Cacao fruit

          

         Cacao fruit 

         Cocoa -  theobroma cacao   (  same as Cocoa fruit - Chocolate fruit )                       

Real chocolate is a cocoa paste made from cacao seeds. Cacao seeds are the fruit of the cacao tree. The word Cacao comes from the mayan word for the plant was "Cacau". Because of a spelling error, probably by English traders long ago, these beans became known as Cocoa beans. 

Cacao fruit is native to Colombia. Chocolate is derived from the seeds (or pods) of the cacao. These fruits grow on the cacao tree. The cacao tree reaches a height from 4 up to 8 m. The leaves are oval and evergreen. The almost 1 cm big flowers grow the whole year directly at the trunk. The fruits look like fat cucumbers and are 15 to 30 cm big. During drying of the cacao fruit the skin turns from white to cacao red. In the fruit, there are about 20 till 50 brown beans. These beans are covert in a white pulp. This pulp has a sour/sweet taste.

The flavour of the cacao beans is not only dependent on the variety, but also on the soil, temperature, sunshine and rainfall. It is now possible to buy chocolates made with cacao beans from one single region and thus compare the aromas; these chocolates are often called specialty chocolates, in contrast to ordinary chocolate which are made with mostly cheap cacao beans from several regions and with more than one cacao variety.

The cacao tree is grown in the tropics, often in the shades of other trees. Naturally Cacao grows under heavy rainforest canopy, it is cultivated underneath of other large leaf, tree-like, coconut and other trees. It has unusually deep roots for a rainforest tree because it naturally tends to grow in the riparian zone. It requires a deep, slightly acidic, moist, well drained soil. In poorer soils, the low shade of the banana is ineffective and the high overhead shade of the canopy is required.

The Cacao Tree needs a consistent climate: temperatures of 21 to 32 degrees celsius year round, never lower than 15 C, and 100 to 250 cm of rainfall, well distributed throughout the year with no month less than 10 cm. It grows only below 1000 meters of elevation, and usually below 300 meters. All of this means that it grows only in the tropics -- almost exclusively.

In plantations, their growth is usually restricted to a height of 4 meters. A tree can bear around 20-50 fruits, that sit directly on the trunk; each fruit contains around 25-50 seeds (cacao beans) in a light pulp. To separate the pulp from the seeds, the fruits are fermented. The tangy tanning agents oxidise, the wet fruit pulp dissolves and runs off. The cacao-fruit flesh has an unusually high level of niacin and Vitamin B1.

The cacao tree produces flowers and fruit year-round. It takes about 5-8 months for the flower to blossom into the fruit and become a pod. In the wild, cocoa trees are pollinated by midges (forciponia sp), and only about 5% of flowers receive enough pollen to initiate fruit development.  Once the tree reaches maturity, fruit pods will sprout from its trunk and branches. The golden-red to purple fruit pods turn brown at maturity (depends on varieties), at which time they are split open and the insides scooped out. Each pod generally produces 20 to 50 almond-shaped cacao beans.

After the cacao beans are removed from the fruit, they undergo fermentation, a process that reduces their bitterness and helps develop their heady aroma. After they are dried the beans are ready to be cleaned, graded, packed, and shipped for processing into chocolate products.

Once the beans are selected, they are roasted and shelled to obtain the center cacao kernel, or nib. To transform the cacao kernels into the thick, dark-brown paste called chocolate liquor, the nibs are ground between large heated rollers in high-speed mills.

Chocolate liquor is the base from which all chocolate products are made. Pure chocolate liquor, which contains 53 to 55 percent cocoa butter, is unsweetened and too bitter to eat. It is compressed into blocks or squares and is used for cooking and baking.

The cocoa bean was introduced to Spain in the 16th century. The first chocolate bar was made in Switzerland in 1819, and in 1875 the milk chocolate was invented.  

Contents per 100g of beans

Calories : 71(kcal), Protein : 2.8 g, Fibres : 1.1 g, Vitamin B1 : 1.8 mg, Vitamin B2: 0.15 mg, Vitamin C: 21 mg, Niacin: 3.2 mg, Calcium: 6 mg, Iron: 0.7 mg, Phosphorous: 41 mg.

The three main varieties of cocoa plant are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The first is the most widely used, comprising 80–90% of the world production of cocoa. Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarer and considered a delicacy.  Criollo plantations have lower yields than those of Forastero, and also tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plants; hence very few countries still produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela. Trinitario (from Trinidad) is a hybrid between Criollo and Forastero varieties. It is considered to be of much higher quality than Forastero, has higher yields, and is more resistant to disease than Criollo.

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