The worlds greatest treat starts with an unusual source, growing on a funny looking tree the Cocoa. Cocoa from which chocolate is made grows in rugby ball shaped pods on thin branches in tropical countries. Nearly seventy percent of the worlds cocoa is farmed in Africa. Chocolate begins within these pods, each pod provides about 40 cocoa beans and these beans including the white sticky pulp that surround them help to produce the flavour of the bean.

The beans are scooped out of the pods and often covered with banana leaves in shallow boxes. This encourages fermentation to begin which in turn sparks chemical changes in the bean and allows enzymes to alter the flavour which is critical and the start of the process. After this the beans are allowed to dry out a process which cannot be rushed. If the beans are allowed to dry too fast or too slowly they can become bitter or mouldy. Often they are dried on bamboo mats and the suns rays provide a natural way to develop the favour of the beans. The drying process can take several days and as they lose their moisture the weight of the bean reduces by as much as fifty percent.

The cocoa farmers take these dried beans to collection sites where they are mixed with beans from other farms all carefully selected to help achieve a distinctive taste unique to that area. Although cocoa beans are all similar they are picked for their characteristics and are classed as bulk beans or flavour beans. There are three main types of cocoa trees and each tree produces its own flavours.

The farming of the beans is very labour intensive and with nearly 2.6 million cocoa bean farms in Africa alone it is not hard to imagine the amount of manpower that is needed to gather the 3.4 million tonnes annually that is harvested. Each cocoa pod has to be collected by hand as they ripen at different times and the farmers generally use machetes to remove the pod from the tree. Each pod is then opened by hand. It takes about 500 beans to produce one pound of bitter sweet chocolate.

The cocoa tree itself will only traditionally grow in an area near to the equator and is prone to disease and pests , nearly 33% of the yearly crop is destroyed. It needs protection from the sun and will grow best when it is shaded by taller trees growing nearby. Low soil fertility in many regions of Africa also take a toll on the farming of the cocoa bean.

Chocolate is primarily made from cocoa beans and each region produces its own unique flavour allowing chocolate producers to choose slightly different tastes. For instance cocoa beans grown in Ghana in Africa have a rich, deep cocoa flavour whilst beans farmed in Madagascar are slightly acidic with a citrus taste to them. It is generally thought that Columbus brought the cocoa bean to Europe and sparked interest in this wonderful bean. Although it was several decades before its properties were truly understood and before chocalate was enjoyed all around the globe.