Chocolate
Cocoa and chocolate – just like coffee – are a precious gift we inherited from early Spanish encounters with the “new world”: the pre-Colombian culture.
Latin America – to be more specific: the rain forests
in Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela – is the real cradle of the cocoa
tree. For years now, anthropologists and historians have studied the
importance of cocoa in the Latin-American cultures. Their conclusion:
cocoa first started to play an important role about 4000 years ago. So,
let’s take a closer look at the history of cocoa and chocolate.
2000 BC
Historians have found traces of the first small village in the Ulúa
valley in Honduras in which cocoa played a central role. There they
found the oldest drinking cups and plates that have ever been
discovered in Latin America. It seems that these cups were used
exclusively for the preparation and consumption of Xocoatl, the
original chocolate drink. Historians believe that this small village
might have been the real cradle of chocolate.
The perfect environment for the cocoa tree – Theobroma Cacao – is found in the tropical heat of the equatorial forest. Young cocoa trees only thrive in tropical temperatures within the protective shadow of tall-growing plants such as banana plants or palm trees. Both the burning sun and the strong winds are merciless enemies of this fragile tree. From around the fifth or sixth year of their lives, the trees begin to bear pods and start to play their full economic role in the many plantations. This is limited to 25 years, after which it is time to replace them with younger trees.
There are three different species of cocoa tree. The
descendants that we see in the plantations today are usually cultivated
or coincidental hybrids thereof, each with their own particular
characteristics:
• Criollo, also known as the prince among cocoa
trees, produces pods with a very thin peel. The cocoa itself has a very
pale color and a unique refined aroma. This variety produces small
harvests and is also very fragile.
• Forastero is a stronger type of tree that is easier
to cultivate and produces larger yields. The cocoa pods have a thicker
peel and a coarser, stronger aroma. Cocoa from the Forastero beans is
often called bulk cocoa because it gives chocolate a typical
recognizable basic aroma. This cocoa therefore forms the basic
ingredient in most chocolates and can often account for 80% of the
cocoa mixture.
• Trinitario is a cross of both types of trees and
has characteristics of both of the former: it has a strong but
relatively refined aroma and, moreover, is very easy to cultivate.
The cocoa tree flowers in two cycles of 6 months the whole year round.
Thousands of white (female) and pink (male) five-petalled and
minuscule flowers adorn the stem and branches. Only a few will be
fertilized, naturally or by hand, and no more than forty will develop
into cocoa pods. These resemble elongated, green melons.
After 6 months the cocoa pods are full-grown and have changed color from green to yellow-orange. With great care, not damaging the branches, the pods are harvested by the plantation workers. This takes place twice a year. In most African countries such as Ivory Coast, the main harvest lasts from October to March and the interim harvest from May to August.
The cocoa pods ripen for a few days after the harvest. The outer peel is opened using long knives and a very precise cutting movement, without touching the beans. The pulp containing the precious cocoa beans is then removed from the pods and collected in large baskets.
The beans are then, depending on the type, left to ferment for five to seven days. This takes place on the ground or in trays where the beans are covered with banana leaves.
Fermentation is important since this process naturally removes any of the remaining fruit pulp that sticks naturally to the beans. The beans change color from beige to purple and develop their aroma.
After fermentation they are spread out and left to dry in the sun for about six days. The beans are turned regularly so that they retain just a fraction of their moisture content (± 3%). Drying is essential, both for stopping the fermentation process and for storage.
When the beans are dry, the cocoa farmers bring their precious harvest to a collection center where the beans are graded. From each farmer’s harvest a sample of 100 beans is cut open, the contents of the beans are graded and his batch is allotted a quality code.
After weighing and packing of the beans into bales of 50-60 kg, the jute sacks are sealed, the source and quality of the beans assured.
Thousands of sacks of cocoa are taken from the collection center to huge warehouses, their origins all registered. After a second quality control the sacks await shipment to the different Barry Callebaut plants.
The beans packed in sacs or by container set off to the port, to be shipped to their new destination.