The Cocoa tree, Theobroma Cacao, grows in the tropics about 20 degrees north and south of the Equator. It can be found in areas of West Africa, Latin America, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Its fruit is a melon-shaped cob, also called “pod”, and contains about 40 kernels (beans). The Cocoa tree bares fruit twice a year, one main crop and halfway the year an intermediate smaller crop. Once the Cocoa pods have been manually picked from the trees, the kernels will be removed from the pod and spread out on the ground to be covered with banana leaves. The heat of the sun will ferment these beans within a couple of days.

In the factory, during the processing of the beans, they are first cleaned, de-shelled and roasted to obtain a liquid slurry called Cocoa Liquor or Cocoa Mass, which is the main ingredient for chocolate.

The Cocoa Liquor is then hydraulically pressed, which results in 2 components, namely a liquid one (called Cocoa Butter) and a solid one (called Cocoa Cake).

At Indcresa we use the Cocoa Cake as a raw material to grind and alkalize into various types of Cocoa Powder.