Method of producing granular cocoa
AssigneeMorinaga & Co., Ltd.
InventorsJun Hara, Masao Takeuchi, Takeshi Morishima
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Abstract
Improved granular cocoa which is sufficiently dense and stiff but nevertheless is readily soluble in water, even in cold water, can be produced without using any binder by subjecting a cocoa powder of which fat content is 12-29% to compression, feeding the compressed powder to a roller press thereby forming small plate-like agglomerates which are 0.5-3 mm thick, and crushing and sifting the agglomerates to obtain 10-30 mesh granules of cocoa. The physical properties of the cocoa granules are further improved by ageing the granules at temperatures below about 27.degree. C., most preferably at 15-25.degree. C., for a few hours to several days. the starting cocoa powder may have been added with powdered sugar and/or milk.
Claims9
A method of producing a granular cocoa, comprising the steps of:
- subjecting a cocoa powder of which fat content is in the range from 12 to 29% by weight to such an extent of compression that said cocoa powder exhibits an appreciable increase in bulk density but still remains in powder form;
- feeding said cocoa powder in the compressed state to a roller press such that a pair of rolls of said roller press force the individual particles of said cocoa powder to strongly cohere to one another thereby forming small plate-like agglomerates of said cocoa powder, each of said plate-like agglomerates being about 0.5 mm to about 3 mm in thickness;
- and
- crushing and sifting said plate-like agglomerates so as to obtain cocoa granules which are between 10 and 30 mesh in size.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.