Although money doesn’t grow on trees, the bean from the cacoa that chocolate comes from does grow on trees. The
tropical tree is found in the countries of Central, South America, some other
tropical countries and Africa. Facts show that the tree can
produce close to 2,000 pods every year. It is a ridged
pod, or called even a fruit, and can be found on the branches and even coming out of the
trunk of the tree. The actual
pod has an encasement of a sticky white pulp and around 30 seeds. The pulp itself has a flavor both sweet and yet sour. People use that to make some drinks and in some countries it is eaten. Now it is the seeds that are used for making the chocolate. But they are quite horribly
bitter if you bite into them.
So most would be
curious as to how and why did people
decide to turn these into something so
wonderful as chocolate? To begin with, the pods themselves are taken off the tree about twice a year. The tree is not
sturdy, so the workers use machetes or long poles with a knife like
machete at one end. They open the pods, but have to take great care in not damaging the beans (seeds) inside.
The beans are sticky then, and put inside bins made of wood or an
earthy type
pit and covered up with leaves from banana trees. The workers leave them to
ferment, the
heat makes the flavor change from too
tart or sour to sugary chocolate flavor. The color even changes to a dark brown. The pulp kind of goes away in the
process. Some beans take a week or so to
ferment, while the better beans take only a
couple of days or so. This is the most important part of the
process.
Next, beans are taken out and dried in the sun usually for a week. The sweet flavor gets better developed. Once they are
thoroughly dried, the beans are shipped to factories for making our
delicious chocolate candy!