Fig. 27.
A thorough mixing with sugar can only be effected when the cacao paste is heated to a temperature rather above the melting point of cacao butter, that is to say, as high as from 35° to 40° C., and consequently the incorporating machine in which that operation is carried on is provided with a steam jacket. For this process it is advisable to have the chocolate in a semi-liquid condition, wherefore the ground cacao issuing from the mills is transferred to steam-heated vessels (fig. 27) fitted with taps suitable for drawing off the mass as it is required. Formerly the cacao mass was fed into the melangeur in lumps and there liquefied. But as this necessitated the application of heat to the melangeur, attended with the risk of cracking its under-plating, and also a postponement of the mixing processes, whereby considerable time was lost, this method no longer obtains to-day. It is at present usual not only to warm the cacao mass beforehand, but the sugar also, by storing it in warm chambers, so that the whole paste possesses a uniform temperature, lowering of temperature in the melangeur is avoided, and there is consequently no waste of the heating steam.
In some large factories the actual incorporation of cacao and sugar is preceded by a preliminary mixing of large quantities, which considerably relieves the strain on the melangeur, whilst it keeps the machine rooms as far as possible free from superfluous dust.
Fig. 28.
The mixing machine shown in fig. 28 can here be used with advantage. As will be seen on comparing the illustration, it is provided with a shifting trough. Such a machine, when closed down, is capable of mixing from 100-500 kilos of chocolate. The mixing is effected by means of two suitably shaped blades, and the heating by a steam jacket. After the operation is completed, the mixed material is turned out into portable troughs, and after having been kept in a warm chamber for some length of time, transferred to the melangeur for further treatment.
It has been found advantageous to keep the chocolate mass so obtained in suitable receptacles for several days[114], at a temperature of not less than 20° C. and between that figure and 40° C. So the sugar is enabled to penetrate the entire mass, which now proceeds to the rolling processes carried out in the melangeur and rolling machines. Shortly before its discharge from the latter, it is mixed with spices, vanillin, eatherial oils and so forth.
Fig. 29.