Conche

The Conchiermaschine, also briefly called Conche ( the span concha, shell, because of the original shell shape of the trough ), is in the production of chocolate a special agitator, which makes possible the melting character of the final product.

Invention

In 1826, the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Philippe Suchard invented the Mélangeur - a machine for mixing of sugar and cocoa powder. In December 1879 the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Rodolphe Lindt succeeded by his invention of the Conche a significant improvement: the hitherto usual brittle - sandy consistency of commercially available chocolate, bitter in taste and in no way zergehend on the tongue, received today an estimated fine creamy, melt-in structure.

Operation

The after mixing the ingredients (cocoa butter, cocoa mass, sugar, milk powder) in Mélangeur (Mixer) resulting mass is two to four percent residual moisture although quite dry, but still contains so much water that the dissolved sugar partially crystallized again and the structure the mass very rugged. In the countless tiny columns disappear smoothing fat portions of the cocoa butter. The chocolate mass acts crumbly, almost mealy.

Rodolphe Lindt knew he had to escape this chocolate mass more moisture to prevent the crystallization of the sugar. He constructed a stirring machine, a so-called " longitudinal Rubber": A flat elongate basin of granite, granite rollers on the back and move. By the resulting friction, the mass is heated in the vessel to 76 ° C to 78 ° C and thereby in liquid form. The rollers hit it against the edges, so that the chocolate essence spills over the rollers back into the main part of the mechanism and thereby the residual moisture by evaporation decreases to less than one percent.

Whether Lindt has now been experimenting with longer maturities his machine or simply forgotten once to turn them off, is not known. The result after 72 hours of stirring in the Conche certainly was amazing - Lindt was something completely new front: a low-gloss, liquid mass, which could be easily poured into molds, had a wonderful aroma and zerging especially on the tongue.

With modern conches conching only takes about 12 to 48 hours at the same good results. For several years, semi-continuous high- conches are worldwide ( PIV) in operation. These machines operate with a much higher shear rate than traditional conches and can do the entire conching process at the same good qualities in about 1 hour.

Refinement of taste

Not only water, but also smell, bitter and aromatic components evaporate by long conching. The taste of chocolate is positively influenced. Through separate treatment of the cocoa mass used the water and a large part of the undesirable flavors may be removed in advance. This allows the necessary conching significantly shortened.

However, this change in flavor is not desirable for all chocolate consumers, because by long conching go those flavoring substances lost, give the chocolate its distinctive flavors. Unlike frequently advertised product marketing of the chocolate industry, no inference can be made on the product quality from the duration of the conching process.

Development

The procedure, which was founded in 1899 after selling the company Lindt Chocolat Sprüngli AG to ( Zurich ) used by this further, came despite secrecy in 1901 in the trade press and has since been adopted by other manufacturers worldwide.

With improvements, one tries to shorten the procedure and better control. While Lindt's great- Conche heated by friction only, was later heated with steam and hot water. The process of heating, the temperature profile and the final temperature reached (55 to 90 ° C) are now part of the recipe, because they affect the taste of chocolate as well as the duration of conching. The skill is to control the temperature so that undesirable flavors evaporate, but not desirable. Equally important is the temperature control during cooling. This decides whether the finished chocolate has just the right luster and breaks with the desired "click ".

Some chocolates can be conched to twelve hours, others up to three days. Since longitudinal collectors take more than 1000 kg and have a high energy and time requirements, they are considered obsolete and uneconomical. Today, we mostly used Rundconchen that move up to nine tonnes of chocolate mass with circular rotating arms. There are now several types and techniques are used to attempt to streamline the complex process of conching. Depending on the machine, the final product is the same raw material composition but have quite different flavors.