Farm to Bar

From Bean To Bar

Through five generations of leadership in the industry, we've created a collaborative culture where honorably sources ingredients and strong relationships contribute to expertly crafted, high-quality chocolate. It's something we've done since 1868.

Cultivating Cocoa

The finest chocolate begins with cocoa beans that are sourced from around the world for their quality and sustainability. At Guittard, we select single origins for their exclusive flavors and attributes and customize blends and formulas to deliver a premium chocolate experience. Cacao farming is an art unto itself. The careful handling of the crop from growing and harvesting to fermenting and drying are crucial steps in forming flavors. Our beans come from small farms where generations of farmers have carried on the long tradition, providing a livelihood for their families that make their way into our chocolate. We work closely with cacao growers to develop flavors in the beans, from managing the health of the delicate trees and harvesting techniques to identifying ideal and consistent fermentation and drying processes.

Our beans comes from small farms where generations of farmers have carried on the long tradition, providing a livelihood for their families.

Cacao farming is an art unto itself. We work closely with cacao growers and partners to develop flavors in the beans, from selection of planting material, managing the health of the delicate trees and harvesting techniques to identifying ideal and consistent fermentation and drying processes.

Our Process

Harvesting
of Pods

Cacao beans are grown and harvested year-round, primarily from October through March. Frequent harvesting ensures that each cacao pod reaches optimal ripeness before being picked. Once harvested, the pods are opened so the beans can be removed. The beans are covered in a white pulp. The pulp has various flavor characteristics that change based on the variety of the bean - everything from tart, sweet, bright, floral but overall, extremely complex (and delicious!).

Fermenting
Beans

Once removed from their pods, farmers then must ferment the beans. Natural fermentation processes, break down bitter and astringent compounds developing complex flavors and colors. Different origins have different traditions and ferment in various ways; more often than not, you find box fermentation in Latin America whereby heap fermentation is more common in West Africa.

Dried
Beans

Finally, growers spread the beans out to dry naturally in the sun, sometimes using a rake to design traditional, carefully crafted drying patterns. Sun-drying enhances natural chocolate flavor and avoids pitfalls associated with other methods. Guittard chocolate is made almost exclusively of sun-dried beans.

Making Chocolate

Chocolate making is an art unto itself. It starts on the farm where the farmers carefully and artfully harvest, ferment and dry their cacao beans. It continues once small batches of those beans arrive at our California headquarters where we combine generation-old techniques with innovative blends and approaches to craft premium chocolates.

Our Process

Step 1 Roasting,
Winnowing
& Grinding

We begin by roasting the dried cacao beans. Next, they’re winnowed and then slowly ground into fine particles until they become a dark, bitter liquid (chocolate liquor or cocoa mass).

Step 2 Blending
& Refining

Other ingredients, such as sugar, added cocoa butter and milk (in the case of milk chocolate) may be added at this stage. The resulting thick chocolate is taken from the mixer and refined further to an extremely smooth consistency.

Step 3 Conching

Conching is the crucial next step in flavor development, where nuances and complexities are created in the chocolate. Guittard has over 150 years of custom chocolate-making and conching experience, and some of our conching formulas have been handed down over five generations.

Step 4 Tempering
& Molding

Last, the chocolate is tempered to achieve perfect consistency and moulded into bars, wafers and chips.