Know the types of cocoa, Forastero, Criollo, Trinitario

School Science Lessons
2024-04-18

Cocoa Project 1
(CocoaProj1)
Contents
1.0 Cocoa plant
3.0 Cocoa tree
5.0 Cocoa flower
4.0 Cocoa leaf
6.0 Cocoa seed pods
8.0 Cocoa pod
9.0 Cocoa seeds
12.0 Cocoa varieties
27.7.0 Cocoa bean genome
27.0 Chocolate
1.3 Planting
7.0 Pollination and fertilization
10.0 Seed bed nursery
11.0 Select and plant seeds
14.0 Selecting a site and preparing the land
13.0 Soils for cocoa
1.2 Shade trees
17.0 Mulching
18.0 Pruning
19.0 Fertilizing cocoa
20.0 Harvesting
21.0 Fermenting cocoa beans
22.0 Drying, bagging and shipping cocoa beans
Pesticides, Preface
23.0 Pests and diseases of cocoa
16.0 Transplanting
25.5 Where cocoa grows
1.16 Records
Theobromine
Theophylline
23.2.21 Weeds, Mistletoe

1.0 Cocoa plant
See diagram 55.1.3: Cocoa pod.
Cacao Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery
Cocoa plant, (Theobroma cacao), (Family Malvaceae), shrub or small tree, evergreen, grows only in warm areas, fruit, large, yellow and red, sweet pulp surrounding seeds processed into chocolate, theobromine alkaloid, propagation from seeds, air-layering, grafting, Tropical America, Malvaceae.
Cacao plant formerly had the botanical name "Theobroma cacao L".
Some botanical names had "L" after them to show that they were named by the famous Swedish botanist Linnaeus (1707 - 1778).
He believed that the ancient Aztecs of South America thought that the cocoa drink was a "drink of the gods", (Latin theo broma drink of the gods).
The word "chocolate" came from the Aztec word "xocoati", meaning bitter drink from Cacao beans.
1. Cacao is a broad-leaved evergreen that grows between 20^o north and south of the equator, and reaches about l7 m in height.
Its fruits are fibrous pods from 15-25 cm long and 7.5 -10 cm in diameter and containing 20 to 40 seeds, "beans, " each about 2.5 cm long, embedded in a pulp.
Cocoa growing can be a profitable cash crop if the right kind of cocoa is grown, it is properly raised in a seed bed, it is planted properly under enough shade and in the right kind of soil, it is cared for properly as it grows including proper pruning, weeding, mulching, fertilizing and protection from diseases and pests, and is harvested and processed properly.
Cocoa is produced in tropical countries, but is processed and consumed in temperate countries.
2. Cocoa grow best under the canopy of tropical rainforests, seldom reaching more than 7.5 m height.
The plants must be shaded from direct sun and wind, particularly in the early growth stages.
The cocoa tree has broad, dark leaves about 25 cm long, and pale, coloured flowers from which bean pods grow.
Cocoa is an understory species from on the equatorial slopes of the Andes Mountains in South America, but is now cultivated widely.
Two thirds of the world's production comes from West Africa and one third from Brazil and Dominican Republic.
Cocoa has about 20 subspecies and cultivars are named according to the place where they were found or developed.
3. Two methods are generally used to establish cocoa tree plantations.
3.1 Young trees are interspersed with new permanent or temporary shade trees such as coconut, plantains and bananas, following the clear-felling of the forest.
In large Asian plantations, cocoa trees and coconut trees are planted together and both crops are harvested commercially.
3.2 Alternatively, forest trees are thinned out and the cocoa trees are planted between established trees.
Cocoa is now grown in many hot wetlands including the Pacific islands, but it needs a rich deep soil so this tree cannot be grown on coral atolls.
3. The seeds of cocoa, called cocoa "beans", are used to make chocolate.
Fermented seeds are roasted, cracked and ground to give a powdery mass.
Fat is taken out to make cocoa.
Cocoa has many uses including folk medicine.
The seed contains energy, protein, fat, Ca, Mg, P, Fe, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and ascorbic acid.
Chocolate is particularly high in phenylethylamine and contains more than 300 volatile compounds and theobromine, a stimulant related to caffeine.
It contains some caffeine, in milligrams:
Cup: espresso coffee 310 mg, boiled coffee 100 mg, instant coffee 65 mg, tea 10 to 50 mg, cocoa 13 mg.
Can: Coca Cola, 20 mg, Can (6 oz.), Pepsi Cola: 10 mg.
4. The cacao "bean" consists mainly of the embryo's cotyledons and contain two distinct groups of cells.
About 80% of the cells are storage depots of protein and of fat, cocoa butter, that will feed the seedling as it germinates and develops.
The other 20% of cells are defensive cells to deter forest animals and microbes from consuming on the seed.
These cells are seen in the cotyledons as purplish dots that contain astringent phenolic compounds, anthocyanin pigments, and two bitter alkaloids, theobromine and caffeine.
The beans contain about 65% water.
History and importance of cocoa
Cocoa is a small tree with large dark leaves which bears seed inside hard pods attached to its stem.
It comes from the dense forest in South America.
The seeds were distributed when monkeys broke open the pods to eat the sweet, sticky material around the bitter tasting seeds, which the monkeys spat out.
The Aztec people of Central America liked the cocoa seed so much that they could buy a slave for one hundred seeds.
Later, people learned to grow the wild trees in plantations on the island of Trinidad in the West Indies.
Most of our cocoa seeds came from there.

25.5 Where cocoa grows
1. Cocoa trees do not like wind or drought, and need high humidity and high rainfall, 1 250 to 3 000 mm per year.
It must also have a high rainfall, but the rainfall must be well distributed and any dry period should be no longer than 3 months.
Annual rainfall greater than 2 500 mm may result in a higher incidence of fungal diseases Vascular Streak Dieback and Phytophthora Pod Rot.
It requires annual temperature of 18.0^oC to 28.5^oC, with uniformly high temperatures mean of 26.6^oC, diurnal temperature variation between 33.5^oC and 18.0^oC.
It can be grown from 20-30 N to 20-30 S, usually below 300 m above sea level.
It is very important also that the air should be moist or humid, but not contain salt spray from the ocean.
Altitude up to 1000 metres above sea level.
Cocoa can live through a dry time with no rain if the soil it grows in holds water well, and the air is not too dry, but it cannot grow well in a long dry season unless irrigation is available.
If cocoa trees are grown among shade trees, these will help to keep the air moist.
Cocoa planted on hillsides need to receive the morning sun to dry the leaves quickly.
3. Before they can be sold, the cocoa beans must be fermented in a special way.
Cocoa should be grown close to a cocoa fermenter, so the beans can be processed.
If this is not possible, the grower can make a small fermenting box.
4. The annual global output of three to four million tonnes of cocoa beans from Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), 40%, Ghana 20% and Indonesia about 15%.
It is also grown in Papua New Guinea and Solomon islands.
In Australia, cocoa production in Queensland is along the wet tropical coast from the Daintree region to south of Tully, around Mossman and Innisfail and in the Northern Territory near Darwin.
This new industry produces cocoa for boutique chocolate manufacture by on-farm processing or by selling to chocolatiers.
5. Investment in cocoa plantations is often inadequate, because the plant is very resilient and once established always produces some pods.
In some societies it is harvested only when extra income is needed.
Farmers may lose 30% of the crop to disease and even lose the whole crop if the weather is poor.
Few farmers have achieved possible yields of 300-500 kg per hectare.
To achieve better yields farmers need to invest in composting, weeding, and crop sanitation to decrease disease and pests.
6. The economic life of cocoa trees is 30 to 40 years, so replanting with improved planting material should be done in old cocoa farms.
Partial replanting of young tree among old trees allows the farmer some income, but the old trees might infect the young trees.

