From Bean to Bite
Magnum cocoa beans have a long way to go before they become Magnum chocolate. We’re working closely with the Rainforest Alliance to make sure all our cocoa beans are responsibly sourced. It’s about quality and sustainability throughout every step of the journey.
Harvesting
Cocoa seeds are grown in pods that change colour as they ripen: from green to red, then red to purple and purple to yellow. A single pod can contain from 30 to 50 cocoa beans.
The journey from cocoa bean to chocolate relies on the knowledge and skill of our cocoa farmers. Working with the Rainforest Alliance ensures that our farmers are trained to know which cocoa pods are ready to be picked just by looking at them. Harvest too early and the pods won’t be ripe. Harvest too late and they’ll have dried up.
Our skilled farmers free the ripe pods from the tree with one clean cut. This doesn’t damage the plant, so the pods can keep flourishing year after year.
Drying
Our farmers know the best place to dry their fermented beans is out under the scorching sun. They rake through them regularly to make sure they all dry evenly—some even dance across the beans to spread them out.
Water slowly evaporates from the cocoa beans until they’re completely dry and perfectly ready.
Selecting & roasting
Only beans that meet our standards will become Magnum chocolate. Our farmers are trained to pick the best ones, which they package and send to us ready for the next stage of the journey: roasting.
The cocoa beans are fragile, so we roast them gently. We start at 100 °C and gradually turn up the heat, roasting for at least 20 minutess.
Finally, we strip the beans from their shells. It’s time to make Magnum chocolate.
Making Magnum Ice cream
The perfectly roasted cocoa beans are crushed and ground into a rich cocoa paste, which is then turned into liquid chocolate. Other essential ingredients such as cocoa butter are stirred into the mix until the perfect taste and thickness are achieved.
As the warm, rich chocolate wraps around our velvety vanilla ice cream, it instantly cools down to leave our signature solid, thick Magnum chocolate—ready and waiting to be cracked.
Sustainability
Magnum® works with the Rainforest Alliance, an international non-profit organization, to help create a better tomorrow for cocoa farmers, their families, and their communities
"I’ve realized the value of education and the need to send my children to school. Their attention should be on books, not on the farm with me."
Alhaji Mustapha Amenya, farmer on a Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farm.
While it's spent a quarter-century devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, Magnum® also has a clear commitment to sourcing its chocolate ethically as part of Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan.
Magnum® pledged to source 100% of its cocoa from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms by 2015, which is helping to create a brighter future for farmers in West Africa.
In return for their delicious cocoa, Magnum® will provide farmers with fair, sustainable incomes, training in how to respect their environment, and improved access to education for their children.
Discover more about Rainforest Alliance.
