Cocoa

Description

Interesting facts about cocoa

The cocoa tree belongs to the mallow family, which originated in Latin America and has existed for millions of years.

Its fruits have a hard skin about three centimeters thick. This varies depending on the species. Inside are between 30 and 50 soft seeds filled with a thick, sweet pulp.

The plant is very demanding: it needs high humidity and lots of rain with constant temperatures between 25° and 30° Celsius. As a shade tree, the cocoa tree needs larger trees around it to provide shade. All of these are conditions that are mainly met by areas close to the equator.

Sao Tome and Gabon were the first African countries to grow cocoa in 1824 after the plant was brought from Brazil by the Portuguese. The region has proven to be particularly fertile to this day, so that countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria have become the undisputed largest cocoa producers.

Cocoa cultivation is mainly manual work. Unlike in Latin America , the beans in Africa are fermented using the heap method. To do this, the fresh pulp is wrapped in banana leaves and stored in a hollow for four to five days until it has fully fermented. The cocoa beans then dry under the sun.