Melanger

A melanger (or melangeur, from French: mélangeur, lit. "blender") is a stone-grinder that is used in chocolate-making. It typically consists of two granite wheels, which rotate inside a metal drum on top of a granite base. Given enough time the wheels can reduce the particles to sizes measured in microns, therefore making a smooth chocolate paste from cocoa beans.

Stone grinding tools have been widely used in history to make food. In Mesoamerica, cocoa was ground using a metate. Industrialization in the late 18th century favored the use of larger and water powered machines. The first melanger prototype was invented in 1811 by a French engineer named Poincelet. It was soon adopted all over Europe.^[1] In 1819, François Pelletier powered a grinder and a melanger with a steam engine. This allowed him to produce 76 kilos of chocolate in twelve hours, a quantity which typically required 7 workers at the time.^[2] In 1826, the melanger was also adopted (and perhaps further developed) by Philippe Suchard in his chocolate factory in Neuchâtel.^[3]^[4]

Nowadays melangers tend to be used by small chocolate manufacturers only.^[5] Melangers can be both used as refiners and conches.^[6]

Tabletop wet grinders are smaller versions of the melanger.

[1]
Vallenilla, Nikita Harwich (1992). Histoire du chocolat. Desjonquères. p. 129. ISBN 978-2-904227-68-4. En 1811, sous l'impulsion de la Société pour l'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale, l'ingénieur Poincelet met au point un prototype de « mélangeur », dont le principe est bientôt adopté dans toute l'Europe. [In 1811, under the impetus of the Société pour l'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale, the engineer Poincelet developed a prototype of a "mélangeur", the principle of which was soon adopted throughout Europe.]
[2]
Khodorowsky, Katherine (2009). Tout sur le chocolat. Odile Jacob. p. 46. ISBN 978-2-7381-9390-2. Elle permet une production de soixante-seize kilos de chocolat en douze heures, soit autant que le travail de sept ouvriers. [It allows the production of seventy-six kilos of chocolate in twelve hours, which is as much as the work of seven workers.]
[3]
Barel, Michel (2021). Du cacao au chocolat: L'épopée d'une gourmandise. Éditions Quæ. p. 102. ISBN 9782759233793. En 1826, Philippe Suchard ouvre une chocolaterie à Serrière, près de Neuchâtel, en Suisse. Il met au point une machine à meules pour mélanger le sucre et le cacao. C'est un immense progrès. [In 1826, Philippe Suchard opened a chocolate factory in Serrière, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He develops a millstone machine to mix sugar and cocoa. This is a huge progress.]
[4]
Collins, Ross F. (2022). Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-4408-7608-0. Philippe Suchard, who in 1826 established an industrial chocolate operation in Switzerland, invented a machine using granite rollers revolving over a slab to break the particles into an ever-finer size until they reached the goal of less than 30 microns.
[5]
Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S'more: A Cookbook. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. 2017. p. 84. ISBN 9780451495365. Melangers typically have a smaller capacity than other industrial mills, so most large makers don't use them; Hershey did, but abandoned them in the 1950s for larger-capacity ball mills. This was about the same time that the electric motor reached India, where melangers were co-opted for making dosas...
[6]
O'Sullivan, Maurice (2016). A Handbook for Sensory and Consumer-Driven New Product Development: Innovative Technologies for the Food and Beverage Industry. Woodhead Publishing. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-08-100357-2. 'Conching' is a very important mixing step in chocolate flavour development. Small-scale conching uses a melangeur or refiner conche...

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References

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