A process for chocolate crumb manufacture and an apparatus for preparing chocolate crumb. The process for preparing chocolate crumb comprises: a) supplying a milk and sugar mixture, or mixing together milk and sugar, in a reaction vessel; b) evaporating excess liquid from the mixture in the reaction vessel so as to form sweetened condensed milk; c) adding cocoa mass/liquor to the reaction vessel during and/or after steps (a) and/or (b); d) subjecting the mixture in the reaction vessel to conditions effective to bring about sugar crystallisation in the mixture; and e) drying the mixture so as to form chocolate crumb. The process is efficient in that initial evaporation of excess liquid takes place in the same vessel used for mixing and processing the constituents of the crumb. In one embodiment all of the steps a to e take place in a single reaction vessel.
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