1.2 Shade trees
1. Cocoa tree need some shade when first planted to reduce water stress and sunburn of soft tissues, before the cocoa tree can develop a deeper root system to take up water.
Shade trees are planted first in the cocoa farm, and after they have grown big enough to give the right amount of shade, the cocoa trees are planted.
If shade trees are planted use about 600 trees per hectare.
Shade may be remnant forest, interplanting with species that provide a commercial return, e.g. bananas or coconuts or shade trees selected on the basis of amount of nitrogen fixed if a legume, fuel wood produced, suppresses weeds, and grows well with cocoa.
2. A commonly used shade tree is the fast growing Gliricidia sepium, planted by using cuttings mid-way between the 4 m X 4 m cocoa plantings.
Gliricidia, (Gliricidia sepium), Fabaceae
Gliricidia must be pruned a lot to maintain 50% shade level of sunlight.
Formerly Leucaena, (Leucaena leucophylla), was used, because it grows very fast and can be used for cattle feed, live fence posts, and control of hill side erosion, but it is invasive and has left behind it many environment problems.
In west Africa, the common cocoa shade trees are Albizia ferruginea and Antiaric toxicaria.
Ask an agriculture extension officer to recommend supply of shade trees.
Use bananas for temporary shade by planting suckers 2 m apart between the cocoa rows, and start removing them when the cocoa is 6 months old.
Sometimes, extra temporary shade is needed under old coconuts, e.g. Crotalaria and pigeon pea.
3. Cocoa seed and seedlings are planted at a triangle spacing of at least three metres.
Cocoa cuttings are planted at a square spacing of four metres.
Before planting, clean the lines of bush and stack between lines.
Clear big trees.
4. There are two ways to plant Gliricidia: stumps and seeds.
* Stumps can be taken from a nearby cocoa farm.
Pull up trees about six months old with stems as wide as the thumb.
Cut off the roots to 10 cm long and cut off the top keeping some leaves.
* Seeds are used if stumps are not available.
The seeds will grow better if mixed with an inoculum obtained from an agriculture extension officer.
Dig along the line five cm deep where the shade trees will be and drop in one seed every 30 cm, or grow their Gliricidia seedlings in a nursery and transplant when about one metre high as with stumps.
Cocoa can be planted when the Gliricidia is about two metres high.
5. Keep weeds away from the young shade trees.
After planting seeds, after three months pull out the weak trees leaving one strong tree at each correct spacing.
Mulch the seedlings with rotten bush.
See diagram 55.15: Planting Gliricidia.
7. Dig trenches one metre long in between the cocoa, or plant Gliricidia seeds in strips or one metre long between cocoa planting places.
Mark out strips of soil one metre long between the stakes where cocoa seedlings will be planted.
Into each of these strips spread about 20 Gliricidia seeds and cover them up with 3 cm of soil.
Weed the strip each week.
When about 1.3 m high, pull out the smaller shade plants leaving the three biggest at each strip.
When the shade trees are 2 m high, the cocoa seedlings can be planted.
8. Look in small trees for ants' nests made houses out of leaves.
Some ants help to keep pests away from cocoa.
Put wooden stakes at each of the 40 planting positions.
9. Cocoa grows well if it has part shade at first, but as the tree grows, some shade trees are removed.
Seedling cacao does best with only 25% full sunlight, saplings with closer to 50%.
Cut the stem of Gliricidia shade trees just below the soil surface.
Cocoa can be grown without any shade, but the trees do not grow well and much fertilizer must be used.
Shade removal is possible after 3 to 4 years, but in many situations windbreaks will be beneficial or necessary.
Thinning shade, as the cocoa trees get bigger less shade is needed.
An agriculture extension officer can show how much shade to leave so that their trees will bear the most cocoa pods.
10. Tall coconuts are a good shade for cocoa, rather than hybrid coconuts or dwarf coconuts.
However, the yield of hybrid coconuts is about twice that of tall coconuts.
Plant coconuts for shade for cocoa at a spacing of 12 m square, in every 4th row of cocoa.
Raise the coconuts in a nursery for 12 months before being planted out, at the start of the rainy season.
Plant the cocoa when the coconuts are 5 years old or when the fronds touch.
11. An agroforestry approach to providing shade tree is to use some forest timber trees and some fruit trees for a minimum shade of 10-15 trees per hectare.
12. The Republic of Cameroon plans to double its cocoa production in the coming decade in line with international requirements for sustainable and deforestation-free cocoa by using private certification.
The net profit rates obtained by small-scale certified producers are 14% (in the savannah zone) and 24% (in the forest zone), rates are much higher than other production models.
Certification schemes provide technical and financial support, which has a positive influence on the practices of small-scale producers.
13. The role of shade trees in incidence of pests and diseases and yield is complicated and the grower is advised to get advice from an agriculture extension officer and visit cocoa farms with different degrees of shade.
Monoculture cultivation of cocoa, no shade, may bring higher yields in the short term, but in the long term no shading causes environmental stress to the cocoa trees to make them more susceptible to pests and diseases and decreasing yields of cocoa farms.

1.3 Planting
The soil for cocoa should be a clay loam, well drained, one metre deep and had no cocoa farming on it for ten years.
If planted under coconuts, they need the same soil.
The ideal temperature for planting cocoa trees, and especially of the Forastero variety, is around 24 ° C.
1. There are two types of planting materials: 1. seeds, 2. seedlings or buds.
Get hybrid seeds and buds from an agriculture extension officer.
Plant two seeds 20 cm apart at each planting position.
After six months pull out the weaker seedlings.
It is safer to plant seed in a polythene bag nursery.
Fill the bag with crumbly soil, plant one seed in each.
Put them in rows under 50 % shade and students every three days if there is no rain.
The seedlings are ready to plant out when they have a stem thickness of 8 mm after 3-5 months.
Transplant during rainy weather.
Use only the strong and healthy seedlings.
Dig a hole 30 cm wide and 40 cm deep at each planting position at least 3 m apart.
Keep the dark top soil.
Use a sharp knife to cut right through the nursery bag containing the seedling two cm from the bottom.
Place in the hole so that the top of the nursery bag is level with the soil.
Slit the side of the nursery bag and pull it out of the hole.
Fill in the hole with topsoil and press down well to make the ground flat.
Weed in a circle around each seedling.
2. A budding is made by attaching the bud of an improved kind of cocoa to the seedling of a normal kind of cocoa.
The bud develops into a tree.
Hybrid seed is made by putting the pollen of one kind of cocoa on the flower of another kind of cocoa.
The flower then makes hybrid seed which has a mix of the features of the two kinds of cocoa.
3. Show the students how to plant seed and how to plant a nursery bag.
Plant carefully so that the soil in the nursery bag and the roots are not moved.
Nursery bag planting is better than direct seedling, because nursery bag seedlings can be better cared for in a nursery, and the biggest seedlings can be selected for planting out.
Cocoa trees must be cared for regularly, so growers should be able to tell when cocoa trees look healthy and well pruned.
During the first years after planting, visit the cocoa farm each week to see what has to be done.

3.0 Cocoa tree
See diagram 55.3: Parts of a cocoa tree.
To understand how to care for cocoa, understand the strange way it grows.
Cocoa is an evergreen tree that grows up to 10m tall.
Cocoa seedlings have a single main stem called the chupon that grows vertically to a height of 1-2 m and stops growing.
Then the terminal bud, called the jorquette, forks into 3 to 5 meristems to give upright shoots called fan branches which grow out at an angle.
The fan branches give the plant a big canopy of leaves with a mostly level base.
Further upright suckers, "water suckers", (chupons) emerge below the first jorquette and grow up through the fan branches forming more jorquettes and further whorls of fan branch growth.
The tree can grow taller when a sucker called a chupon grows out of the stem below the jorquette, and forms new fan branches above.
In this way the tree becomes higher, forming several layers of jorquettes, if not pruned.
Roots
See diagram 55.41: Cocoa roots.
The seedling tree grows a deep tap root to two metres in good soil.
The root system of a mature tree comprises a taproot up to 2 m long in friable soil and a dense system of lateral roots in the top 20 cm of soil for surface feeding.
These roots spread out to 5-6 m, forming a dense surface-feeding mat.
Fruit
The ovary has 5 carpels.
The fruit is a drupe, but is commonly called a pod.
The pod does not open, indehiscent, and stays on the tree.
Pods vary in size and shape, being 10 to 32 cm long, spherical to cylindrical, pointed or blunt, smooth or warty, with or without 5 or 10 furrows, colour white or green or red, ripening to green or yellow or red or purple.
The pod has 20 to 60 seeds arranged in 5 rows, variable in size, 2 to 4 cm long, ovoid or elliptic shape and 625 to 1 125 seeds per kg.
The roots are mostly surface feeding with tap root penetrating to 2 m in friable soil.
2. If the class can go to where cocoa trees are growing, ask the following questions:
How high is the tree?
Has it got a big canopy of leaves?
Does the canopy of leaves have a mostly level base?
Is the tree growing in a shady place?
How much of the tree is in sunlight?
How thick is the tree trunk at the base?
The trunk branches into several of smaller branches called the fan.
Go up close to the trunk and look for flowers.
The clusters of flowers grow out from small cushions on the side of the trunk.
Pick a large leaf.
What colour is it?
How long is it?
What is its shape and size?
After the flowers have formed, a small pod grows.
The pod grows larger until it is ripe.
Measure the length and width of a big pod.
Open one pod to see the seeds, called "beans", inside.
Estimate how much shade and full sun on the tree.
Measure the thickness of the trunk and the height of the fan above the ground.
Look very closely at a flower and describe it.
Look at the places where the flowers grow out from the trunk at a small swelling called the cushion.
Pick a leaf.
Pick a ripe pod and open it to see inside.

4.0 Cocoa leaf
See diagram 55.3: Cocoa plant.
1. Observe the length and breadth of a leaf.
Describe the shape of the leaf and the colour of the leaf.
Leaves are light green or red when young and turn dark green when mature.
The colour of leaves at the top of the tree is often different from colour of leaves growing low down on a tree.
Note the difference between the colour of young and old leaves.
Most cocoa leaves ends in a sharp point called the "drip tip".
Measure the length and thickness of the leaf stalk, petiole.
Note whether the leaves are held out sideways or hang down.

