Methods and systems for providing processed cocoa nibs are provided. The methods involve coarse grinding cocoa nibs to form a slurry and subjecting less than all of the cocoa slurry to refining. The refined and unrefined volumes or portions of cocoa slurry are then recombined to provide a recombined cocoa product. The cocoa nibs produced by the method may be further processed to provide cocoa liquor or chocolate.

The invention provides a chocolate having strong aroma characteristics. The aroma characteristics may include at least one of a fruity aroma and a floral aroma, and isoamyl acetate may be contained as an aroma component. The invention also provides a novel method for producing a chocolate having strong aroma characteristics. The method includes a step of crushing at least a cacao raw material and a sugar raw material in a sealed crusher.

A colloid mill for reducing a particle size of particles having a rotor and a stator, which are arranged coaxially one inside the other. The colloid mill has a material inlet for introducing a suspension or emulsion on a first axial side and a product outlet for conducting away the suspension or emulsion on a second axial side. The rotor has a rotor grinding surface, and/or the stator has a stator grinding surface. The rotor grinding surface has a grinding tooth with a shearing surface and/or shearing edge, the cross-sectional surface of which grinding tooth tapers, in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation, wherein the cross-sectional surface has a first leg, which adjoins a base side and encloses an angle with the base side.

The present invention provides lactic acid bacterium-containing chocolate containing a lactic acid bacterium in a living state, wherein the average particle size of the solid particles in the lactic acid bacterium-containing chocolate is larger than 1 m and less than 9 m, and a manufacturing method thereof.

The present invention relates to a process for the manufacture of a chocolate product involving the use of hydrated salt, hydrated sugar or hydrated sugar alcohol in the underlying chocolate mass and comprising the steps of refining, conching and optionally tempering of the chocolate mass. The invention further relates to a chocolate product comprising a chocolate mass comprising certain weight proportions of hydratable salt, hydratable sugar or hydratable sugar alcohol, as obtainable by the process of the invention.

A method for treating a viscous mass comprising solid components in a grinding system, especially a fatty mass with solid components, comprising a mixer and a grinding device, comprising the steps of: feeding into a mixer the mass to be treated; repeatedly circulating the mass to be treated by means of a displacement device from the mixer through a supply pipe to the grinding device and through a return pipe back to the mixer for reducing the size of the solid components in the grinding device; removing from the system at least part of the treated mass through a branch-off provided in the return line when a predetermined grinding fineness has been obtained; and feeding into the mixer a new mass to be treated and at least partly displacing the new mass to be treated in the grinding device via the displacement device and as a consequence removing at least another part of the treated mass from said system.

The present disclosure provides freeze-dried chocolate and a preparation process thereof, and belongs to the fields of chocolate processing technology and freeze-dried food processing technology. The freeze-dried chocolate provided by the present disclosure uses a chocolate powder with a total fat content of ?25% and a particle size of ?35 ?m as an ingredient. The chocolate powder is mixed with a solvent to successively undergo filling, freeze-forming, freeze-drying, and demolding to obtain the freeze-dried chocolate. A skeleton for constructing a porous structure of the freeze-dried chocolate provided by the present disclosure includes non-fat materials, which do not construct a continuous fat phase and do not have the problem of deformation, collapse, and oil-off caused by oil/fat melting at high temperatures.

The present invention provides a milk-type or white-type chocolate comprising a protein-rich fraction derived from chickpea seeds, wherein the protein content of the protein-rich fraction of chickpea seeds is at least 40.0% (w/w dry matter (DM)). Also provided is a method for preparing milk-type or white-type chocolate as taught herein, a bakery or confectionery product comprising the chocolate as taught herein, a method for preparing such bakery or confectionery product, and the use of a protein-rich fraction derived from chickpea seeds having a protein content of at least 40.0% (w/w DM) and optionally one or more bulking agents as a complete or partial replacer for one or more dairy components in a chocolate recipe.