Taking the choco route in Dubai

If you're a fan of the beloved book by Roald Dahl or its film adaptation starring Johnny Depp as the eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka, you will be delighted to know that Dubai has its own version of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' right at Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz.
And, unlike in the book or movie, you don't need a golden ticket to enter Mirzam Chocolate Factory. The owners of Mirzam are inviting everyone to see the different stages of chocolate making. 
Everything here is transparent - from the source of the cocoa beans to the process of winnowing, roasting, grinding, tempering, tasting and hand wrapping each bar. Mirzam keeps it simple and creates chocolate with just three ingredients - cocoa beans, unrefined cane sugar and a small amount of cocoa butter. 
According to the owners, each delightful choco bar starts from selecting the best cocoa beans from various plantations in Vietnam, Indonesia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and India.
The beans will then take a voyage following the Spice Route that traders sailed hundreds of years ago to gather valuable ingredients to sell on to European buyers, they say.
Once the goods arrive in Dubai, each bag of cocoa beans is selected by hand, and then gently roasted to develop the chocolate flavours. The cocoa beans are roasted at a much lower temperature than coffee, and the time spent varies between the origins of the beans.
The next step is the winnowing machine that separates the light outer husk from the dark cocoa bean nibs inside, by breaking the beans, then blowing air over them.
Using two circular granite stones, beans are ground in small batches for several days, creating smooth, liquid chocolate. After this process is complete, the chocolate is aerated by conching (refining) - that take several days.
The final step before the liquefied chocolate is poured into moulds, is tempering. This process will make cocoa butter to stratify - creating shiny chocolate that doesn't melt on your fingers.
After resting and tempering, appears the delicious dark chocolate. The staff then pack the chocolate bars by hand in beautifully-designed wrappers and, off they go to their loyal clients in Dubai and beyond.
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How It's Made: From bean to bar chocolates in Dubai

- leslie@khaleejtimes.com