Now that we know a brief history of chocolate, let's find out how exactly it becomes the bars we all know and love.

Turning cacao seeds into chocolate requires time, effort, and artistry. It's a fascinating process that takes you from tropical rainforests to huge factories.

First, farmers grow cacao, and then they harvest, ferment, and dry it by hand. Next, traders and import/export houses sell the seeds on the Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange to companies that process the seeds into various chocolate products.

The first stage in turning cacao into chocolate candy requires humans, not machines. Farmers must harvest pods and prepare seeds for shipment by hand. This labor-intensive process is long and difficult, but necessary to turn it into chocolate. Then they are sold across the world.

Chocolate manufacturers keep careful track of each cacao shipment they receive. They sort the seeds according to type and country of origin. Next, the seeds pass through a cleaning machine that removes bits of remaining pulp and debris. Then the seeds are carefully weighed so they can eventually be blended according to special formulas created by each manufacturer. Some candy bars contain up to 12 different types of seeds.

The key to excellent chocolate flavor is roasting. Large, rotating ovens roast the seeds at temperatures of 250°F or more to release the rich aromas and delicious taste.

Roasting can last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, depending upon the variety of seed.

As the seeds toss about in the oven, they lose much of their moisture. Eventually, they turn a deep brown color, similar to coffee beans. The roasting process makes the shells of the cacao rather brittle. Once the seeds have cooled, the giant winnowing machine can begin its job.

Inside this machine, cones that are serrated like the edges of a knife crack open (rather than crush) the thin shells to get at the seeds. Giant fans then blow away these empty husks.

Next, the remaining broken seed bits, called nibs, pass through a series of sieves, which strain and sort the nibs according to size in a process called "winnowing."

The nibs themselves are made up of 53% cocoa butter and 47% pure cocoa solids. Separating these two substances takes work. In this step, the nibs are milled—crushed by heavy steel discs. This process generates enough friction and heat to liquefy the nibs into a thick paste, called chocolate liquor. Some of the chocolate liquor is placed in a huge, 25-ton hydraulic press, which squeezes out the cocoa butter. This fatty, yellow substance drains away through metallic screens. Then, it can be added to dark or milk chocolates, used as the basis for white chocolate, or used in cosmetics and medicine. Once cocoa butter is extracted, the remaining solid cocoa is pulverized into cocoa powder—the product used in beverages, cooking, and baking.

Manufacturers blend unpressed liquor with condensed milk, sugar, and extra cocoa butter to form chocolate. The extra cocoa butter keeps the chocolate solid at room temperature. That explains why chocolate doesn't spoil—and why it melts in the warmth of your mouth.

The raw mixture of milk, liquor, sugar, and cocoa butter is churned until it becomes a coarse, brown powder called "crumb."

Next, the chocolate crumb mixture goes through a series of steel rollers stacked on top of one another. These break down the tiny particles of milk, cocoa, and sugar within the crumb.

Manufacturers must be careful—if they don't crush this mixture enough, the chocolate will be coarse and grainy. But if they blend it too much, the chocolate will be pasty and gummy.

In general, Swiss and German chocolates are refined for a longer period. This makes them smoother and finer than American or English candy, which is a matter of national taste preferences.

Next, the refined chocolate paste is poured into a vat in which a large heavy roller kneads, blends, and grinds the mixture. Agitating this paste smooths out the sugar grains to give the chocolate a silky texture. Aerating the paste allows acids and moisture to evaporate, which creates a mellower, more well-rounded flavor. This process, called "conching," can take up to six days to complete! Finally, the refined chocolate is cooled and warmed repeatedly in a process called "tempering." This gives chocolate its glossy sheen, and ensures that it will melt properly.

For convenience, tempered chocolate is shipped in a liquid state to other food manufacturers that use the flavoring in candy, cookies, and ice cream. Finally, in classic assembly-line fashion, machines squirt tempered chocolate into several hundred molds per minute. Some devices pour chocolate over flavored centers (a process called "enrobing" kind of makes me wonder if there is another term used called "disrobing"). Others create chocolate shapes that will be filled with liquid before their bottoms are sealed.

Eventually, wrapping-and-packaging machines box the chocolates.

 Now the most difficult part of this entire process is deciding what country makes the best chocolate? I'd like an informal vote. Add your vote to my comments and let me know which are your favorites.