The
shea nuts that we use to make our pure, unrefined
shea butter are collected from wild shea trees
over a vast area in central Togo. Go directly
to the shea
butter slide show.
1. After the shea fruits are
collected, the are blanched in hot water to
cause the kernel inside to shrink away from
the shell. This is done so the kernels are not
damaged when the shells are removed.
2.
Once the shells are cracked and the kernels
are extracted, the shea kernels are placed
in the sun to dry for a prolonged period.
The extensive drying is necessary for the
shea nuts to maintain their shelf life of
five years.
3.
The dried shea kernels are inspected and sorted
to remove the undesirable kernels before they
are brought to our Sokode center and stored
in our warehouse.
4.
After inspecting the dried kernels once again,
we crush them in a large, wooden mortar or
with an electric grinder.
5.
The crushed shea kernels are grilled slightly
to reduce the water content to a desirable
level.
6.
The next step is to grind the roasted and
crushed shea kernels into a fine powder. This
is done either with a grinding stone or an
electric mill.
7.
The shea kernel powder is placed in a clean
basin and mixed with clear, potable water.
The shea mixture is whipped by hand until
the color changes. When white spots appear,
warm water is added. This causes the shea
fats to rise to the surface and separate from
the non-oil partition.
8.
The shea fats are collected and heated slightly
to remove any remaining moisture. The clear
oil is filtered into clean basins to cool.
9.
After the shea oil has cooled down, it is
stirred very carefully to initialize the crystalization
process and form the shea butter. This part
of the process is very critical and requires
a lot of experience.
10.
The final step is to pour the partialy crystalized
butter into our containers, where it continues
to crystalize. The containers are stored in
our air-conditioned storage room until transport.
