In chocolate making, the Broma process is a method of extracting
cocoa butter from roasted
cocoa bean
The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa () or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao tree ...
s, credited to an employee working for the chocolatier
Domingo Ghirardelli
Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli (; February 21, 1817 – January 17, 1894) was an Italian-born chocolatier who was the founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California.
Biography
Early life
Domenico Ghirardelli was bor ...
.
The Broma process involves hanging bags of
chocolate liquor, made from roasted and ground cocoa beans, in a very warm room, above the melting point of
cocoa butter (slightly above room temperature), and allowing the butter to drip off the bags, where it is collected.
The
Dutch process adds an extra processing step to the Broma process whereby, after the cocoa butter has been drained off, the beans are soaked in an
alkaline
In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...
solution to make them
chemically neutral.
After removal, the cocoa butter can be used either to produce richer
bars of chocolate, or, when combined with powdered milk and sugar, to create
white chocolate. Once the Broma process is complete, the remaining dry cocoa beans are usually ground into
cocoa powder, which is sold to consumers.
References
{{Chocolate
Chocolate industry