The Cacao Pod

Cocoa is one of the most valuable and sought after commodities in the world, that ranks third after sugar and coffee. Chocolate comes from a pod that grows out of the trunk of the cacao tree. These trees are only grown in the rain forest, which has rich soil, humidity and shade. Rainforest's have existed for the last 40 million years, but now only cover just two percent of the earths surface. These forests are also home to forty percent of all species of animals and plants. 

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The fruit from the cacao tree is an oval-shaped pod, about the size of a rugby ball. It can grow as long as 35cm and weigh up to 1 Kilo. When ripe, the pods can be a variety of colours.  Red, green, orange or purple. 

The pods are carefully cut open after they have been picked. There are up to 45 beans inside, encased in a gooey white pulp. The beans and the pulp are removed by hand and the beans are placed in wooden boxes, lined with banana leaves. They are then covered with more banana leaves and left for 5 days to ferment. When the beans are not fermented they can be used for cheaper chocolate blends, as their poor taste can be disguised by further processing.

After fermentation, the beans are spread out on mats to dry in the sun, which takes about one week during sunny weather. The dried beans must contain less than seven to eight percent moisture, which prevents mould from growing during storage. The shrunken dried beans are hard and have become a medium dark brown colour. The chocolate flavour is now in place and the beans are ready to be shipped to the factory.

At the chocolate factory the beans are de-stoned and cleaned. To release the nibs from the shells, the beans are blasted with heat and streams of air are then used to force them open. Roasting them at over 100C develops the rich flavour and colour that is characteristic of cocoa. The roasted nibs are then ground to produce a cocoa mass or cocoa liquor. It's this mass that is transformed into chocolate by further processing with the addition of other ingredients. The liquor can be processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. White chocolate is derived from cocoa butter with no solids. Cocoa solids, is the term used to describe the total amount of cocoa-derived material in a finished chocolate. The percentage of cocoa solids declared on the packaging refers to a combination of cocoa mass and cocoa butter. 

Chocolate has been used for food for thousands of years, and it was the Maya and the Aztecs who were the first to make a drink from it. Today, without the Fair trade contract and the premium price that is commanded for cacao, farmers wouldn't have a stable economic future.