5.0 Cocoa flower
See diagram 55.5: Cocoa flowers and young pods
The flowers are formed in groups that grow out from small cushions on the wood of the main trunk (chupon) and older fan branches that have no leaves, when the tree is at least two to three years old.
At first, the flowers are small buds, later they open.
The opened flower has five long pink sepals joined at their bases, but the upper parts are long and pointed.
The five yellowish petals have a most unusual shape.
The base of the petal is very narrow.
Then it widens to form a hollow sac-like pouch.
At the top of this part is a long narrow extension bent backwards and ends in a broad flattened tip.
The male parts of the flower are in two groups.
An outer row of five staminodes are sterile male parts that make no pollen.
These long pointed staminodes point straight up out of the middle of the flower.
An inner row of five stamens has an unusual shape.
The stalk or filament that carries the anthers is bent over so that the male anthers are carried inside the hollow sac part of the five petals.
The female parts of the flower consist of an ovary with five divisions.
Each division or carpel has a long style or stalk, but the five styles are all joined at their base.
At the top of the style five separate lobes, stigmas, receive the pollen.
Experiment
Find the cushions from which the flowers grow.
Pick up a few flowers that fall off and do not develop.
Take off the 5 sepals.
Remove one petal.
Remove the five staminodes.
Look for the very small stamens.
Look carefully on the ground under a tree and count the number of fallen flowers.

6.0 Cocoa seed pods
See diagram 55.1.2: Seed pods.
See diagram 55.6: Seeds in the pod.
Cocoa trees begin to bear fruit when they are three to four years old.
They produce pink and white flowers throughout the year, growing in abundance after before the rain starts.
However the pods grow straight out of the trunk and the main branches, which is most unusual.
Only a small proportion of the flowers develop into fruit over a period of about five months.
The trees are carefully pruned so that pods can be more easily harvested.
Each tree yields 20-30 pods per year.
It takes the whole year's crop from one tree to make 450 g of chocolate.
Cocoa trees only start to bear fruit when they are 4 or 5 years old.
Open a ripe fruit is by hitting it on the outside with a piece of stiff wood.
Once a young fruit is 3 months old, it will usually stay on the tree and grow properly.
It usually takes about 6 months for a fruit or pod to be ripe.
The fruit pods can vary in length, from 10cm to 30cm, and in shape, from cylindrical to spherical.
New pods can be light green or red.
The pod is ripe when the beans are loose and the pod will rattle when shaken.
When the fruit is opened, these are the parts that can be seen:
1. On the outside is the thick coat or husk.
This coat may have deep grooves in it or shallow grooves.
It may also have a lumpy surface with a warty appearance.
It may be soft or hard and woody.
2. The large seeds or "beans" are in the centre of the pod.
Each pod may have 20 to 60 seeds in it.
3. All around the seeds and between the seeds and the outside husk is a mass of white or pink soft pulp.
4. The pod has a strong stalk.
5. The pods may be up to one foot or 30 cm long and may be 10 cm wide.
6. The shape of the pods depends on the variety grown.
The water shoots are called chupons.
The flower has 5 sepals and 5 yellow petals.
The long sterile male parts that make no pollen are called staminodes.
The female ovary has 5 parts.

7.0 Pollination and fertilization
1. Flowers arise from cushions in the wood of the main stem and fan branches that is at least 2 to 3 years old.
Only 1 to 5% of flowers are successfully pollinated and form pods.
Pollinating insects are mainly tiny midges, e.g. Forcipomyia, and other small insects that require cool, dark, moist habitats and breed in rotting vegetation.
When the male pollen is taken to the female stigmas by midges, the flower is pollinated.
When the pollen grains grow down into the ovary, it will be fertilized.
Only about one flower in 500 becomes a fruit.
Many fertilized flowers drop off the tree.
Even when a flower turns into a fruit, young fruits often shrivel up and drop off the tree when only 7 or 8 weeks old.
Lack of plant food may cause this.
Although only a few flowers are pollinated, the tree sets too many fruit to carry to maturity.
Cocoa has a fruit thinning mechanism where the young fruit, called cherelles, stop growing, turn black and shrivel, but do not fall off the tree.
This is called cherelle wilt and may be mistaken for disease, but it is not a disease, it is natural.
The remaining pods take 5-6 months to ripen after pollination.
Ripe pods also do not open by themselves or fall off the tree.

8.0 Cocoa pod
See diagram 55.4: Cocoa pod.
See diagram 55.6: Seeds in the pod.
1. The cocoa tree bears two harvests of cocoa pods per year.
Around 20 cm in length and 500 g in weight, the pods ripen to a rich, golden-orange colour.
Within each pod there are 20-40 purple, 2 cm long cocoa beans covered in a sweet white pulp.
2. There are many ways of telling if the pod is ripe.
The beans will be loose inside a ripe pod and will rattle if you shake the pod.
If the pod is ripe, the gum of the seeds will be slippery and it will taste sweet.
If the gum around the seeds is dry and if the seeds do not fall apart, the pod is not ripe.
3. Describe the outside of the pod.
Is it grooved or smooth?
Is the surface lumpy or warty?
What colour is it?
What type of cocoa is it likely to be?
4. Open the pod by hitting it with a strong stick.
Use a sharp knife to cut cleanly across the wall of the pod and the soft pulp.
5. Scoop out all the seeds from the pod.
Count the number of seeds.
6. All the seeds are joined to a long white part running down the centre of the pod.

9.0 Cocoa seeds
See diagram 55.9: Cocoa seed.
Study some seeds and note the following:
1. Where the seed was broken off from the central white part, it leaves a small mark on the outside of the seed.
This is very important, because when a seed is planted this mark must be placed downwards in the seed bed or seed tin.
Plant a cocoa seed with the small mark downwards.
The small plant inside a bean is the embryo.
The outside coat of a seed is the testa.
2. When the seed or "bean" is cut open the following parts can be seen:
* The seed has a tough seed coat or testa.
* The outer part of the seed coat is the soft pulp surrounding the seed.
* The small plant or embryo (or "germ"), is at one end of the seed.
* The main part of the seed consists of the two seed leaves or "cotyledons" where the starchy food is stored.
* A small mark on the outside of the seed coat shows it was once joined to the central white part of the pod.
3. Use a knife to cut the seed on the flat, not across them, then look for the embryo, small plant.
Note the seed leaves, cotyledons, where the food is stored.
Note the colour and thickness of the seed coat or testa.
4. The seeds are self incompatible and are cross-pollinated by midges.
The pods contain up to 50 seeds surrounded by juicy sweet pulp.
The seeds are rich in fat, called chocolate butter and contain alkaloids, e.g. theobromine giving them a bitter taste.
5. Germination occurs best in dim light.
The seeds have limited viability and no dormancy.
A tree bears pods at 4 or 5 years.
A pod has 20 to 60 seeds (beans).
The average pod is 30 cm long.

10.0 Seed bed nursery
See diagram 55.10: Cocoa seed bed, seedling.
See diagram 55.10a: Cocoa nursery.
1. Make a seed bed nursery from a wooden frame, plastic cover and coconut palm fronds about 8 months before planting seedlings in the cocoa farm.
Direct planting of seed into the field is not practised, because of to lack of irrigation and problems with weed and pest management of young plants.
2. It should be some distance from the older cocoa trees.
2. Use moist dark soil and break up the lumps until it is fine and loose.
Then mix a little manure with it.
Also, put the soil into steel cans or pieces of bamboo or polybags.
3. It must have good drainage and a nearby water supply to keep the seedlings wet when they are watered every day.
4. Do not allow weeds to grow near the seedlings.

