Pembuatan Cokelat Batang Melalui Proses Fermentasi dari Biji Buah Kakao

Abstract

A Community Service Activity has been conducted in Sirambang, Cubadak Air Utara, Kota Pariaman, West Sumatra Province with the title "Making Chocolate Bars Through the Fermentation Process of Cocoa Beans." The partners in this activity are a group of cocoa farmers, involving 20 farmer participants and 7 instructors from ATI Padang Polytechnic. Currently, farmers in the area are limited in developing cocoa fruit farming into food products. They tend to sell dried cocoa beans to agricultural product collectors. Therefore, training is needed to teach them how to process cocoa beans into a food product, namely chocolate bars, which have high consumer appeal in the market, thus improving the community's economy. The process of making chocolate bars through the fermentation of cocoa beans begins by placing the cocoa beans into a fermentor and fermenting them for 7 days. The fermented results are then dried in the sunlight until they are completely dry, and the cocoa beans are roasted in a pan until thoroughly dry. The clean cocoa beans are put into a blender and mixed with cooking oil, milk, and sugar in a 1:1:1:1 ratio. The mixture is blended until smooth, forming a chocolate paste, which is then molded into chocolate molds and frozen in the freezer. The formed chocolate bars are packaged using aluminum foil and wrapped with chocolate packaging. The Community Service activity was carried out successfully and smoothly, with the hope of providing insights to partners about the process of making chocolate bars through the fermentation of cocoa beans. It is expected that these results can be used to meet daily needs and serve as an additional source of income for the community.