Cocoa Trees
Dorrie Ruplinger
Cocoa trees can grow as tall as fifty feet although they are
usually kept pruned and kept much shorter to make it easier to
harvest the cocoa bean pods.
The trees reach their maximum productivity when they are thirty
to forty years old. A cocoa tree will live approximately sixty
years.
The bean pods grow directly off the trunk and thicker main
branches of the tree, not off the leaves as many people think.
This is because the pods are heavy. The fragile leaf systems of
the tree couldn’t support the weight of the pods.
A cocoa tree can have up to one hundred thousand baby-pink and
white blossoms every year. The blossoms have no scent. The
leaves of the tree vary in color. Young leaves can be pale
green, lavender, or purple in color. Mature leaves are dark
green. The pods start out green but turn yellow or red when
ripe, depending on what type of cocoa tree it is.
There are two main types of cocoa trees. There is the native
Central American cocoa tree called the Criollo, and a type called
Forastero which is grown mostly in West Africa and Brazil. The
Forastero trees produces approximately ninety percent of the
world’s crop of cocoa beans. The beans from the Criollo are more
expensive and are used in high quality chocolate.
Cocoa trees like shade so other tropical trees such as banana
trees are planted right next to the cocoa trees. These larger
trees that provide shade for the cocoa trees are often called
“cocoa mother trees.”
The cocoa trees start producing cocoa bean pods after three or
four years and continue producing pods for approximately another
thirty five years. In most areas, harvesting of the cocoa pods
is done twice a year. Ripe pods are approximately eight inches
long and three to four inches in diameter. The ripe pods are cut
by hand in order to protect the younger pods that are still
ripening.
After the pods are cut from the tree they are taken to a
fermenting area. There the pods are split open to reveal the pulp
and cocoa beans. There are up to forty cocoa beans in every pod.
The pulp and beans are scooped out of the pod, placed on banana
leaves that are usually laid on the ground (fermenting is also
done in baskets and also in large sloping boxes), and then
covered with more banana leaves. The pods are left to ferment
for several days.
As the beans ferment they lose some of their bitterness and
change from a lavender or white color to brown. The fermenting
process is important because that is when the beans take on the
chocolate taste we are accustomed to. During the fermenting
process the beans lose some of their moisture. By the time the
beans are ready to be packed in bags for shipping, the moisture
content in them is somewhere around five to seven percent.
Dorrie Ruplinger is the publisher of
http://www.chocolateistheanswer.com which provides information
and resources about Door County Wisconsin parks.
Back to Index of Shrubs & Trees for the Home
Search our site for any Home, Lawn or Garden Info