11.0 Select and plant seeds
1. Prepare the land to be ready for planting the seedlings.
If about 60 cocoa seeds or beans are planted at least 50 will germinate and grow.
Discard the 10 weakest seedlings leaving 40 cocoa seedlings.
Plant the cocoa seedlings 3 m apart each way.
So the piece of land must be 15 metres wide and 18 metres long.
Put stakes in the soil at each planting place.
2. Propagation may be by using cuttings, buds or grafts, but using seeds is cheaper.
Seeds germinate at maturity, and are viable only a short time.
They may be stored 10 to 13 weeks if moisture content is kept at 50%.
Soon after picking, pulp is removed from seeds that are then planted in shaded nursery beds or baskets.
Collect seed from ripe pods and plant immediately.
At least 90% should germinate within 2 weeks.
Hybrid seeds are available, but the plants can be highly variable in growth and performance.
3. Chose only an Amelonado pod of large size from a high bearing tree.
4. The pod must be ripe and healthy.
A ripe pod will have loose seeds inside when shook.
Use a knife to cut off the pod leaving some stalk on the tree.
Never pull the pod from the tree, because the cushion may be pulled off and it cannot make any more flowers.
5. Select only the best seeds for planting.
Open the ripe pod by hitting it with a stick.
Do not use a knife, because it might cut the seeds.
Discard the small seeds at each end of the pod.
Use only the big seeds in the middle of the pod used for planting.
Select seeds showing no defect or already germinated.
Wash the seeds with plenty of water, or rub them with clean sand to remove the mucilage around them.
Discard any seeds which sink to the bottom of the bucket of water.
6. Sow the large seeds soon after they are taken from the pod.
Do not keep the pod for more than a week, because the embryo will die.
After removing the seeds from the pods, take all the empty pods far away and burn or bury them.
7. Hold the seeds by the flat sides and with the small scar pointing downwards.
Place them flat (sideways) on the top of the soil.
Push the seed down into the moist soil to the first finger joint or until it is just covered.
Do not push the seed in too deeply or it will not grow well.
Another way to plant seeds is to pre-germinate them on damp material or sawdust and plant them after 2 days when the first roots have appeared.
8. If the seeds are planted in the soil and not in tins, plant them in rows 25 cm apart.
Leave a space of 25 cm between the seeds in a row.
9. Water the seeds after planting and seedlings should appear 6-8 days after sowing, and 90% germination rate.
Avoid infection by watering seedlings in the morning so the leaves become dry during the day and avoid soil splash.
10. If planting seeds to produce seedlings for use in budding, do not plant them too deep so that there will be not be enough hypocotyl (stem) between the soil and the cotyledons to insert the bud.
The open brown cotyledons will be about 10 cm above the soil and the first true leaves have emerged or are still emerging.
Cut budwood sticks with about 12 leaves and axillary buds from the chupons or fan branches branch of a coconut tree with superior qualities.
For patch budding, cut a piece of bark containing the base of a leaf stalk and an axillary bud, scion, from a budwood stick and push it into a cut in the bark of the rootstock seedling.
If the cambium layers of the scion and rootstock are in close contact, they grow together so that the inserted axillary bud becomes a new shoot.
Shoots from fan branch buds will begin branching from near the ground level.
For top grafting, a budwood stick is cut to sharp pencil point and inserted into the top of the seedling and the two parts are kept together with a plastic wrapping tied around with string.
In more urban environments, instead of planting seeds some growers say they will get better results from planting seedlings or grafted trees that have been in pots.

12.0 Cocoa varieties
See diagram 55.12: Cocoa varieties: Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario.
The four main varieties of the cacao plant are 1. Forastero, 2. Criollo, 3. Trinitario, and 4. Nacional Cocoa.
An Amelonado pod is yellow.
Most cocoa trees are of the Forastero or Amelonado types, and these have short pods with a blunt end.
The surface of the husk is not deeply grooved and is smooth, not warty.
These pods are usually a yellow colour.
Other shapes and colours of pods may be found in trees that are hybrids or crosses between different types of cocoa trees.
1. Forastero variety
Forastero (Spanish "foreigner") variety is used in world chocolate production.
Growers favour the high yielding plants of forastero and many replaced the criollo crop with the low quality.
Forastero variety which produces earthy and simple cocoa.
Forastero is primarily cultivated in West Africa and is known as bulk cocoa.
It is hardy and vigorous, producing beans with the strongest flavour.
The pods are not as deeply grooved as the Criollo cocoas and may even be smooth.
The ripe pods are green or yellow, and the wall of the pod is very thick and woody.
The Forastero cocoa is a very vigorous tree that resists various diseases.
The Forastero tree usually has 30 to 40 cocoa beans per pod.
It has smooth, yellow and green pods with a strong, acidic aroma.
Its beans contain a high concentration of tannin which affects the quality of the cocoa giving it a more bitter taste.
It accounts for nearly 80% of world production.
The sub-varieties of Forastero variety include Amelonado.
Amelonado cocoas have short yellow pods which are smooth without warts and shallow furrows.
They have flat seeds that have deep purple seed leaves inside.
Forastero types have with short, roundish, almost smooth fruits and purple cotyledons (2n = 20).
They are high yielding and robust so provide most of the world's cacao crop in the form of full-flavoured "bulk" beans.
Amelonado or Forastero varieties have short pods with no pointed ends.
The best varieties to grow are the Amelonado cocoas, because they are hardy, more vigorous, and yield well.
African Amelonado cocoa trees make up the cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Ghana.
2. Criollo variety
Due to its fragile state, susceptibility to disease, and low production, criollo plants now make up less than 1 to 5%, (the experts vary on that number), of the total crop production in the world.
Partly due to the rarity, and definitely due to its unique, complex flavour, criollo beans are regarded as super fine cocoa and are valued by chocolate makers.
Within the criollo variety, there are "porcelana", "chuao", "ocumare" beans, referencing a particular terroir of the criollo bean.
Criollo cocoa is very aromatic, and has very little bitterness.
Criollo cocoas have elongated yellow or red ripe pods, which are narrow and pointed, have deep grooves on the outside and the surface of the pods is rough or warty, soft husk.
The seeds or beans are large and rounded, red/green when unripe, yellow/orange when ripe with white or pale violet seed leaves.
Criollo cocoas have a much better taste than other cocoas, and were once common, but now are rare.
Criollo types have elongated, ridged, pointed fruits and white cotyledons.
They produce relatively mild beans with delicate flavours, but they are also disease prone, slow growing, low yielding trees, and so are only a small proportion of the world crop.
Criollo, with its mild or weak chocolate flavour, is grown in Indonesia, Central and South America.
Criollo trees are not as hardy and produce softer red pods, containing 20-30 white, ivory or very pale purple beans.
Criollo variety makes up less than 1% of the world's cocoa production and is grown mainly in America.
3. Trinitario variety
Trinitario cocoas, probably crosses between Criollo and Forastero cocoas, because the pods look like Criollo and Forastero types.
Trinitario beans while not as rare as criollo still only make up less than 10% of the total cacao production.
This hybrid strain spread from the Caribbean islands to South America in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Trinitario, being the least pure, has the a wide range of tastes and profiles of any other variety.
The ratios of criollo to forastero, and the terroir, greatly influence the complex flavours found in this bean.
Trinitario plants are not found in the wild as they are cultivated hybrids of the other two types, which first appeared in Trinidad.
Trinitario cocoa trees are grown mainly in the Caribbean, but also in Cameroon and Papua New Guinea.
The mostly hard pods have many shapes, contain 30 or more beans of variable colour, though white beans are rare.
A pod takes 6 months to be fully grown and ripe.
Trinitario variety makes up about 5% of the total world production.
4. Nacional Cocoa variety
Nacional Cocoa is the least known cacao, which was only recently rediscovered in Peru in 2011.
In its purest form, it is regarded as the world's rarest cacao.
Chocolates made with Nacional Cocoa beans are rich, creamy, and with little bitterness.

13.0 Soils for cocoa
See diagram 55.13: A good soil and three bad soils for cocoa.
1. Cocoa needs rich, organic, well drained, moist, deep soils.
Shallow soils are not suitable.
It will not grow well on waterlogged soils, shallow stony soils, or soils with a hard stony layer near the surface.
Also, cocoa will not grow on coral soils, so it cannot be grown on coral atoll islands.
If a cocoa tree is to grow well, it needs more than anything else a soil of good structure, permeable and deep.
The cocoa tree has tap-roots.
The tap-root descends straight into the soil.
The branch roots go down very deep.
But many small branch roots also grow near the surface.
If the soil is of good structure and contains much humus, the roots penetrate well.
Improve the soil structure by spreading manure and working it into the soil.
If the soil is deep, the roots can go down to a good depth.
Never plant cocoa trees in soil with a lot of stones, or in soil where there is some hard layer.
Avoid heavy clay soils where moisture remains after rain.
2. Cocoa is grown on a wide range of soil types, but soils with moderate to high fertility are favoured, because fertilizer inputs under traditional systems are low.
The best soils for cocoa are soft loose deep soils with good structure, e.g. clay loam.
Soils
The main needs are a free draining soil with good moisture holding capacity and pH range from 5.5 to 7.5, preferably close to 6.5.
3. The soil should be at least 1.5 metres deep.
Shallow soils do not give cocoa enough root room.
If the soil has been dug often to a certain level, the soil under where they have been digging will be hard and form a soil pan.
This will restrict the roots of cocoa and cause a swampy soil.
If the water table is close to the surface, the roots have no room to grow in this soil, the trees have no "root room".
4. Dig a hole in a place where cocoa is growing to see if it is loose and deep.

