What Is Golden Tree Chocolate?
Golden Tree is the brand name of the Cocoa Processing Company Limited – a mostly state owned company with a mission to process some of Ghana’s cacao locally rather than exporting it all to foreign chocolate manufacturers. That has to be a good thing. This particular bar is a 35% milk chocolate with 15% milk solids.
We process only the choicest premium Ghana cocoa beans without any blending. Cocoa Processing Company is probably the only factory in the world which can make such a claim. Through intensive research and product development, we turn out products, which meet international quality standards and also consumer satisfaction.
Which Company Produces Golden Tree Chocolate?
“Akuafo” is an Akan word for farmers. Akuafo bar GoldenTree chocolate is therefore a dedication to farmers whose hard work and sweat sustain the Ghanaian economy.
The Cocoa Processing Enterprise Limited, also known as Golden Tree, is a primarily state-owned company with an aim to process some of Ghana’s cacao locally rather than selling it all to overseas chocolate manufacturers.
That has to be beneficial.
The golden tree chocolate bar is made up of 35% milk chocolate and 15% milk solids.
GoldenTree confectionery goods are made entirely of Ghana premium cocoa beans, with no cocoa butter replacements.
GoldenTree chocolates have continued to please discerning consumers since our first bar was created in February 1965.
GoldenTree chocolate bars are designed to survive the hot tropical climates of Ghana and other parts of Africa.
Other available sizes are 20g and 100g.
The GoldenTree de luxe chocolate bars are our flagship offering.
Kingsbite, Oranco, Akuafo, Coffee Choc, Portem Nut, Portem Pride, Tetteh Quarshie, and Aspire are among the seven brands available.
Currently they are produced sizes in 20g, 50g and 100g.
How Golden Tree Chocolate is Made:
Chocolate is made from the fruit of cacao trees, which are native to Central and South America. The fruits are called pods and each pod contains around 40 cacao beans. The beans are dried and roasted to create cocoa beans.
It’s unclear exactly when cacao came on the scene or who invented it. According to Hayes Lavis, cultural arts curator for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, ancient Olmec pots and vessels from around 1500 B.C. were discovered with traces of theobromine, a stimulant compound found in chocolate and tea.
It’s thought the Olmecs used cacao to create a ceremonial drink. However, since they kept no written history, opinions differ on if they used cacao beans in their concoctions or just the pulp of the cacao pod.
Chocolate production begins at the cocoa tree, where cocoa pods containing cocoa beans in a cotton wool-like pulp are harvested between October and December. The beans are placed between layers of banana leaves for six days to drain the pulp away, a method known as ‘heap’, before being dried in the sun, packaged and sent to a factory for chocolate making.
Inside a chocolate factory, the beans are heated inside a continuous roaster as they travel along a conveyor belt. The time of this process varies depending on the flavour required. Once suitably roasted, they are broken down into small pieces and their brittle shells are removed, leaving only the meaty centres of the beans, the ‘nibs’, which contain the essential cocoa butter for chocolate production. A mill grinds these nibs into a thick brown liquid known as ‘cocoa liquor’, the basis of all chocolate products, which is then mixed with varying amounts of sugar and milk depending on the required type of chocolate. Typically, dark chocolate consists of 70% cocoa liquor, while milk and white chocolate have 30%.
Vacuum ovens then dry this mixture into what is known as a chocolate ‘crumb’, before giant rollers squash the liquid together. It is then grinded between rollers to improve the silky texture, before being smoothed even further in a process known as ‘conching’. This involves kneading the mixture in giant tanks at about 46°C, with the very best chocolate being conched for more than a week. The final process is tempering, where the liquid is continuously cooled and heated in a cycle until it is a stable chocolaty consistency.
After this stage of the chocolate-making process, the liquid can be poured into moulds, cooled and wrapped at high speeds to make products like bars of chocolate. To make chocolate with a particular filling, such as caramel, the insides of the bars pass along a conveyor belt and are ‘enrobed’ by the liquid chocolate before being cooled and wrapped.
Golden Tree Chocolate Prices In Ghana:
Golden Tree Chocolate 50g (Box of 20pcs) ; GHS69.00
Golden Tree Chocolate 100g(Pack of 10) ; GHS113.85