table talk / By Simona Carini

The Journey of Chocolate

From bean to bar

(May 12, 2011) The dark brown, pleasantly bitter, chemically complex substance we know of as chocolate bears little resemblance to the pulp-surrounded seeds of the cocoa plant from which it is produced. One would never suspect that one could be derived from the other.

— Sophie and Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate

cacao COURTESY USDA

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In a space inside Almquist Lumber in Arcata, Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor, the chocolate makers behind Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate, produce chocolate bars starting from cacao beans. What is the process they follow? Before delving into the answer, let us look at what happens before Adam and Dustin arrive on the stage.

In the beginning there is the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, “a spindly understory tree” which, with very few exceptions, “refuses to bear fruit outside a band of 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the Equator. Nor is it happy within this band of the tropics if the altitude is so high as to result in temperatures that fall below 60 degrees F or 16 degrees C. If the climate is one with a pronounced dry season, irrigation is a necessity for cacao demands year-round moisture.” (Sophie and Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate.)

The fruit of the cacao tree is called a cacao pod: It contains almond-shaped seeds, called beans, surrounded by a juicy pulp. The Coes explain that once the pods are opened, and the beans and their surrounding pulp extracted, there are four principal steps which must be taken to produce the cacao “nibs” (kernels) that are to be ground into chocolate. These are: (1) fermentation, (2) drying, (3) roasting (or toasting) and (4) winnowing. No matter what the level of technology, this sequence has been in force for at least three millennia and still is followed in the modern world.

Soon after the cacao pods are harvested, seeds and pulp are extracted and piled up. Fermentation ensues and lasts several days. Fermentation comprises various chemical and biological processes, the details of which are beyond the scope of this article.

Suffice here to say that, “Cacao fermentation is a fermentation of the pulp, not the beans, but it transforms the beans as well … . Right out of the pod, the bean is astringent, bitter, and essentially aroma-less … . Properly conducted fermentation converts the astringent but bland beans into vessels laden with desirable flavors and flavor precursors.” (Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking.)

Once the fermentation is complete, the seeds are dried in the sun, cleaned, bagged, then transported to locations where they will be processed.

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