14.0 Selecting a site and preparing the land
See diagram 55.12: A good soil and three bad soils for cocoa.
1. Choose a suitable piece of land with soil rich in organic matter, deep and well drained with area big enough for the school cocoa project.
Provide some shade for the young cocoa seedlings with coconuts about 9 m apart or shade trees, e.g. Gliricidia.
They are fast growing legumes that put nitrogen into the soil and giving shade.
2. Clearing the site
Do not cut down all the trees and to burn everything so that all the organic matter in the weeds, leaves and branches are destroyed, leaving the soil bare to the sun or rain.
The soil becomes less fertile and the cocoa trees are not protected from the sun when it is too strong.
To give shade it is better to keep a few of the forest trees, e.g. Terminalia, Ficus, Albizzia, Alstonia, Pycnanthus.
3. Banana and taro can give shade for the young cocoa trees.
If they are planted long enough before the cocoa trees, they give good protection, but if they are planted at the same time as the cocoa trees, they do not protect the young cocoa trees well enough and they take nourishment out of the soil.
4. First cut all the grass, tall weeds, creepers, bushes and small trees.
Make heaps of what has been cut down and arrange the heaps in rows.
Do not burn all the cut vegetation, but leave it on the ground to keep the soil moist and protect from soil erosion.
Leave the heaps to rot to make humus.
Cut down all the trees which might give some disease to the cocoa trees and cut down trees that give too much shade.
When the cocoa trees have grown taller, they need less shade.
Gradually give them less and less shade.
Prune the big trees and cut off those branches that cast too much shade.
Later, cut down all the big trees.
When the cocoa trees have grown, it is better to get rid of the unwanted shade trees, by using tree-killing chemical products.
This method causes less damage than cutting them down.
Plants should be transplanted into the field when they are about 0.5 m tall (knee height) and as thick as a pencil at the base.

16.0 Transplanting
See diagram 55.16: Dig a hole one month before planting.
See diagram 55.16a: Planting hole,
1. If the cocoa trees are not planted in rows, there is not the same distance between them.
When the trees are too far apart, they do not use all the soil and when they are too close, they grow badly, so always plant in rows.
Sometimes growers sow cocoa seeds straight away in the plantation, but this is a bad thing to do.
It is better to put into the plantation either young cocoa seedlings from your own nursery beds, or cocoa seedlings bought from a research centre.
2. The common planting spacing is 4 m x 4 m in a square, 4 m between rows and 4 m within rows, a density of 625 cocoa trees per hectare.
If planting among other useful trees, e.g. citrus, the rows may be orientated east-west to reduce the shading of cocoa by the other trees.
3. Before planting cocoa trees, use stakes to mark the positions where the cocoa will be planted, dig the holes to stir the earth and loosen it during one to two months before planting the cocoa trees.
When digging the hole, do not mix together the top soil from above and the subsoil from below, but make two separate heaps, as in the diagrams above.
Dig the holes 30 cm wide and 45 cm deep.
A few days before planting, fill in the dug holes by putting the topsoil dug out from the top at the bottom of the hole, and put the subsoil dug out from below in the top of the hole.
Mix the soil with manure.
4. Gradually take away the nursery shade cover so that the seedlings get used to the sun.
5. Transplant about 6 months after planting when about 0.5 m tall, or knee height, and as thick as a pencil at the base into shaded fields.
Transplant the cocoa seedlings at the beginning of the rainy season when the soil is moist and when the sky is cloudy.
6. A few hours before lifting the seedlings from the nursery beds, water the soil.
Use a spade to dig up seedlings from the seed beds and keep a ball of earth around the roots.
Be very careful not to break the roots, or twist the tap-root and do not cover the crown with earth.
Sort out the cocoa seedlings in the plant nursery by throwing away diseased plants and plants that have a twisted tap-root.
Dip the roots of the seedlings in liquid mud, so that the cocoa plants take root again easily.
If transplanting seedlings from baskets or polybags, make a hole big enough to hold the root ball with the cocoa seedling.
Turn the seedling in a tin upside down and tap the edge of the sharply on something hard.
7. Pack the soil down well around the tap-root.
Put soil around the seedling to be level with the soil surface, then water the seedling.
For the first few days, protect the transplanted cocoa seedling from the sun with palm fronds.

17.0 Mulching
See diagram 55.17: Mulch.
1. A mulch is any light loose covering laid on the surface of the soil.
The commonest mulch is made of dead weeds, but any kind of plant rubbish can be used.
A mulch helps plants on the following ways:
* It helps to keep the surface of the soil moist and cool.
* In cold weather it keeps the soil warm.
* It protects the soil and stops heavy rain washing away the topsoil.
* It helps to keep sun off the weeds and stops their growing.
* It keeps the surface of the topsoil soft and moist.
* It contains some nutrients, plant foods, which can be washed down into the soil.
However, in a dry climate with only occasional light rain, too much mulch may absorb all the rainfall, so that no moisture reaches the plant roots.
2. To make a mulch, clear a one metre circle around each cocoa seedling, then cover the ground with mulch 10 cm thick.
Leave a small clear space of the bare soil around the seedlings so that the mulch does not touch the seedling.
The clear space helps to stop the attack of pests.
As the tree grows bigger, widen the area covered by mulch until all the soil is covered.
Do not use pieces of wood or sticks as mulch, because they take too long to rot down.
3. Mechanical mulching machines are used to turn tree waste into chips, which speed up its recycling into compost.

18.0 Pruning
See diagram 55.18: Pruning.
1. The "ideal shape" of a cocoa tree is a single trunk, up to 1.2 metre high, with 5 main lateral branches of equal strength growing outwards and upwards at an angle at about 45 degrees.
As the cocoa seedling grows, it must to be pruned to grow into the right shape and to limit tree height for harvesting to about twice the height of the harvesters.
The pods are easily reached and easily monitored for pests and diseases.
Light pruning can be done by women and younger members of the family outside school time.
The young tree forms a straight main stem about 1 to 1.5 metres high, then forks into 3 to 5 main fan branches, called the first jorquette.
The tree then makes two kinds of branches:
* Fan branches with leaves growing flat along both sides of the stem.
* Sucker branches called chupons with leaves growing all the way around the stem.
When the first fan branches have formed then chupon branches will grow.
If chupons are left on the tree, it will grow into a bad shape with two or three fans, one above the other.
Cut off all branches forming a second story, or near to, or touching, the ground.
Prune off any chupons from the main trunk below the jorquette by cutting close to the trunk to restrict further vertical growth.
Also, prune fan branches to maintain evenness in the structure, dead or diseased branches or any branches that hang down low, but otherwise, never prune fan branches.
If the pruning cut is large, paint it over with tar or creosote.
Remove floral buds until trees are 5 years old.
Pruning, in the first year the stem should grow straight up until it is 1-2 metres high.
If the top of the stem divides into two cut one off.
The bud formed at the end of the stem will grow a fan of three side branches, fan branches.
Let those grow, but look out for the side suckers or chupons growing from the main stem.
Cut these off close to the stem, before they get too big, as in the diagram.
When it stops growing it divides to form a jorquette.
This can grow to form three to five fan branches.
Flowers then pods grow from the older main stem or from fan branches.
If a cocoa tree is not pruned, it can grow more storys of fan branches until it is about 15 m tall and each new story shades the lower storys.
Pruning is used to minimise the shading of leaves by leaving only the fan branches on the outside of the canopy.
So the height of the tree should be limited to growth only to the first jorquette at about 1.5 m and only 3 to 5 fan branches.
Some new hybrid trees need special pruning on advice from an agriculture extension officer.
Cut out branches infected with Pink Disease or Vascular Streak Dieback by cutting 30 cm below the infection.
Prune every 3-4 months until the canopies between trees are touching, so the canopy is closed.

19.0 Fertilizing cocoa
See diagram 55.19: Drip circle.
About 200 kg N, 25 kg P, 300 kg K, and 140 kg Ca are needed per ha to grow the trees before pod production.
For each 1 000 kg of dry beans harvested, about 20 kg N, 4 kg P, and 10 kg K are removed if the pod husks are also removed from the field, the K removed increases to about 50 kg.
Use soil and leaf analyses to find the nutritional needs of cocoa.
Leaf analyses are not accurate due to the difficulty in sampling leaves of the same age and the influence of shading on the nutrient composition of leaves.
Some experts can use visual symptoms of mineral deficiencies to recommend use of fertilizers.
Ask an agriculture extension officer which fertilizers should be used.
Some common fertilizers:
* Urea contains much nitrogen in it (46%), but it makes the soil a bit sour, i.e. acid, and some nitrogen may be lost into the air.
* Sulfate of ammonia contains nitrogen (21%), and sulfur (24%), in it.
Do not use this on an acid soil, because it makes the soil more acid.
* Calcium ammonium nitrate contains 20% of nitrogen in it, but it also has calcium, so use it on acid soils.
* Superphosphate contains phosphorus, but it also contains calcium and sulfur.
Triple superphosphate contains much more phosphorus in it, but it is much more expensive to buy.
* Muriate of potash contains 60% potassium oxide, but it is expensive.
* Sulfate of potash contains potassium and sulfur.
* Limestone or lime is only used when soils are very acid and do not have enough calcium.
* Magnesium sulfate contains magnesium and sulfur.
* Trace element fertilizers give the soil very small amounts of some elements, e.g. iron, copper, manganese, molybdenum.
If a soil needs just one plant food, use a single fertilizer.
Mix single fertilizers for several nutrients.
1. When applying fertilizers, first take away all weeds growing near the trees.
If a mulch has been used, rake this away and leave the soil bare.
2. Sprinkle the fertilizer evenly in a wide ring around the tree, but do not put any of it close to the tree trunk.
Sprinkle fertilizer right out as far as drips of rain fall down from the leaves.
This is called the drip circle.
3. Rake the mulch back on top of the fertilizer.
Leave a clear space close to the base of the tree.

