To me, there is nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolates to share. I love chocolates, in solid form such as chocolate bars and in liquid form, like hot chocolate. There’s no doubt that there is a desire for chocolate in all of us. But have you ever wondered where and how these chocolate treats came from and they are made? Well, there is just an endless mass of knowledge when it comes down to everything chocolate. The taste and texture of the chocolate bar that you are eating have come a very long way to have been able to develop the exact flavor and texture that you are experiencing right now. To better understand the science of chocolate, we must start from the origin of where raw chocolate is grown and harvested.
Where chocolate is grown is the first step in defining flavor of the end product in everything chocolate. You would be surprised to learn that chocolates actually grow on trees known as the, “Cacao Tree”. Almost all of cacao trees are planted around the hot and rainy climates within 20 degrees north and south of the equator. Sometimes people refer this strip of location as the, “Cacao Belt”. Today some of the world leading producers are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil and many more.
On the cacao tree, there are flowers that bloom directly off the truck or the branch of the tree and it takes about 5 to 8 months for a blossom flower bud to ripen into a fruit, known as the cacao pods. Although the cacao tree will flower all year round, but only about 5%-10% of the overall flowers will be pollinated, then fertilized and become the fruit (cacao pod). The reasons why such tiny amount of pods are produced from one cacao tree are because most of the flowers bloom at the peak of the late season, and they are naturally pollinated by “Midges” which are insects similar to flies, and on seldom times, bats will also pollinated the flowers as well. And another reason is that, pollination usually happens in the morning and the flowers will die if not pollinated after 24 hours.
The pods are green while they are young and they turn brownish yellow when they ripe. Then the pods are harvested by hand, usually using a very sharp, producing a clean cut through the stalk without damaging the branch. Once, ripen cocoa pods are harvested, they usually wait 7 to 10 days before splitting open the pods to remove the seeds, known as the, “Cocoa beans”. To split open the pods, a wooden club is usually used to smash down on central area of the pod, resulting it to crack open in two halves, and the wet cacao beans are removed by hand.After extractions of the beans, they must undergo a fermenting process before being shipped off to a chocolate manufacturer around the world.
