The Cacao Tree
January 5, 2012
Probably by now, you know that chocolate is made from the fruit of the cacao tree. Let me share some tidbits about all you chocoholics' own version of "tree of life".
Cacao trees are tiny evergreen trees that are only about 6 meters tall. These trees produce fruit and flowers all year round and they are cultivated in countries within 10 degrees North and 10 degrees South of the Equator where the climate is most favorable for the cultivation of cacao trees as they require warm and humid environment. Furthermore, cacao trees need fertile and well-irrigated soil along with regular rainfall to grow their best.
Cacao trees are naturally found in rainforests where they make use of the shade of the heavy canopy, since they grow best when they are covered by some sort of shade. In the wild, these trees grow underneath the larger evergreen trees and are often found along rivers.
For the record, cacao has been grown for at least three millennia now in Mexico, Central America and South America. The leading suppliers of cacao are Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Indonesia.
It takes around five years for a cacao tree to yield its first crop. It becomes an adult plant come year ten. It yields between 300 and 1000 pounds of cocoa per acre for approximately 50 years.
The seed pods grow directly off the trunk of the cacao tree, rather than the ends of the branches. Each pod is as large as a pineapple measuring 5 to 12 inches long and 3 to 5 inches wide and generally contains about thirty to fifty seeds. It takes about 400 to 500 seeds to produce one pound of chocolate. Cocoa beans, which are used in making chocolate, are the dried and fully fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree.
Just so you know, cacao flowers are not pollinated by bees or butterflies like most flowers, but by forcipomyia midges which are like tiny flies. And just a fun fact, these midges have the fastest wing-beats of any creature on earth, about 1000 times per second!
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Cacao trees certainly are odd looking! And even odder, when you crack open the pod! But wow! Is it ever amazing how something so strange and odd can produce something so silky and succulent. How lucky we are that those before us has the ingenuity to turn bitter and slimy into silky and sweet.