20.0 Harvesting
See diagram 55.11: Right and wrong ways of harvesting pods.
1. After about two years trees will start to make flowers and fruit.
Although fruits mature throughout the year, usually only two harvests are made, e.g. in the Pacific islands, the ripe pods should be harvested every two weeks between April and September and every four weeks from September to March.
From fertilization to harvesting the fruit requires 5 to 6 months.
Cocoa can be harvested just as the pods change from green to yellow, or from red to orange or crimson.
Do not wait more than 4 days to open the pods.
Harvest season lasts about 5 months.
Cut the pods from trees and store on the ground.
Crack the pods and remove the beans.
Do not leave the broken husks on the field, but collect and burn them, or use them for compost.
Production varies from 29 kg / ha to 2, 000 kg / ha, 0.5 to 10 kg / tree.
The first pods are produced in about three years.
The harvesting of cocoa pods is very labour intensive.
On small-holdings the whole family, together with friends and neighbours can help out.
Ripe pods are gathered every few weeks during the peak season.
The high pods are cut with large knives attached to poles, taking care not to damage nearby flowers or buds.
The pods are collected in large baskets, which workers carry on their heads, and piled up ready for splitting.
The pods are split open by hitting them with a thick piece of wood.
Take the beans out of the pods and put them in baskets, then carry them to the place where they are to ferment.
The seeds or beans, covered with a sweet white pulp or mucilage, are removed ready for the two-part curing process of fermentation and drying.
This prepares the beans for market and is the first stage in the development of the delicious chocolate flavour.
Cocoa beans are fermented so as to destroy the seed coat, kill the germ and give the cocoa a good taste.
2. The cocoa harvest can be spread over several months.
Although pods may be available for harvest throughout the year, usually one or two peak harvest periods are used depending on flowering in response to rainfall.
Harvest pods as soon as they turn yellow.
Harvest only mature pods by cutting them off the tree.
The colour of the mature pods depends on the kind of cocoa e.g. green pods turn yellow and red pods turn orange.
Open the pods the same day they are picked by knocking them together.
Take out the wet seeds and send them to the fermenter.
Only the ripe pods are harvested, but they can be left on the tree for 2 to 3 weeks.
Also, under-ripe pods can be fermented.
Pod left for too long on the tree will rot and the beans may germinate inside the pod.
Harvesting is by hand using machetes or knives to cut pods from the tree.
Pulling the pods from the tree can damage the flower cushion and tear the bark.
3. After harvest, remove about 40 beans from each pod by breaking it open with a sharp blow, not with a machete, and scooping out the beans out by hand to form a pile, without damaging the beans.
This can be done immediately or delayed for a few days.
The plant placenta joining the beans inside the pod should be separated from the wet beans before fermentation.
During fermentation, bacteria and yeast change sugars into alcohol and acids change the beans into chocolate.
At the fermenter, the wet beans are put in big boxes with holes in the bottom to let air in and juice run out.
During fermentation, bacteria attack the sticky white material around the beans, which become darker in colour, and develop the taste and chocolate smell.
The fermenting beans are moved from box to box every two days until fermentation is finished after about six days.
The beans are then spread out on trays and dried in the sun or dried with hot air in a sliding tray drier protected from rain.
To make a simple drier, spread the beans on a concrete slab set well above floor level.
Light a fire underneath, or allow hot air to pass through drums to heat the concrete slab.
The layer of drying beans should not be not more than 4 cm.
Drying cocoa beans takes five to ten days. The dried beans are then cleaned and graded then stored for shipping overseas.
Picking, fermenting and drying all need a lot of skill and attention to get the best price for cocoa beans.
4. Fermenting and drying after fermentation
The main problems with fermenting are that the air holes in the boxes get blocked with the sticky stuff and the beans get stuck together.
If this happens, there will not be enough air to complete the fermentation and the beans will not have the proper chocolate taste.
The problems can be solved by cleaning the air holes each day and turning all the beans over with a spade.
The main problem with drying is that the hot air drier runs for too long, which makes the beans wrinkle.
To solve this problem dry the skins first, then stop drying for a day, then start drying again to get fat beans which are evenly dried.
5. Cleaning and grading.
When the cocoa is quite dry, the beans are sorted.
Remove all the flat beans, germinated beans, mouldy beans, broken beans.
Keep only good beans, put these good beans into sack sand keep the sacks in a dry place, well protected against animals.
Before the beans can be sent overseas an agriculture extension officer checks that the bags are clean.
Then the inspector tests one hundred beans randomly selected to see if they have been prepared properly.
6. Make chocolate
Use fat round beans with a rich brown colour and a nice strong smell.
Roast them in an oven for forty minutes.
Let them cool then crack off the shells.
Grind the beans as fine as possible using a mincer or coffee grinder until they become a stiff greasy paste.
This paste can be used in cooking.
To make chocolate use half as much "Copha" or butter to the bean paste, mix together over nearly boiling water.
Add an egg yolk to help them mix.
Add finely ground sugar.
It will set to form a rough kind of chocolate.

21.0 Fermenting cocoa beans
See diagram: 55.21: Fermenting box.
1. Cocoa beans must be fermented and dried before being used as raw material for making chocolate or cocoa.
At harvest, each pod containing 30-50 beans embedded in a slimy pulp is cut open and the contents scooped out to form a tightly packed mass that excludes oxygen gas and so allows anaerobic fermentation, at first by wild yeast from the environment, mainly Hanseniaspora uvarum.
The wild yeasts convert sugars to ethanol.
Also, lactic acid bacteria that are tolerant to ethanol convert sugars and citric acid to lactic acids.
Yeasts also convert the pectin in the sticky pulp to a liquid to be drained away.
So air enters and allows aerobic acetic acid bacteria to oxidize ethanol to acetic acid in an exothermic reaction to 45-50^oC.
This temperature kills the yeasts, lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria, so after 72 hours fermentation stops.
Acetic acid kills the embryonic seedlings and start the chemical reactions that later produce colour, flavour and aroma after roasting.
2. During fermentation, the cocoa pulp clinging to the beans matures and turns into a liquid, which drains away and the true chocolate flavour starts to develop.
Fermentation methods vary considerably from country to country, but there are two basic methods - using heaps and using "sweating" boxes.
Fermentation using heaps
The heap method, involves choosing a flat and dry place, and piling wet cocoa beans, surrounded by the pulp, on banana or plantation leaves spread out in a circle on the ground.
The heap is covered with more leaves, left for 5-6 days, and regularly stirred to ensure even fermentation.
Fermentation using sweating boxes
In large plantations strong wooden boxes with drainage holes or gaps in the slats in the base are used, allowing air and liquid to pass through.
This process takes 6 to 10 days, during which time the beans are mixed twice.
The beans are purple at the beginning, and turn reddish when they are fermented.
Cocoa can be fermented in baskets lined and covered with leaves.
3. Fermentation develops chocolate flavour that develops further during roasting of the beans.
Also, fermentation allows easy extraction of beans from the pod.
The wet beans are taken out of the pods then heaped to allow them to increase temperature due to exothermic chemical reactions in the pulp caused by the fermentation micro-organisms.
At first, the sticky mucilage around the beans breaks down drains off as "sweatings".
After 36 to 72 hours, the beans are killed by the heat and chemical changes occur inside the bean and will continue during drying.
During fermentation the beans become darker and wrinkled and lose their bitter taste.
The beans are collected, heaped, covered with leaves and allowed to ferment through the action of microbes and enzymes naturally present.
This process kills the germ of the bean, removes adhering pulp and modifies the flavour and colour (now brown).
After drying, the beans are ready for export.
4. Fermentation can be done in wooden boxes about 800 kg capacity covered by banana leaves.
Usually at least 90 kg of beans are needed for processing for 5 to 7 days, depending on the type of cocoa and design of the fermenting box.
The percentage of dry fermented beans to wet unfermented beans is called "recovery".
It ranges from about 40% for under ripe pods to 45% for over ripe pods.
5. Make a fermenting box with some holes in it, so air can get in.
Ferment the beans 2 to 8 days before drying in sun.
Mix the beans every 2 days.
Test some beans to see if they are properly fermented.
Before fermenting, the kernels inside are purple, but after fermenting, they are reddish brown.
6. Around each bean is a white, mucilaginous coating that is sweet and tart to taste.
Its function is to provide a sugar source for the bean as it germinates and for the fermentation process.
A traditional method was to put the beans in a hole covered with banana leaves to trap the heat of fermentation.
Nowadays, the beans are put in fermentation boxes, "sweat boxes", soon after removal, because the beans begin to germinate as soon as the fruit has been picked.
Too much germination cause a bitter taste in the chocolate.
Fermentation soon begins on exposure to air when spores from naturally occurring yeasts, Saccharomyces sp., settle on the sugary coating on the beans and convert the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The alcohol is split further into acetic acid by vinegar bacteria, Mycoderma aceti.
7. On the first day of fermentation the temperature may rise to 48^oC.
If the fermentation temperatures is above 50^oC, there is a high risk of bad flavours in the beans.
With good management full fermentation of cacao beans can be achieved without temperature rising above 46^oC.
On the second day of fermentation, the temperature may reach 43^oC, where the germ within the cacao bean dies from the heat alcohol and acetic acid to release enzymes within the bean to develop the chocolate flavour.
8. To control temperature, the pile must be kept aerated during the first twenty four hours and lasting for the whole period of fermentation.
Rotate the beans in the sweat boxes by transferring the beans from one sweat box to another.
If they are rotated too frequently, the beans get too much oxygen, become too hot and develop dark spots.
If rotated too infrequently, the beans ferment unevenly, because the beans in the interior of the sweat box will get less oxygen than beans at the sides.
When yeasts use up the oxygen in the pile, lactic acid bacteria are active.
When the pile is turned to aerate it, acetic acid bacteria convert the alcohol produced by the yeast into acetic acid that breaks open cells to allow all the cell contents to react with each other.
So astringent phenolic substances mix with other products of fermentation to form less astringent substances.
9. Stacked sweat boxes, arranged like stairs, have holes in the bottom for drainage and air circulation.
The beans are put in the sweat box at the top level and as the cocoa bean fermentation continues shovelled to lower sweat boxes, until they are removed from the bottom sweat box and dried.
Long sticks are used to break up clumps of beans and to stir the beans.
Sweat boxes with fitted steel frames can be filled and emptied with an overhead hoist or modified fork lift.
Fermentation may take from two to eight days.
10. Fermentation alters the flavour of the seed from being extremely acidic / tannic to developing softer flavours of fruit and the precursors for chocolate flavour.
Polyphenol activity is reduced through fermentation.
Yeasts convert sugars to alcohol and metabolize some of the pulp acids.
Controlled inoculation of cacao seed fermentation using a Kluyveromyces marxianus hybrid yeast strain in a well-aerated pile improves the pectinolytic activity.
11. Digestive enzymes mix with storage proteins and sucrose sugar to form simple sugars, which later form aromatic molecules during the roasting process.
Also, the beans soak up flavours from the fermenting pulp.
So during fermentation the astringent, but bland tasting beans develop desirable flavours and flavour precursors.
12. Fermentation brings out the very best flavours and helps remove tannins that may be 5 - 15 % of the bean by weight.
Tannins cause an astringent flavour in the chocolate if not removed to the final chocolate and must be removed.
13. Chocolate is made from unfermented beans in Mexico and Central America for use in traditional dishes, but chocolate from unfermented beans does not have the "body" and richness as chocolate made from fermented beans.
Researchers have produced "starter cultures" to speed fermentation, produce consistent flavours and improve yield and quality.

