Cacao, a tree whose scientific name is Theobroma cacao, grows exclusively between twenty degrees north and south of the equator, making it by definition tropical.

A Brief History of Cacao

Before it was cultivated, cacao grew wild in Central and South America and may have been harvested and consumed sporadically. Successive cultures in what is now Central America used it for ceremonies, as a type of currency, and, to a degree, as a food.

When Cortez landed in Mexico in the early 1500's, cacao was a prized agricultural product, although certainly not a staple of the Aztec or Mayan diet. It is probable, to the extent that cacao was domesticated, that it grew in settings similar to its natural habitat. Later, as colonial powers brought cacao to tropical regions around the globe, attempts were made to grow it on large plantations, rather than as a tree more integrated into the forest. These attempts failed almost universally because of disease, rapid exhaustion of the soil, political upheaval, or lack of properly skilled labor to produce cacao of reasonable quality. History has shown that much more successful have been small, most often family-run, farms of between eight and fifteen acres. Today these constitute approximately 80% - 90% of cacao cultivation worldwide, the remaining 10-15% being made up of plantations of usually 100 acres or less.

Cacao as an Agricultural Crop

Cacao beans are seeds of the fruit or pod that sprouts from the trunk and thicker branches of the cacao tree. It takes approximately five years for a tree to begin bearing fruit, and its useful lifetime is about thirty years. Each tree bears about a dozen viable pods per semi-annual harvest (although continuous production goes on to a small degree), and each ripe pod holds about forty beans, which translates into roughly 1,000 seeds per tree per year. Trees can be planted as little as three meters apart or as many as twelve meters apart. Approximately 500 cacao beans will produce one pound of bittersweet chocolate. The pods are harvested individually by hand and then usually sliced open by hand to remove the seeds and the surrounding pulp. Farms that have capital and access to electricity sometimes have machines that open the pod and extract the pulp and seeds, which are gathered into piles for fermentation.

Fermentation, A Crucial Step

After a day or two, the pulp and seeds are put in either a bin or pile and covered with banana leaves. At this point, spontaneous fermentation of the pulp begins as yeasts and bacteria, naturally present in the environment, convert the sugar in the pulp to alcohol and, subsequently, to lactic and acetic acid. Depending on the type of seed and the amount of sugar in the pulp, fermentation can take from three to seven days.

Proper fermentation is important because it develops flavor in cacao. Quality fermentation is an art. It requires basic knowledge of and attention to the details of the process. A far greater percentage of cacao is unfermented or poorly fermented than is well fermented. Also, too much fermentation can cause acidic or musty flavor. Without good fermentation, cacao beans and the chocolate from which they are made have a harsh, astringent, distinctly unchocolatey taste. The failure to ferment is usually an economic decision since the process takes both time and effort. Inadequate fermentation, however, may reflect a lack of awareness on the part of the farmer as to the ideal level of fermentation. In this sense it suggests poor communication between the end user (the manufacturer) and the farmer or farm cooperative. Because fermentation plays such a critical role in final chocolate flavor and quality, Scharffen Berger has strict requirements on which beans are acceptable.

The final step before the cacao is ready to be sold, is drying. The drying process can take up to seven days, drying in the sun. Because cacao dried in a dryer powered by wood, diesel, or propane fired driers can often cause off-flavors, sun-dried cacao is preferred. Sun drying reduces the danger of the exterior of the bean hardening before the moisture in the interior can evaporate.