Cocoa. Our unique know-how.
Cocoa is the most typical ingredient in chocolate, and we use it in some of our most loved products for its remarkable combination of flavour and taste, carefully selecting it and processing it.
Experts at cocoa processing
Through the years we have developed a unique expertise in combining and processing the different cocoa beans to create the special aroma and taste of our recipes.
Once the cocoa beans have been removed from the ripe fruit, they are left to ferment for a week, usually under banana leaves, to allow the natural flavours and aromas to develop, and then dried for five days before being shipped to our factories. Here they undergo our rigorous quality controls: organoleptic, physical, chemical, microbiological checks. We then further dry the beans and grind them into a mill that separates the edible ground nibs from the skin.
The ground nibs are finally roasted to enhance their aroma and colour and because we roast most of the beans ourselves, we can constantly monitor their fragrance, quality and freshness. Then we grind the roasted nibs obtaining a cocoa mass that is then pressed to separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa "cake". Lastly, we break the cocoa cake to get the cocoa powder that we use in our recipes.
The cocoa mass, which is rich in precious cocoa butter, mixed with sugar and other ingredients then processed, gives the Kinder dark chocolate. If added with different percentages of whole milk powder, it gives origin to the different kinds of milk chocolates used for Kinder treats.
Supporting Farmers
Cocoa is mainly produced in developing countries by smallholder farmers who face various economic, social, and environmental issues, such as lack of access to resources, limited knowledge of good agricultural practices, and climate change.
Through our sustainability programme for cocoa, we support farmers in adopting sustainable agricultural practices aimed at fostering a sustainable livelihood while respecting the local communities and environment. We also help them to diversify their incomes, as well as increasing the resilience of their communities.
We also actively support initiatives that have a broader scope than our direct supply chain and aim at protecting cocoa farming communities and their environment. To do so, we became a member of the International Cocoa Initiative in 2008, and we joined the World Cocoa Foundation in 2005.
In early 2021, we also partnered with the NGO Save the Children to protect children’s rights and promote education in cocoa growing communities in West Africa.
