The Cacao tree grows to 15 meters, but cultivated ones are usually kept down to 6 meters to make it easier for people to harvest the fruit -- in addition, the lower branches are all removed to allow workers to move through the grove easily.

Cacao Pod

The large colorful fruits (Cacao Pods) grow close to the tree; different varieties vary significantly in shape, texture and color. A ripe pod can be left on the tree for 2 or 3 weeks without spoiling; allowing plantations to harvest every couple of weeks instead of daily. Although it will not open and lose it's seeds when overripe, it is important for the flavor that it is harvested only when ripe.

The tree flowers and fruits at the same time, there are always flowers and always ripe pods, so harvesting is done almost year round, although there are generally two peak times in the year and the main harvest is near end of wet season. The pods are harvested by hand using a machete. Great care must be taken; since leaves and stem sprouts grow where the fruit was, the continued growth of the tree depends on avoiding damage to the Chupon. It is not possible to harvest the pods by machine.

The harvested pods are taken to a processing location very close to the trees, usually only a few meters away, and each fruit is opened with a machete, a whack from a piece of wood or even by knocking two pods together, so that the pulp and seeds can be removed. The seeds are surround by a sugary mucilaginous substance that must be fermented off before they can be roasted & processed.

Pile of harvested pods from chocovic.es

There are generally 50 to 60 small (3 cm x 1.5 cm) purple seeds in each Pod, although that can vary considerably from 20 to 100. The Crillo variety has the fewest seeds. The seeds can be kept for up to 24 hours after removal from the pod. The raw seeds are tough and bitter -- fermenting brings the aroma and taste as well as cleaning off the residue of the pulp. Before fermenting, the seeds themselves are also split opened. Although i have not yet found information on how this is commonly done, i have read about some Amazonian villages where the local workers eat the pulp and crunch the seeds and spit them out without eating them!!

The opened seeds are spread in large heaps, often right next to the grove of trees they came from. They are left to ferment lying on, and covered with, banana leaves. (Sometimes also in baskets or boxes or under grass roofs.) The fermenting seeds need air and create heat, so the batch must be turned several times during this process. The purple seeds turn brown during the fermentation period. Fermentation takes about a week -- although depending on climate and variety it can be as little as 2 days or as much as 10; the Crillo variety ferments for a very short time, Forastero for the longest.

The seeds are dried for a week after fermentation. During both the fermentation and the drying, care must be taken to protect the seeds, which are still essentially outdoors, from the constant rain of the climate that Cacao lives in.

Fermented seeds drying from chocovic.es

100 kilograms of seeds, dry out to 45 kilograms of Cacao Beans. Yields of 1000 kilogram per hectare are normal, but yields do range considerably, from 220 kg/ha to 2200 kg/ha!

(A friend once gave me some roasted beans, THANKS MARCIA, but i would really like to have some examples of fresh and fermented beans. And it would be great to find a place where i could regularly get the roasted beans to try to make Chocolate myself! If anyone can help me with this, PLEASE email me: mrk {at} xocoatl {dot} org.)

A standard 100g 70% Chocolate bar contains 80 to 85 beans, or the seeds from about one and a half Cacao Fruit. A standard 30g 10% milk-chocolate-candy bar (such as Hersheys®) contains 6 Cacao Beans, or about 10% of a pod.