22.0 Drying, bagging and shipping cocoa beans
1. When fermentation is complete, the wet mass of beans is dried, either by being spread in the sun on mats or using special drying equipment.
When fermentation is finished, the beans are dried in the sun or in ovens to about 7% moisture to prevent growth of bacteria and moulds that produce undesirable flavours.
The dried beans are then cleaned, bagged, and to cocoa manufacturers.
Artificial drying can cause beans to be very acidic if they are dried too quickly.
Dried beans are hand sorted or mechanically sieved and winnowed to remove defective beans and debris.
The number of pods required to produce 1 kg of dried beans is called the "pod index".
Low pod index means good bean size and a high weight of beans per pod.
2. After fermenting the cocoa beans must be dried.
Building a good drier is quite hard, so try to find a drier that the school could use.
The beans must be well dried and have only 6% moisture.
In most dryers, heat comes from a wood fire, but the beans must not be heated over 50^oC and they must be stirred while being dried.
The beans are then bagged and shipped.
Further processing includes roasting, crushing, and separating out the kernel, grinding the nibs and extraction of about half of the fat.
3. The quality of cocoa beans depends on flavour attributes, average bean weight 1.0 to 1.2 g, bean count of 100 to 83 beans per 100 g, low shell percentage of 11 to 17%, and fat content of
the cotyledons (nibs), at least 53%.
4. In many countries, cocoa fermenters and cocoa dealers and buyers are licensed to ensure production is at the standards of export cocoa.
Inspectors of cocoa beans intended for export control quality of cocoa beans.
The term "cacao bean" means the seed of the cacao trees, which has not been passed through a fermentation and drying process.
The term "cocoa bean" means a whole cacao bean that has been fermented and dried.
The term "cocoa processing" means the process of fermenting and drying cacao beans for converting cacao beans into cocoa beans.
The term "fermenter or fermentary" means any place or premises maintained for cocoa processing.
The term "dry cocoa" means cocoa beans that have been evenly dried, moisture content not more than 8%, not more than 1000 beans per kg.
The term "defective bean" means cocoa bean that is either insect-damaged, or mite-damaged, or germinated or "flat" (too thin), or "coupled" (beans stuck together).
The standard for "Export Cocoa" is based on accepted international standards and is prescribed by local legislation.
Cocoa inspectors put inspection marks on cocoa bags for export.
They can check samples taken through the meshes of the bags by using a stab sampler.
5. In countries exporting cocoa beans, particularly in West Africa, desiccant bags are placed inside the shipping containers with the cocoa beans.
Addition of the desiccant bags inside the containers significantly reduces the amount of condensation during the transit period.
The end result is a marked improvement of the quality of the cocoa beans.
After quality inspection, the cured beans are packed into sacks for transportation to where they will be processed.
On arrival at the factory, the cocoa beans are sorted and cleaned.

25.0 Returns from cocoa
You grow cocoa so that the beans can be fermented and dried properly and then sold for money, so calculate the annual profit of the cocoa project.
"Returns" means all the moneys they have received from selling the cocoa.
Cocoa pods ripen at different times, so the beans must be fermented and dried at different times and the money received for the beans will come in at different times.
Record the returns under the 3 headings: Date Amount Sold (Profits = Returns - Costs).
Costs are divided into two groups:
* Establishment costs are moneys paid for things that will last more than a year, e.g. a spade and secateurs.
So you add these costs and divide them by the number of years that you think these things will last, e.g. Divide by 3 if you think the items can be used for 3 years.
This calculation gives us a figure for establishment costs for each year.
* Production costs are costs for things that you must buy every year, e.g. fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides.
Profits = Returns - (Establishment costs / 3) - Production costs)
Net profit for the year = total profit of the 40 cocoa trees / 40, i.e. profit per tree.
Also calculate profit / hectare (ha).
Cultivation of recommended new hybrid cocoa cultivars should bring higher yields and profits.

27.0 Chocolate
27.1.0 Chocolate and cocoa manufacture
27.2.0 Cocoa bean dried herb
27.3.0 Cocoa butter
27.4.0 Chocolate, Commercial chocolate
27.5.0 Chocolate, Home-made chocolate
27.6.0 Chocolate, Aztec "Cacahuatl"

27.1.0 Chocolate and cocoa manufacture
1. The dried beans are cracked and a stream of air separates the shell from the nib, winnowing.
The small pieces are used to make chocolate.
The nibs are roasted in special ovens at temperatures between 105-120^oC.
The actual roasting time depends on whether the end use is for cocoa or chocolate.
During roasting, the cocoa nibs darken to a rich, brown colour and acquire their characteristic chocolate flavour and aroma.
This flavour however, actually starts to develop during fermentation.
The roasted nibs are ground in stone mills until the friction and heat of the milling reduces them to a thick chocolate-coloured liquid known as "mass".
It contains 53-58% cocoa butter and solidifies on cooling.
This is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.
The cocoa "mass" is pressed in powerful machines to extract the cocoa butter, vital to making chocolate.
The solid blocks of compressed cocoa remaining after extraction (press cake), are pulverized into a fine powder to produce a high grade cocoa powder for use as a beverage or in cooking.
The cocoa mass, cocoa butter and cocoa powder are then quality inspected and shipped to factories in Australia and New Zealand ready to be made into chocolate.
2. The chocolate manufacturer roasts the beans to develop their flavour.
Roasting destroys harmful bacteria, and make cracking and winnowing easier.
Roasting and conching, (a surface scraping mixer called a "conche" distributes the cocoa butter), helps remove the tannins through oxidation and other processes.
Roasting causes chocolate flavour, as a result of the Maillard reaction, ("browning" reactions), between amino acids and sugars.
At home, roasting can be done in a microwave oven or roast for 5 minutes at 150^oC, then reduce to 120^oC for ten minutes.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
Roast an even single layer of beans for five minutes.
Lower the temperature to 250 during 15 minutes then maintain that temperature, until the beans are cracked, darker in colour and have a cocoa smell.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
3. Nibs
1. The shattered kernels of cacao are called nibs, produced by a winnower that shatters the dry kernel and blows away the papery skin or by hand peeling.
Hand sorting may be used to remove bits of skin not removed from the kernel.
Remove the outer shell from the inner "nib." with a cocoa mill or by hand.
The dried herb cocoa nibs (cacao nibs), is used in food, baking and recipes, blended or crushed or used as the are, sprinkled on cereal or ice cream, or added to smoothies.
2. Store nibs in an airtight container, out of direct sunlight.
Cocoa nibs are about 55% fat, 60% saturated fat so chemically stable, not prone to rancidity, and not damaged by high cooking temperatures.
Cocoa butter is solid at room temperature.
Cocoa is a rich source of antioxidants, so resistant to rancidity.
3. Winnow the nibs to remove large chunks of leftover husk with an electric fan.
The bits of husk are lighter then the nibs.
This takes some practice, but left over bits of husk will be filtered out in the juicer.
4. The nibs are ground into cacao paste with heat to liquefies the oils and allows the paste to run freely and be refined by stone milling or ball mill refining.
The paste is pressed to release the cacao butter leaving cake that is broken up, pulverized and sieved to create cacao powder.
Grind the nibs in a juicer or household grinder until liquid cocoa drips out the spout into a collection vessel.
5. The cocoa butter is cooled and formed to make chocolate.
The cocoa cake is squeezed to make cocoa powder.

