Cocoa is a rather unusual looking tree with yellow, green and red fleshy fruit pods, about 25 cm long, hanging directly from its trunk and branches. Cocoa beans are sticky, white, with a sweet taste. At the time of harvest, the cocoa bean must have reached the appropriate level of ripeness, as underripe or overripe pods will have a negative impact on the cocoa flavor of the bean.

Raw cocoa beans are bitter and inedible. To turn raw beans into the raw material for chocolate, two processes are required: fermentation and drying. After the beans are removed from their shells, they are stacked, covered and left to ferment for 3-9 days. The process produces high temperatures of around 50°C activating enzymes in the beans to create compounds that produce the chocolate flavor when the beans are roasted. The fermentation process must be completed appropriately. Too little fermentation and the desired cocoa flavor will not be fully formed, too much fermentation and undesirable “off flavors” will occur.

PACKAGING

After fermentation, the beans are spread out on mats and left to dry in the sun, usually for several days, to prevent spoilage. During drying, beans lose almost all of their moisture and more than half of their weight. Finally, after the beans are dried, they are placed in 60-80 kg jute sacks and made ready for shipment.