Cacao beans come from the cacao trees in tropical jungles. The trees have very large pods with 20 to 50 seeds in each (cocoa/cacao beans). It takes roughly 400 beans to make a pound of chocolate.
When the seeds/beans are first harvested, they are soft. So they are laid out to dry, in a process called fermentation. The color darkens and the flavor develops.
At the factory, beans are sorted by country of origin due to their distinctive tastes and are later combined to create a signature mix (in the case of Hershey).
The factory process then begins. First is a spin in the revolving roaster, which develops the flavor of the beans. Beneath this photo is a photo of the old-time roaster.
The roasted beans are then shattered to separate the shell from the nib, which is the part with all the flavor.
The nibs are then milled and ground until they release chocolate liquor (which contains no actual alcohol).
Under pressure, roughly 1/2 the vegetable fat (cocoa butter) can be extracted from the liquor.
This leaves the solids, which are pressed into a cake. This can later be smashed to make cocoa powder!
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