“The Food of the Gods” Unveiling the Secrets of Cacao from Bean to Bar

Photo Credit: Tuqtuquilal Centro Regenerativo

Calling all chocolate lovers! Sweet, spicy, salted, dark, or cherry…what’s your favorite flavor? This magical ingredient has been cherished for centuries and the Ancient Mayans considered cacao to be a "Food of the Gods."

Prepare your taste buds as we explore the world of cacao in this Naturally Smart Travel blog post.

Join us on the delicious journey from bean to bar as we indulge in a delightful blend of history, science, and mouthwatering flavors while we discuss craft chocolate!

The Journey from Bean to Bar

To help gather all of this yummy information on cacao we deferred to the chocolatiers over at Tuqtuquilal. This regenerative center is doing big things on its mountainside farm in Lanquin from supporting the local community and providing education to making high-quality organic products.

Making chocolate requires many steps. Come along as we take you through the intricate journey of transforming a cacao pod into the delectable chocolate bars that we all know and love. 

Let’s begin in the wild, amongst the trees. Cacao pods are the tropical fruits where it all starts and to produce healthy cacao beans specific growing conditions are needed. We’re talking about the right combination of shade, soil, and rain.

Growing Cacao

The scientific name for cacao is Theobroma cacao and its origins began in the upper Amazon basin of Brazil. This plant thrives in tropical regions, including the lush landscapes of Central and South America.

Climate

Cacao trees grow best in a warm and humid climate with temperatures ranging from 20 to 30 degrees Celsius (68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). Fun fact: Most of the world’s cacao is grown 20 degrees north and south of the equator line.

This tropical plant loves rain. This makes the best-growing conditions for cacao rainforest and jungle climates that receive regular rainfall, have a short dry season, and have little to no wind.

Shade

These trees are shade-loving plants, and prefer to grow under the protective canopy of taller trees. This ideal microclimate protects the cacao pods from direct sunlight allowing them to grow and ripen to their full potential.

Soil

Cacao prefers well-drained soils that are rich in organic matter. Thriving in regions with deep fertile soils that retain moisture while allowing excess water to drain away.

Growing & Harvesting

It takes three to five years for a tree to produce cacao. In the first few years of growing, the tree requires attention and maintenance, including pruning the baby chupon (aka sucker) which allows the tree’s energy to move upward. This helps create the jorquette, the canopy structure that will branch off from the top of the tree.

An ideal height for a full-grown cacao tree is 15 to 20 feet tall. 

These crucial maintenance steps encourage the fruit to grow properly and hang lower on the tree, making the harvesting process easier, while allowing the tree to support the weight of the pods.

Processing Cacao

The process of turning cacao beans into chocolate bars involves several stages, each one adding its own touch of craftsmanship and flavor. Ideally, you’ll be able to taste the cacao. This is affected by the growing environment influenced by rainfall, soil, the genetics of the trees, and post-harvest handling, including fermenting and processing. 

Different varieties of cacao will produce different flavors. Much like the grape varietals of wine, a wine made from Pinot Grigio tastes much different than one from Syrah. While personal preferences are always subjective, when it comes to chocolate, as long as the process is done well, you’ll be able to enjoy the flavor and taste of the terroir. 

Simply put, the farmers' hands determine the quality of the chocolate. Let’s move along to the post-harvest steps. fermentation and handling, which are responsible for 90% of the chocolate’s quality.

Harvesting

Fine chocolate makers care about the way the fruit is harvested. Ripe cacao pods are carefully harvested by hand, as they do not all ripen simultaneously. A ripe pod ranges in color from yellow to orange-red with yellow streaks. They can vary in size from as small as a pear to as large as an American football. 

Skilled farmers use machetes or specialized tools to remove the pods from the trees and different countries have different styles of cutting. Pliers will do the trick, just make a clean cut at the fruit stem. 

After successfully removing the pod from the tree, while holding the pod in your hand, make a transverse cut with a machete. This cracks open the thick pod wall. With one good blow toward the top, crack into it and open it up with a twist. This reveals the cluster of seeds, about 40 to 60, covered with a fleshy pulp.

Drop the seeds into a bucket, and move on to the next tree! Pro tip: the weight of the seeds is only about 25% of the pod, so keep the seeds, and discard the rest. 

The pulp is a sweet delectable film that you can pop in your mouth and enjoy. However, at this stage, the raw cacao seed is bitter and won’t taste good until after the fermentation and drying processes. These steps are where the interesting flavors develop. 

If you aren’t into growing your own trees, then sourcing becomes critical, as the quality of the seed is the farmer's creation.

Fermentation

This part of the process tells the story of how a particular region tastes but it all depends on proper fermentation. After the harvested cacao pods are opened and the beans enveloped in their sweet pulp are extracted, they are placed in fermentation bins or boxes and left for several days.

Fermentation plays a crucial role because fermentation develops flavor and removes bitterness.

Wet ripe seeds need to go into these fermentation boxes in order to create wild yeast and bacteria in this environment. This prompts a chemical fermentation transforming the beans, essentially cooking them in their own sweet pulp. 

It’s important to monitor the temperature of the pile mix and stop the fermentation at the correct moment (3-5 days). The smell and look of the bean will indicate when it’s ready to go to the drying process where it’s laid out in the sun for 1 to 2 weeks.

Drying

The beans are spread out to dry in the sun or with specialized drying equipment.

This stage helps reduce the moisture content, preserves the beans, and prepares them for transport and storage. To quality check the beans, examine the size and smell. When taste testing, check for bitterness, astringency, and acidity. If the beans pass all these tests, there’s potential to make good chocolate. Next up is learning how to roast!

