sold as pressed blocks of a grainy mass to be dissolved in water or milk to form chocolate drink.

And the biggest problem with the drink was its unpleasant oily taste from the vegetable fat in cocoa beans.

The mass production of these chocolate blocks also began in the eighteenth century when the British Fry family founded the first chocolate factory in 1728 using hydraulic equipment to grind the cocoa beans.

In United States chocolate was first manufactured in1765 by John Hanan and physician James Baker. They opened the first chocolate factory at Milton Lower Mills, Massachusetts.

The production of cocoa and chocolate was truly revolutionized in 1828 by the invention a cocoa press developed by Coenraad Van Houten which succeeded in separating cocoa solid from cocoa butter. This process made chocolate both more consistent and less expensive to produce.

This was a much more effective way to remove the oily butter than boiling and skimming it from the nibs.

In this process, the alkalized nibs are dried, roasted and pressed hydraulically to yield cocoa butter and press cake that still contains up to 20% butter fat for drinking chocolate and some of 10% for industrial applications.

The resulting defatted cocoa powder was much easier to dissolve in water and other liquids and paved the way in 1847, for the invention of the first real ‘eating chocolate’, produced from the addition of coca butter and sugar to cocoa liquid.

In 1847, Fry & Sons Company of Bristol, England, introduced the first chocolate bar meant for eating as a snack.

In the process, the company first pressed some chocolate liquor to extract the cocoa butter. Then they blended this butter back into unpressed chocolate liquor to make a creamy, solid chocolate candy.

The invention of cocoa press brought down the price of chocolate and improved the taste of drinking chocolate by squeezing out cocoa butter.
History of cocoa press

Chocolate Dutching process

A process of solubilizing the coca powder was developed by Conrad J Van Houten in 1828. He discovered that processing chocolate liquor with alkali neutralizes various acids and so tends to increase the chocolate flavor, reduce bitterness and darken the chocolate.

The process was called the Dutching process, and the resultant cocoa is called Dutched cocoa.

The addition of alkali produces a pH of 6.0 to 8.8 in Dutch process chocolates. In contrast, the pH range without the Dutching process is about 5.2 to 6.9.

One of the benefits of Dutch cocoa or chocolate is its reduced tendency to settle out when combined with liquids. The Dutching process develops a more bitter, darker chocolate.

Today, most chocolates are prepared with alkali, a procedure still called ‘Dutching’, and this process made possible a solid eating chocolate.

The invention of milk chocolate powder by Henry Nestle in 1867 made chocolates much more palatable to people taste.
Chocolate Dutching process