Terra Tidbits

Transforming Cocoa to Chocolate
Oct. 22, 2008

This elixer of happiness is a labor of love and dedication, with plantation trees requiring five years to mature. The pods are hand-cut from the trees with machetes. After a couple of days, the pods are split, the precious beans removed by hand, then exposed to the air which makes the beans start to darken. This is still a far cry from the chocolate we know.

The beans and pulp are then fermented for up to a week. Fermentation causes the sugars in the beans to be converted to lactic and acetic acid, as well as producing enzymes which will reduce the bitter flavor of the beans.

Next, air drying in sunlight for a week where the beans are raked until the ideal moisture content is reached – only five percent water. Once the beans are fermented and dried, they can be processed into coco butter, cocoa powder, and cocoa liquor.

• Cocoa butter becomes an ingredient in the manufacturing of chocolate, and is also used extensively in cosmetic products that replenish the skin's natural moisture such as creams and soaps.
• Cocoa powder is used in a variety of food products: chocolate-flavored drinks, desserts, spreads, sauces, cakes and cookies.
• Cocoa liquor is an essential ingredient to produce chocolate, which can then become a product on its own or combined with other ingredients to create confectionery products.

All these variables - fermenting process and length of fermentation, air drying, heat, geographic location, storage - affect the final flavor and quality of the beans. TerraSource Gourmet Chocolates is very selective in our choice of fair trade cocoas for our chocolates. We invite you to taste our gourmet chocolates.

What is Chocolate, really?
Oct. 7, 2008

Chocolate, known as "food of the gods," is not something you grow in your backyard - unless, that is - you live in the rainforests of South America or the west coast of Africa or Asia. Theobroma cacao is a finicky fruit whose pods grow directly out of the trunk and branches rather than at the end like most other fruits. Three types of cacao pods are grown for different markets:

1. Criollo is used to make high-end chocolate. Not being very hardy nor bearing a lot of fruit, this cherished bean accounts for approximately five percent of the world’s total cocoa harvest.
2. Forastero is the most common variety of cocoa bean, producing lots of pods and growing in more places.
3. Trinitario is a hybrid and of the other two makes up between 10 and 15 percent of the world’s cocoa.

Cocoa is hard to grow, needing 80 inches of rain, shade, high humidity, and temperatures above 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The pods do not fall on their own to the forest floor to replant; normally they require bats and monkeys to chew through the outside pod and release the seeds.

It takes five years for a cocoa tree to produce its first pod, and six months for a pod to ripen. A good season means a tree will produce about 50 pods twice a year. Each pod carries about 40 almond-sized seeds – enough to create four bars of dark chocolate. The cacao tree will bear fruit for about 30 years.

Although growing any cocoa requires an enormous effort, not all chocolate is created equal. TerraSource Gourmet Chocolates is very selective in our choice of fair trade cocoas for our chocolates, and you can taste the difference.