Harvesting
After harvesting the cacao pods (which contain the cacao beans) the pods are crushed and left to ferment and dry for about six days. Then the beans are removed from the pods and left to further dry. Quality chocolate demands this slow drying process. Mass produced, lower quality chocolate is made by an artificial drying methods which greatly speeds up the process, but loses quality of product.

The beans are then roasted and ground removing Cocoa butter from the resulting chocolate liquor either by being pressed or by the Broma process leaving a residue known as cocoa powder.

Blending
Different types of chocolate are made by blending the Chocolate liquor with the butter in varying quantities. The followiing is a list of the basic blends of ingredients, in order of highest quantity first:

Plain dark chocolate: cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, and vanilla. Milk chocolate: sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, and vanilla. White chocolate: sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa butter, and vanilla. Usually, an emulsifying agent such as soya lecithin is added, though a few manufacturers prefer to exclude this ingredient for purity reasons and to remain GMO-free (soya is a heavily genetically modified crop), sometimes at the cost of a perfectly smooth texture.

Different brand names develop their own chocolate blends based on the above formulas, but by varying the proportions of the different ingredients used.

The finest plain dark chocolate couvertures contain at least 70% cocoa (solids + butter), whereas milk chocolate usually contains up to 50%. High quality white chocolate couvertures contain only about 33% cocoa. Inferior and mass produced chocolate contains much less cocoa (as low as 7% in many cases) and fats other than cocoa butter. Some chocolate-makers opine that these "brand name" milk chocolate products can not be classed as couverture or even as chocolate, because of the low or virtually non-existent cocoa content.

Conching
The penultimate process is called conching. A conche is a container filled with metal beads, which act as grinders. The refined and blended chocolate mass is kept liquid by frictional heat. The conching process produces cocoa and sugar particles smaller than the tongue can detect, hence the smooth feel in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of chocolate. High quality chocolate is conched for about 72 hrs, lesser grades about 4-6 hrs. After the process is complete, the chocolate mass is stored in tanks heated to approximately 45-50° C until final processing.

Tempering
The final process is called tempering. Since cocoa butter exhibits a polymorphous or unstable crystal formation, the mass must be cooled very carefully to encourage the crystals to stabilise in the right order to produce the desired properties of snappy bite, tender melt and a good gloss in the finished product. This is achieved by the tempering process. Firstly, the mass is cooled in stages from about 45°C to about 27°C and rewarmed to about 37°C followed by cooling down to its solid state.

The chocolate is then ready for sale as couverture (used for coating chocolates, biscuits and other coated products) or as the finished product, such as solid chocolate bars.

Storing
Chocolate is very sensitive to temperature and humidity. Ideal storage temperatures are between 15 to 17 celsius (59 to 63 Fahrenheit), with a relative humidity of less than 50%. Chocolate should be stored away from other foods as chocolates act as sponges to different aromas. Ideally, chocolates are packed or wrapped and then placed in proper storage areas with the correct humidity and temperatures.