27.2.0 Cocoa bean dried herb
Dried beans, unfermented, with the white fruit pulp, which has a sweet and tangy flavour are sold as "Cocoa Cacao Beans White Organic" whole beans.
Nibs

27.3.0 Cocoa butter
Cocoa butter (commercial), Palmer's "Cleanses & makeup remover"
Cocoa butter is an abundant source of antioxidants, flavonoids and the unique 'Cocoa mass polyphenol' aids in skin's ability to retain its own moisture.
It works with skin cells to protect from damaging elements while retaining skin's natural beauty and health.

27.4.0 Chocolate, Commercial chocolate
At the chocolate factory, the beans are sorted and cleaned, then roasted and winnowed to remove the outer shells to be sold for animal feed.
The remaining "inner nib" is crushed then heated to melt the cocoa butter, and ground to a thick paste.
This paste is called "chocolate liquor" which is then pressed to extract most of the cocoa butter, leaving a cake that is ground into cocoa powder.
Cooking chocolate is made from moulded chocolate liquor.
Dark chocolate is made with chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla.
Milk chocolate is made with chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and milk powder.
White chocolate is made with cocoa butter, but no chocolate liquor.
The beans are roasted and passed through a complex set of milling processes.
The heat of grinding melts the fat and produces chocolate liquor, which is composed of about 55% fat, 17% carbohydrate 11% protein, tannins, ash.
Theobromine, the stimulant alkaloid related to caffeine, is found in amounts ranging from 0.8% to 1.7%.
Theobromine may be poisonous to dogs, so do not give your dog chocolate.
The solidified liquor forms the bitter cooking or baking chocolate.
The fat removed from the chocolate liquor is cocoa butter that consists mainly of triglycerides, in which the middle fatty acid is oleic acid and the two outside fatty acids are saturated, generally stearic acid or palmitic acid.
The simple composition of cocoa butter causes a relatively sharp melting point, 30^oC to 35^oC.
However, the solid is polymorphic, i.e. it can crystallize in at least three different crystal forms, with melting points varying from 17.3^oC to 35^oC.
Only the fifth of these forms (Type V, beta-3 type), with a melting point of 33.8^oC is suitable, because if the fat crystallizes in an unstable form it will cause problems.
For milk chocolate, the need may be a minimum of 45 g / kg milk fat, 105 g / kg non-fat milk solids, milk sugars mainly, and 30 g / kg water free, fat free cocoa paste.
Cocoa paste is defined as the product prepared by grinding solidified chocolate liquor, containing not less than 480 g / kg of cocoa butter, but the fat free specification means there is no minimum need for chocolate to contain cocoa butter.
So there is an incentive to replace the expensive and often variable in quality cocoa butter with a cheaper fat.
White chocolate does have a minimum content of 200 g / kg of cocoa butter specified and also must contain not more than 550 g / kg of sugar, i.e. it can be over half sugar.
Fat bloom is the development of a new phase in a chocolate fat, causing surface disruption with large clusters to give the grey mould-like coating usually due to poor consumer storage.
Fat bloom in chocolate is distinguished from loss of gloss, which occurs when small crystals on the surface grow into large crystals and scatter light.
The use of emulsifiers and stabilizers can greatly affect the rate at which crystal changes occur in the solid state.
Various additives, e.g. sorbitan fatty acid esters, are used to control crystallization and phase change in substitute chocolate.
Nutritional information on cocoa powder, per 100g is ("Cacao Powder" Van Houten brand): Energy 1390 kJ, Protein 23.5%, Carbohydrates 45 g (sugars 0.5 g), Fat total 21% (saturated fats 13.7%), Fibres 34 g, Sodium 27 mg, Cholesterol 6.3 g, calcium 130 mg, Iron 22 mg.
Cocoa butter
Pure cocoa butter, theobroma oil, looks like unsalted butter and melts at body temperature, so it can be stored as a solid, but melt in the mouth.
It contains a high proportion of saturated fats, and their derivatives, unsaturated fats, and antioxidants which prevent rancidity and allow long time shelf storage.
The main component is the triglyceride fat from saturated fats stearic acid and palmitic acid and unsaturated fat oleic acid.
The triglyceride molecules can stack in different way, labelled Types I to V.
Types I and I crystals are soft and unstable.
Types III and IV crystals are soft and crumble easily.
The crystals form easily when chocolate is melted then cooled to form a chocolate that feels soft, melts easily and has a matte finish.
Type V crystals (beta-3 type), are dense, have a glossy surface, make a snapped sound when broken and have a higher melting point.
The secret processes used to make commercial chocolate consist of the methods to form the correct proportions of the different types of cocoa butter crystals.

27.5.0 Chocolate, Home-made chocolate
Grind 1 to 2 kg of cocoa beans in a manually-operated grinder.
Roast the green cocoa beans over an open fire, while stirring, until they "pop".
However, only 75% should be popped or the beans will burn.
Peel the popped beans as quickly as possible while they are still hot.
Grind the beans with a pestle and mortar and note the bitter taste of the oil produced by grinding.
Chocolate made with the oil gives a richer, yet bitter flavour.
If using oil, put small piles of the ground paste on aluminium foil or greaseproof paper on a tray.
Leave overnight until the piles harden to form crude chocolate tablets.
If you do not want to use the oil, squeeze the paste in cheesecloth until most of the oil is squeezed out to form crude cocoa powder.

27.6.0 Chocolate, Aztec "Cacahuatl"
Add the crude powder or the chocolate tablets broken down to a fine powder with a pestle and mortar to cold water in a pan.
Add some chilli water, i.e. chopped chillies soaked in boiling water to make a chilli "tea".
Add vanilla bean pods and honey.
Heat the pan while stirring constantly.
When the mixture starts to bubble, quickly remove the pan from the stove, and allow it to cool slightly.
Put the pan back on the stove and continue to stir until boiling.
Repeat the cooling and re-boiling to aerate the chocolate and improve its flavour.
The finished Aztec drink should be soft, foamy, reddish, bitter and spicy.

27.7.0 Cocoa bean genome
Friday, 27 June 2008, by Matt Sedensky (edited for this website)
Discovery News
Scientists are launching a five-year project aimed at safeguarding the world's chocolate supply by dissecting the genome of the cocoa bean.
The team of scientists from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), will analyse the more than 400 million parts of the cocoa genome.
It hopes the process will lead to better-tasting chocolate and help battle crippling crop diseases - estimated to cost cocoa farmers an estimated US$700 million annually.
The analysis will not only identify what traits make cacao trees susceptible, but it will allow scientists - and chocolate manufacturers - to better understand every aspect of cocoa, from its ability to sustain drought to the way it tastes.
"Once we have the whole genome (manufacturers), will be able to go in and look at all the genes they're interested in, " says Dr Ray Schnell, a research geneticist with the USDA.
"They'll all be interested in flavour genes."
The project's backers say the work stands to be a boon to farmers, largely in Africa, who produce about 70% of the world's cocoa.
By determining which breeds of cacao trees are most appropriate for a specific locale and most able to fend off disease and drought, farmers could increase crop yields.
An IBM team will participate in the cocoa efforts.
Though the project is funded by chocolate manufacturer Mars, its findings will be made public, even to its competitors.
Mars says there will be more information to examine than any one company could ever do alone, and that the main reasons for cracking the genome are to combat cocoa pests and disease.
"For us, the fact that Hershey has similar information that every other chocolate company in the world has, that's fine, " says Howard-Yana Shapiro, Mars' global director of plant science.
Shapiro says he did not expect improvements in yields from research would lead to larger overall cocoa crops.
He says higher yields would allow farmers to devote some of their land to other lucrative crops that could boost their income.
While very little cocoa is produced in the United States or Australia, its production has a flow-on effect for many domestically produced items, such as raisins, almonds and macadamia nuts.