Cocoa – The Ancient Connection
In the spirit of Easter, chocolate Easter eggs and the fascination with the Easter bunny lets explore the agricultural origin of the wondrous decadence of chocolate.
In the spirit of Easter, chocolate Easter eggs and the fascination with the Easter bunny lets explore the agricultural origin of the wondrous decadence of chocolate.
Approximately 4000 years ago in ancient Mesoamerica (now called Mexico), the first cocoa plants were found. For those wishing to voice their eternal gratitude for the discovery, voice it to the Olmecans the earliest civilisation of who were the first to turn the Cocoa bean into chocolate. The Mexicans believed that cocoa seeds were a gift from the gods of wisdom.
The seeds were so valuable that they were used to trade with. Chocolate was primarily used as a energy booster and aphrodisiac and was believed to have mystical and medicinal powers.
Early chocolate had a bitter taste and only evolved into a sweet treat much later after further ingredients like sugar were added.
The Cocoa plantations in Africa.
West Africa produces 70% of the world’s Cocoa beans, of which the Ivory Coast and Ghana are the largest producers, cultivating more than 50% of the worlds Cocoa. Ivory coast is the leading exporter boasting with a worldwide export value of 3.56 billion U.S dollars for 2019.
The small evergreen trees are born from the seeds (the cocoa beans) of the cocoa fruits. These are called “pods”. Humid conditions are necessary for the trees to thrive. The tree flowers and bears fruit year-round. It produces large pods each containing 30 seeds surrounded by a sweet white pulp. After harvesting the pods, the beans are removed, fermented, and dried. The beans get cleaned, packed into sacks, and sold to intermediaries. These are then sold to exporters and they eventually reach the various producers who ensure the crushing, de-hulling and grinding of the final product.
About 90% of all cocoa is grown on small family farms. Only 5% comes from large plantations.
The production of Cocoa sustains approximately 50 million farmers.
It is mostly strenuous manual labour and requires intense focus when harvesting the beans along with fighting constant disease and pestilences.
The dark side of the industry is that child labour has increased on these farms and even though the global market share in certified chocolate has risen, the farmers still live far below the poverty line.
No matter how much you love chocolate, the thought of this may very well leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
Did you know?
* It takes 400 Cocoa beans to make 1.5kg of chocolate.
* It takes one entire year’s crop from one tree to produce 1kg of cocoa.
* Each tree produces about 2500 beans.
* Cacao refers to the unroasted cacao bean while Cocoa refers to the roasted bean used in the process of making chocolate. Cocoa is also the English adaptation of the word Cacao. In short, it refers to the same thing.