Cocoa fruit is generally described as a pod. In botanical terms, however, it is a dry berry. It is short-stemmed, 15 to 30cm long, and 7 to 10cm thick. It is often somewhat wide at its base and usually tapers out to a point. It starts off green and, depending on its ripeness and variety, later becomes yellow, red, or magenta. A 5 to 20mm thick shell, which is hard on the outside and soft on the inside, protects its precious inners. Depending on its variety, the fruit’s shell either has a smooth surface or lightly to strongly protruding furrows.

Inside the shell, and coated by white fruit flesh (so-called pulp), are 25 to 50 oblong, egg-shaped cocoa seeds. They are arranged in 5 long rows and are pale and odourless. It is the fermentation process that gives them their typical, brown colour and unique flavour. However, at that point, they are no longer called seeds but cocoa beans. Cocoa seeds are encased in a thick shell. The seed kernel inside each shell consists of folded seed leaves. All the nutrients are contained in these. These nutrients are what young cocoa plants need to germinate and are what gives cocoa its high nutritional content.

A cocoa bean contains 54% cocoa butter, 11.5% protein, 9% cellulose, 7.5% starch and pentosans, 6% tannins and colourings, 5% water, 2.6% minerals, 1.2% theobromine, 1% assorted sugars, and 0.2% caffeine. The rest is organic acids and flavourings.

In the words of natural scientist, Alexander von Humboldt: “Nature has not produced anything else as packed full of valuable nutrients, in such a small space, as the cocoa bean.”

Cocoa fruit needs 5 to 6 months from flowering to ripening, depending on altitude and temperature. A cocoa tree has flowers and fruits at different stages of ripeness at the same time. Ripened cocoa fruit weighs 300-700g and is usually harvested during 2 main periods in the year.

Cocoa fruit is, depending on variety and ripeness, greenish, yellow, or red-violet. It is harvested by hand. This is done by carefully using a knife or machete to remove the fruit from the top of its stem. The fruit’s ripeness is recognised by the hollow noise it makes when tapped. The correct harvest time is very important because cocoa seeds separate poorly from the pulp in unripe fruit. In contrast, cocoa seeds begin to germinate in overripe fruit. The correct harvest time is also essential in regards to the quality of a cocoa mass and, therefore, chocolate. This is because it is only during the correct harvest time that the fruit mash (pulp) contains sufficient quantities of sugar for the fermentation process.

The inhabitants of tropical countries that cultivate cocoa use the lightly sweet pulp to make fruit juices and fruit-based dishes. Various animals also help the cocoa tree along. By spitting out the bitter seeds, they help it spread. A clever trick of nature that helps us make even more delicious chocolate.