The Secrets of Chocolate making
Roasting is the step where fermented and dried cocoa beans are gently heated. It’s essential for turning a plain seed into a flavorful cocoa bean, but its role goes far beyond that.
Naturally Sterilizing the Beans
Like all natural products, cocoa beans can carry bacteria or molds. Roasting sterilizes them naturally, using nothing but heat.
Removing Residual Moisture
Even after drying, cocoa beans retain some moisture (around 5 to 7%). But chocolate and water don’t mix, moisture affects both texture and shelf life. Roasting reduces this humidity to below 2%, ideal for the next stages of production.
Loosening the Shells for Winnowing
Heat makes the shells more brittle, making the next step, winnowing, easier. This is where the shell is separated from the nib, the edible core used for chocolate.
Developing Cocoa’s Aromas
Roasting is when cocoa aromas truly begin to unfold.
The heat:
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releases chocolatey, fruity, or toasted notes
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reduces acidity
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prepares the beans to express their full complexity
In Summary:
Roasting is a critical step to:
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sanitize the beans
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dry them further
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prepare them for processing
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and most importantly… make them taste good
Orfève’s Approach
At Orfève, every batch of beans undergoes a custom roast profile. We test multiple curves, temperature, duration, heat ramp, until we find the one that best reveals the aromatic identity of that harvest.
We roast at lower temperatures to preserve the bean’s natural character, avoiding overpowering toasted notes. To us, roasting isn’t a technical requirement, it’s an act of interpretation in service of taste.