• A complicated process by which cacao is turned into chocolate.
• This process includes: roasting the beans; breaking them into small pieces (called nibs) and removing the shells (winnowing); grinding the nibs to form a chocolate paste; then refining and conching (forceful kneading) to produce desired smoothness and develop flavors. The chocolate is tempered then poured into molds.
• Bean to bar producers are both small and large scale but the artisanal ‘micro-batch’ producers use between 50 and 1000 lbs. at a time with just one or two people making the chocolate.  
• The creator of bean to bar chocolate is called a chocolate maker.  A chocolate maker buys and roasts cocoa beans and grinds them into chocolate.  A chocolatier makes chocolate creations from an existing bar called couverture.
• There are approximately 20 chocolate makers in the United States,  about 7-10 are small, artisanal producers.  Conversely, there are hundreds of chocolatier.   
• This process is difficult, highly specialized and very expensive to maintain.