Subject: The Cacao Tree

Cacao trees in the wild grow to forty or fifty feet in height, some may even grow to sixty feet in their natural environment. On plantations they are pruned to fifteen to twenty feet to allow for easier harvesting. A cacao tree on the plantation will bear fruit for thirty to forty years before being replaced by seedlings, there are instances of trees that have produced fruit for as long as one hundred years.

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A long handled goulette is used to harvest the pods because the trees are two delicate to be climbed by workmen. Women and children follow behind the pickers, called tumbadores gathering the pods and placing them in baskets they carry on their heads.

A machete is used to break the pods open; a good breaker can open 500 pods in an hour! Each pod contains between 25 and 50 almond shaped beans. The cacao beans come in several colors, white, cream or lavender and are surrounded by a white or pink, stringy pulp which hold them together. The beans are about one inch in diameter; after the pods are opened the workers scoop the seeds and pulp from the pods. The beans begin changing color as soon as they meet the air through oxidation, changing them to different shades of purple.

Within a few days the pulp ferments away, the seeds are then placed in baskets or wooden boxes for the fermentation process which removes the raw, bitter taste and to develop the cocoa butter (essential oils). This part of the process takes between two and ten days, during this time the beans change to a dark brown color.

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Next the beans are dried, being spread in the sun or in some areas they are dried by hot air pipes indoors, they must be turned often during the drying process. Most trees yield one or two pounds of dried seeds each year, each pod contains about two ounces of dried seeds. After the drying process is complete the beans are ready for packing and shipping.

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Thank you,

Bill Anderson
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