The chocolate no longer seems sandy, but dissolves meltingly on the tongue. It has attained the outstanding purity which gives it its reputation. The last stage of conching Swiss or Belgian chocolate is a magnificent sight huge paddles rolling slowly through great vats of chocolate, smooth and creamy and thick. Circular conches use a rotary movement and can hold 9 tons of chocolate. The machine works like an eggbeater.
Next chocolate is tempered by heating, cooling and reheating.
This thickens the chocolate and imparts the right flow properties for filling the moulds. This complex operation is performed in the tempering plant and is necessary to give the final chocolate product a delicate composition, a uniform structure and a well-rounded flavour. The storage life is also increased in this way. The still warm conched chocolate is placed in a tempering machine so that it can be slowly and steadily cooled. Cooling chocolate at a fixed rate keeps the flavor from being compromised, and prevents separation when the chocolate is poured into bar molds.