Cocoa - food of the gods

Considering the divine fruits it gives us, it more than deserves such a name.

Its value was recognised by the Aztecs and the Maya

They say money doesn''t grow on trees, but chocolate does! If you are a true chocoholic, you will surely agree that it is worth more than any money. Its value was recognised centuries ago by the Aztecs, who even used cocoa beans as currency at the height of their civilisation. Like the Aztecs, the Mayans believed that cocoa beans had magical and divine properties and used them in the most sacred rituals, such as birth, marriage and death.

By the 17th century, chocolate drinks were a fad among the European elite, who believed they had nutritional, medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. It was synonymous with luxury until the price dropped and it became available to the general public. Unlike today''s chocolate preparations, it was very bitter, so sugar and various spices were soon added. Even then, efforts were being made to make the perfect chocolate drink, but it was not until 1828 that the Dutch father and son team of Casparus and Coenraad van Houten succeeded . After many attempts, they discovered how to make a more delicious drink and laid the foundations for chocolate making, which is now one of the world''s biggest industries.

It needs a favourable climate to grow

The cocoa tree thrives in a humid tropical climate with rich soil and plenty of shade and rain. Its flowers ripen into pods, which contain cocoa beans and juicy pulp. The cocoa beans are sweet and sour, while the cocoa beans, unlike the chocolate itself, are very bitter. The cocoa pods attract many animals, such as monkeys, which eat the whole fruit except the cocoa beans. Instead, they disperse them around the area, thus providing favourable conditions for new trees to grow. How clever, isn''t it?

Making chocolate

Nearly 2 000 c ucumber-shaped pods grow on the cocoa tree every year. Once ripe, they are hand-picked and the cocoa beans are separated from the pulp and exposed to the sun or put into wooden crates and buried in the ground. Fermentation takes about a week, during which time the cocoa beans turn their characteristic brown colour.

Considering the divine fruit it gives us, it more than deserves the name.

After fermentation, the cocoa beans need to be dried before the actual chocolate can be made, and then roasting can begin. To get their true flavour, the cocoa beans need to be roasted at either a low or a high temperature. The inside of the beans must be extracted and then the grinding process begins, producing a cocoa paste. The cocoa butter and sugar are then added to makethe chocolate. The type of chocolate produced depends on the ingredients and additives that are added to the cocoa paste afterwards during the manufacturing process.

Some more interesting facts about cocoa

• It is a small tree with white flowers and colourful fruit;
• it takes 5 years for the first fruit to ripen, and the peak growing period can last for several decades;
• it can live up to 100 years, but the fruit only grows for half of its lifetime;
• prefers shade and often grows under trees such as banana, mango, papaya and rubber trees;
• its leaves are more than 15 cm long;
• the three most common varieties of cacao tree are Criollo (grown in Central America), Forastero (grown in West Africa and South America) and Trinitario (grown in all areas where cacao thrives);
• the cacao tree belongs to a family of trees called Theobroma - but not all of them grow cacao beans, but fruits and flowers used for medicinal purposes;
• theobromine is an organic compound in cocoa that produces the same effects as caffeine, and is also found in tea Most cocoa is produced in Ecuador, Côte d''Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil and Mexico.

Since the main ingredient in chocolate is cocoa, which grows on the cocoa tree, the most passionate chocoholics jokingly claim that chocolate is really a vegetable. What about you, do you agree?