Life Cycle of a Cacao Bean - Wekiva Culinary

To get chocolate, you have to get a raw cacao bean, harvested, fermented, dried, and ready to be shipped to a manufacturer and be roasted. To get a cacao bean, you have to get a tree.

The whole process starts with the cacao tree, aptly called Theobroma cacao, named by the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus. In Greek, Theobroma translates to ‘food of the gods.’

The Theobroma Cacao tree only grows within twenty degrees of the equator, in the damp conditions provided by the tropics. There are four varieties of the plant used in commercial production of which the most sturdy, highest-producing, (and quite frankly, the blandest) – The Forastero variety – dominates world production. For more on the varieties of cacao and their different flavor profiles, please see the post on Bean to Bar Chocolate.

Cacao trees are grown from seeds or stem cuttings in nurseries and transplanted into cacao orchards called “cacao walks.” Growers will often plant the seedlings beneath the canopy of larger crop-producing trees, such as avocado, banana, and coconut. The canopy trees are called “cacao mothers” and protects sensitive seedlings from direct sun and wind while providing additional sources of income for the farmers. The diversity of plants also prevents pest infestations and helps keep cacao environmentally sustainable. This type of cacao bean is frequently labeled as “shade-grown” and is considered the most rainforest-friendly method of producing chocolate.

Cocoa trees enter the reproductive stage after approximately 5 years. Cacao pods sprout from “floral pillows,” mounds of intricate flowers that are small, white-pink and have 5 petals, growing directly on both mature branches and the trunk and are pollinated by tiny insects called “midges,” a fly no larger than the tip of a pencil. The pollinated flowers produce pods about the size of a football.

The cacao pods have a leathery skin that will turn from green to yellow as it ripens. Each pod contains on average thirty cacao beans surrounded by a white, mucinous pulp called baba or mucilage. Although this mucousy pulp surrounding the cacao beans is quite unappetizing, both components are needed to create chocolate.

The fruit of the cocoa tree is called a pod, but botanically it is a drupe (like an avocado, a coconut, peach, or plum. Mature fruits form five to seven months after pollination. They are oval-shaped and grow 7 to 14 inches long. Within one pod are 20 to 60 cocoa seeds. Ripened pods are orange, yellow or red.

Mature, ripened fruit is harvested by machete. Plantation owners have just three to four weeks to cut pods off the cacao tree and get the beans processing. This is not as easy as it sounds. Since cacao trees constantly produce new flowers and new fruit, the pods on a single tree are NEVER all ripe at the same time.

Pick underripe cacao pods and the final product will taste flat – not like chocolate at all. Pick overripe cacao pods, fruit that has begun germinating and trying to grow new trees, and the beans cannot be used to make chocolate at all. It’s a gamble.

After harvesting, the pods are split in half and the beans inside are scooped out, covered in a thick white goo called baba or mucilage.

THE FIRST STEP IN MAKING CHOCOLATE: FERMENTATION

The first real step in making chocolate is fermenting that goey mass of beans and mucilage.

Fermentation is defined as the process by which living organisms break down sugars and starches into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Just like when you make yeast breads or hot sauce (or beer), fermentation is essential to flavor development and the final taste of whatever you are making. The same is true of cacao beans. In fact, it’s been said that without fermentation, cacao would have no flavor at all.

HOW FERMENTATION WORKS

The white, mayonnaise-looking, goopy stuff that coats all the beans inside the pod is called baba. Baba is sterile before it’s removed, but naturally occurring yeast and bacteria soon find their way in once the pod is opened. These friendly microbial invaders come from a variety of sources in the local environment. They might come from workers’ hands, visiting insects, or simply from the air. Sometimes, in larger plantations, farmers introduce a blend or “cocktail” of specific microbes (if they don’t want to take any chances on workers having the right “kind” of bacteria on their hands or that the right “kind” of little buggy landing on the heap of beans to take a nibble).

DIFFERENT FERMENTATION METHODS

Fermentation methods vary depending on regional preferences and the availability of resources. Wealthy farmers might use specially designed “fermentation boxes” with holes drilled in the bottom and sides for excess liquid and baba to run out.

Less well-off farmers frequently mound the beans into a pile on top of banana leaves and sort-of hope for the best. Most specialty chocolate makers prefer the “heap” method because they believe more delicate flavor precursors are developed in the more organic and traditional process.

Everyone who grows cacao beans make their own choices in the type of fermentation they use, the number of days they ferment the cacao beans, how often they “turn” the cacao, etc. But generally speaking, all cacao fermentation follows a similar process including an anaerobic phase and an aerobic phase.

THE ANAEROBIC PHASE

Anaerobic conditions are simply environments that lack oxygen. In cacao, the pulp (the baba) surrounding snugly packed beans creates a juicy barrier that blocks air from getting near the beans. This anaerobic condition is assisted by farmers who cover fermenting beans with banana leaves.

The baba is composed of water, high levels of sugars (sucrose, glucose, fructose), and various acids. These sugars and the high acidity create an ideal condition for microorganisms. The main players during this phase are yeasts, lactic-acid-producing bacteria, and pulp enzymes.

Using anaerobic respiration, yeasts quickly consume simple sugars and produce carbon dioxide, ethanol (alcohol), and low amounts of energy. Lactic acid producing bacteria convert citric acid, glucose, and other carbohydrates in the pulp into lactic acid. The mass of fermenting beans will turn quite hot at this stage and you can see tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gurgle up to the surface.

Enzymes also help to break down the pulp, transforming it into a liquid that runs off and is known as “sweatings.” As the mass is broken down, there is more space for air to enter the process. Citric acid is also broken down and runs off with the sweatings, helping to increase the overall pH of the fermentation. The combination of rising pH and increased airflow marks the beginning of the aerobic phase of fermentation.

THE AEROBIC PHASE

Aerobic conditions are environments that contain oxygen.

In cacao processing, farmers mix and move the beans, a process known as “turning”, to incorporate oxygen. Turning the beans makes the fermentation process more uniform across the batch.

During the aerobic phase, acetic-acid-producing bacteria forms in the mix of beans and mucilage and takes over, killing the other microorganisms and producing acetic acid. When this acid comes in contact with air, it is further broken down into carbon dioxide and water.

All of these processes are exothermic reactions – which is simply a sciency way of saying “something that generates energy,” which in the case of fermenting cacao beans is expressed as heat. These exothermic reactions increase the overall temperature of the cacao.

The combination of intense heat and the diffusion of ethanol and acetic acid into the cacao beans breaks down the cell walls, killing the bean. The cacao bean will no longer germinate and the damaged internal structure becomes home to hundreds of chemical reactions, each producing one of the flavor precursors we associate with chocolate.

How Aerobic and Anaerobic Fermentation Works with Cacao Beans

Drying

The beans are almost ready to ship to the manufacturer at this point, however, they have a fairly high moisture content. That moisture, coupled with the nearly 50% fat from cacao butter, would make them a perfect vehicle for transporting all KINDS of foodborne illnesses and bacteria.

Of nearly equal importance, flavor compounds are still being developed that are vital to high quality chocolate and the acetic acid that formed during the fermentation stage is still evaporating away. Don’t like your chocolate really bitter with a vinegar smell lingering on your taste buds? You don’t want the producers to try to speed up the drying stage!

It takes 5 – 7 days to dry most cacao beans to about 5% or less moisture. Full sun is best, though that is not usually possible in the frequently moist RAINFOREST. For this reason, most cacao producers air-dry their cacao beans under awnings.