Raw chocolate, or raw ground chocolate paste when ground, is chocolate produced from cocoa beans that does not contain any additives like sugar.

Production

Chocolate's quality is heavily impacted by the basic raw materials and various steps of its manufacturing process. Traditional chocolate-making steps include conching, tempering, emulsification, flavouring, fermentation, drying, roasting, and grinding cocoa seeds, which are then combined with materials such as cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, and, in certain cases, milk components. Crucial chemical reactions occur throughout these processes, particularly during fermentation, drying, roasting, and conching, which have a substantial impact on the final product's flavour and texture. Furthermore, these stages cause chemical changes that alter the biological properties of cocoa seeds. In contrast to traditional chocolate, which requires roasted cocoa beans, raw chocolate is produced using unroasted cocoa beans, cocoa butter, and cane sugar. This differs from regular chocolate where the cocoa beans must be roasted. Because of the precision required to make raw chocolate, the beans must not exceed 48 C. Crushing and deshelling cocoa beans, refining cane sugar, and conching cocoa butter are all steps in the raw chocolate production process, followed by moulding and refining the combination at a regulated temperature over several weeks. The chocolate is then tempered, crystallised, taken from the mould, and packaged.