The lands of Central and South America are recognized as the homeland of the chocolate tree. Now, wild cocoa (chocolate tree), belonging to the Sterkuliev family, can hardly be found. The plant has become domesticated since the development of the South American lands by the Spaniards. It is cultivated on plantations.
Theobroma - the ancient Greek name for the tree, meaning "food of the gods." It really justifies its name. Delicacies made from cocoa beans have a divine taste. Chocolate, whether it is a hot drink, a solid tile, candy, pasta or cream, causes a constant delight in every person.
Cocoa Growing Area
In the regions where the chocolate tree grows, special climatic conditions prevail. Mostly it is cultivated in the tropics, stretching across America, Africa and Oceania. African states are the main suppliers of cocoa beans. They supply the world market with up to 70% of this product.
Ghana is recognized as the largest supplier. In the capital of this country - Accra - the largest African market is built, where cocoa beans are sold. Crop of chocolate beans on the Ivory Coast (Cote DʻIvoire) reaches 30% of the total quantity produced in the world. Indonesia is also considered a major market player.
A lot of fruits are harvested from chocolate trees on the island of Bali, where the combination of mountain climate and fertile volcanic soils is ideal for growing cocoa. Cocoa seeds are brought from Nigeria, Brazil, Cameroon, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Malaysia and Colombia.
Cocoa growing conditions
It is difficult to find a tree whimsical than cocoa. It requires special conditions for life. An incredible sissy - a chocolate tree - can grow and bear fruit only in multi-tiered rainforests. The plant settles in the lower tier of the forest. Where shade and dampness do not disappear, and the temperature regime is kept at + 24 to + 28 0 C.
It loves places with fertile, loose, covered with fallen leaves soils, where there is constant rain and no winds. Such growing conditions can create only a canopy that forms in multi-tiered rainforests.
For example, in the Amazon basin with the onset of the rainy season, when the tributaries of the river, coming out of the banks, turn the lowlands into endless lakes a meter deep, each chocolate tree has been practically in the water for many weeks. However, in such conditions, the plants do not rot, but rather continue to develop.
Growing Chocolate Tree on Plantations
Moody chocolate tree is demanding on temperature conditions. It is not at all capable of development if the temperature does not rise above 21 0 C. The optimum temperature for its growth is 40 0 C. And at the same time, direct sunlight is harmful to it.
Therefore, in order to ensure normal growth of trees, they are planted in mixed plantings. Cocoa feels great among avocados, bananas, mangoes, coconuts and rubber trees. Fancy trees, easily exposed to many diseases, need constant care and careful maintenance. Harvest from them is removed only by hand.
Chocolate Tree Description
On average, the height of straight-stemmed evergreen trees is 6 meters. However, some instances cost nothing to grow to 9 and even 15 meters. The trunks of plants (up to 30 cm in girth with yellowish wood) are covered with brown bark and crowned with broad, branched, dense crowns.
Trees that can live in the shade of rainforest plantations have gigantic oblong-elliptic leaves. The size of thin, whole, even, evergreen leaves, sitting on short stalks, is comparable to the size of a newspaper page. Their length is about 40 cm, and the width is about 15 cm.
Thanks to the giant leaves, the chocolate tree picks up crumbs of light, barely oozing through the lush greenery of plants with a higher height. The growth of giant foliage is not characterized by gradualness (leaves do not bloom one after another). It has a wave-like development. That leaves the word freezes for several weeks and even months and does not grow at all, then suddenly there is an extraordinary surge in their development - at the same time several pieces blossom.
Fruiting is observed year round. The first flowering and fruit formation is observed in the 5-6 year of plant life. The fruiting period lasts for 30-80 years. Fruits a chocolate tree twice a year. Abundant harvest gives after 12 years of life.
Bunches formed by small pinkish-white flowers make their way directly through the bark covering the trunks and large branches. Pollinated inflorescences exuding a disgusting smell, midges, woodlice. Brown and yellow fruits, similar in shape to a small elongated ribbed melon, hang from the trunks. Their surface is cut with ten grooves.
Chocolate tree seeds
They need 4 months to mature. Due to such a long ripening of fruits, trees are always humiliated with both flowers and fruits. In fruits 30 cm long, with a diameter of 5-20 cm and weighing 200-600 g, 30-50 cocoa beans are hidden. The beans are tightened with a dense leather shell of yellow, red or orange tones. The length of each amygdala seed is 2-2.5 cm, and the width is 1.5 cm.
The longitudinal rows of beans are surrounded by juicy, sweet flesh, which is revered as a delicacy by squirrels and monkeys. They suck out watery pulp, throwing out what is valuable to people - beans that are used as raw materials for the production of cocoa and chocolate.
Cocoa Fruit Collection
Since the chocolate tree is quite tall, not only a machete is used to collect the fruit, but also knives attached to long poles. The removed fruits are cut into 2-4 shares. Beans extracted from the pulp by hand are laid out for drying on banana leaves, pallets or in closed boxes.
When drying seeds in the sun of cocoa, a sweet-bitter taste with tart notes is obtained, which is less valuable. Therefore, preference is given to the closed drying of the beans. The fermentation period takes from 2 to 9 days. During drying, the size of the seeds decreases.
Seed processing
Brown-violet cocoa beans have an oily taste and pleasant aroma. Seeds sorted, peeled, fried, and disposed of from parchment shells are crushed and sieved through a sieve to produce high-quality cocoa powder.
Parchment shells are used as fertilizer, and any chocolate factory accepts the powder for further processing. A chocolate tree, or rather its raw material obtained from seeds, is an excellent basis for many goodies.
From fried crumbs, crushed into a thick stretching mass, bitter chocolate is obtained by cooling. Enriching the mixture with sugar, vanilla, milk powder and other additives, get a variety of chocolate.
From roasted pressed fruits, cocoa butter is obtained. The crumb remaining after pressing is grinded into cocoa powder. Thus, two valuable products give humanity a chocolate tree. The confectionery factory uses both powder and butter, producing all kinds of chocolate goodies. Oil, in addition, is widely used in the manufacture of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmacological agents.
