Verkade, or shall I say Royal Verkade is a 125 year old dutch company that started out making bread, but is currently well-known for its biscuits and chocolate. Located in Zaandam, across the river is the Verkade Museum. Keeping the tradition and memory alive of this great company, the museum holds a great number of pictures and equipment showing the rich history of this company. Started by Erik Verkade, at a relatively late age, 50-something, management has been kept in the hands of the family till now.

Below is a small tour through the museum, showing a chocolate making machine used back in the ’50′s.

The Chocolate making process:

1. Cocoa Beans – Cocoa beans, the most important ingredient for chocolate, are harvested in West Africa (Ghana and Ivory Coast), cleaned and shipped in jute sacks.
2. Roasting Oven – The beans are then put into a (round) container and roasted for about 10 to 15 min.
3. Crusher – The beans, now dark brown, are broken down between the rollers of a crusher.
4. Jacob’s Ladder 1 – The crushed beans are then taken to the next phase using this Jacob’s Ladder.
5. Sifter – The crushed beans are a mixture of kernels and husks and since only the kernels are used for chocolate, these have to be sifted out.
6. Jacob’s Ladder 2 – Another ladder takes the kernels (called nibs) to the mill.
7. The Cocoa Mill – The nibs are then ground in the cocoa-mill, melting into a liquid mass when it reaches a temperature of 36°C. It is then transferred to the melange. (37°C is the body temperature, that is why chocolate melts in your mouth).
8. Melangeur (or blender) – Here, all raw ingredients for chocolate are mixed.
9. Preliminary Roller – The resulting chocolate paste is then passed through a roller to make the particles in the mixture smaller.
10. Fine Roller – The chocolate paste goes through a second roller to make it even smoother.
11. Conche – This is the final part of the making process, conching. Cocoa butter is added and then the chocolate in the conche is rolled and stirred over a period of time so that the ingredients can gently mingle together. The final quality of chocolate bars is directly related to how long they are “conched”. Verkade chocolate bars are conched for 72 hours.
12. Tempering – After conching, the chocolate is ready to be made into bars. The temperature of the chocolate must be precise – too cold and it will not pour into the moulds; too hot and the ingredients will separate. The equipment used uses hot and cold water to regulate the temperature to 32°C.
13. Chocolate is then poured into moulds.
14. The moulds are then vibrated, removing air bubbles.
15. The chocolate is then cooled in a fridge.
16. The chocolate bars are then tapped out of the moulds and ready to be packed!
17. Chocolate Packing Machine – An ingenious technique is used to wrap the paper wrapper around the foil-covered chocolate.

Enjoy your chocolates, wherever you are….