Roasting

Roasting cacao is the second most important part of making chocolate. Once dried, the beans are roasted to bring out their rich flavors. The roasting process varies depending on the desired taste profile, with different temperatures and durations used to achieve the desired results.

Think of heat and airflow. It always depends on the beans but the ideal roasting temperature is between 240 and 270 degrees Fahrenheit. For acidic beans, a light roast is ideal. While a higher roasting temperature will yield more base chocolate.

These steps can all come down to the chocolate maker's personal preferences.

Two different chocolate makers given the same bag of beans will create two different chocolates. Towards the end of the roast taste the beans to check if they’re ready. This will depend on the roasting machine, time, and heat.

Once the roasting step is complete, you’ll separate the seeds from their shells.

Cracking and Winnowing

A cracking machine removes the shells from the seeds while a winnowing machine blows the shells in a different direction than the nibs. These steps produce clean cacao nibs and separated shells.

There are many types of machines to achieve this from homemade to industrial-grade. Whatever the method, the point is to deshell the seeds. The less dust, the better, and a 15% to 20% return is good.

Grinding and Conching

Next, the roasted cacao beans are ground into a paste, called cocoa liquor. This paste undergoes a process known as conching, where it is continuously mixed and heated to develop a smooth texture while refining the flavors.

Grinding affects the texture and a lot of acids burn off at this phase of the process. For this step, a stone grinder or a ball mill is used. The crushed-up cacao nibs will be slowly added to these machines. 

A wet stone grinder mixes the nibs and the cocoa butter but produces a coarser texture. With a ball mill, little balls make micron-sized chocolate by evenly refining the nibs and the sugar quickly, so in just three hours, it’ll produce smooth chocolate.

Sugar determines your percentage of chocolate. Adding sugar to the grinder at various stages will affect the flavor. If you add 20% sugar then you have an 80% chocolate bar.

Tempering and Molding

Cacao seed is about half cocoa butter and half powder. Cocoa butter is the melt-in-your-mouth aspect while cocoa powder carries the flavor. The tempering process ensures that the chocolate bar melts in your mouth and not in your hand, and this is the reason why the bar cracks as it does. 

Once the cocoa butter gets hot, it becomes liquid, and when you temper, you’re working with the liquid cocoa butter that’s made up of six crystals. Tempering is a process that involves carefully controlling the temperature to ensure the formation of stable cocoa butter crystals. This is done with a continuously moving tempering machine. 

The tempered chocolate is then poured into molds, cooled, and solidified. Bravo! You have a chocolate bar!

The "Food of the Gods" and Mayan Cultural Heritage

For the ancient Mayans, cacao was more than just a delightful treat; it held deep cultural and spiritual significance, and cacao became the "Food of the Gods" in Mayan heritage. They carried this sacred fruit with them as they traveled.

It became an important part of their lives and culture. Learn more about the fascinating history and the ceremonial significance of cacao with our friends over at Tuqtuquilal or join us on a tour!

Ritual and Worship

The Mayans associated cacao with divine power. They believed the magic and power of cacao connected the mortal realm to the divine.

Cacao was used in various religious rituals. This included sacred offerings and important ceremonies.

Symbolism and Status

Cacao beans were highly valued by the Mayans and even used as a form of currency. The wisdom, teachings, and magic of cacao have a fascinating and expansive past.

Today, The Mayan Wisdom Project works toward honoring their ancestors and rich traditions in their educational platform that’s dedicated to sharing Indigenous Maya culture and traditional wisdom with the world. Check out their blog to learn more about the important work they’re doing and their current offerings. 

Final Bites

In a nutshell, chocolate is a combination of cacao seed and sugar.

Today, the world of craft chocolate places focus on textures and flavors while creating high-quality chocolate. Sourcing is a crucial step because the quality of the beans determines the quality of the chocolate. 

Innovative farmers take careful steps when making chocolate because 90% of the quality depends on the beans. As a chocolate maker, it’s socially responsible and important to know where your chocolate comes from. 

Higher prices often mean that the business is paying its employees livable wages and not participating in the dark underworld of the commercialized chocolate industry which is subject to issues including child labor or human trafficking.

The good news is that there’s potential to work with reputable farmers from various regions all over the world. Sourcing from different places helps to develop unique terroir and flavors in the chocolate. 

As a consumer, it’s also important to consider where our chocolate comes from, as well as, who is making the chocolate. Get curious!

Who grew your chocolate?

Where does the cacao come from?

Maybe asking these questions will change the way you taste and enjoy chocolate?! Like a true connoisseur, you’ll want to uncover a region's unique taste and identify the qualities specific to that area. 

Direct Trade vs Fair Trade

Fair trade is always nice but the system has its issues.

Direct trade is better because you pay the farm directly, there’s no middleman, and it removes many steps so that the money goes directly to the farmer. It’s often the case that when so many hands go through the chocolate process a lot of that money goes into the wrong hands. 

The North American bean-to-bar craft chocolate market consists of small-batch makers who are passionate about changing the world of chocolate. These chocolatiers utilize the fair trade concepts while paying higher prices to support the farmers directly. Craft chocolate makers want to highlight the taste and the special attributes of the region that the chocolate is from. 

Thanks for joining us on this little cacao-lined journey. As always, please join us on a tour over here at Naturally Smart Travel. If you find yourself in Central America, reach out, we’ll get you to the right cacao farmers, so you can learn, tour, and taste the “Food of the Gods” and some of the best chocolate in the world!

SOURCES:

Manoa Chocolate are craft chocolatiers in Hawai’i. If you’re inspired to learn more about the world of chocolate making then check out their Craft Chocolate YouTube channel and make sure to try some of their bean-to-bar hand-crafted chocolate, it’s yummy!