Primary Cocoa Processing at plantations is important in achieving bean quality and hence final product quality
I have included this in the discussion because it illustrates the importance of primary ingredient processing and quality in the production of high quality finished products.
In spite of its botanical origins being in South America, the large scale production of Cocoa was developed in the British and French colonial era in West Africa and remains so. The traditional, small producer, social based, practices in that region have come to produce and represent the “European standard” for Cocoa flavour, and Europe has been and continues to be the major market for Cocoa and its products with America reflecting similar quality standard requirements.
In recent times some “artisan” chocolate and Cocoa businesses have tried to convince customers that acid and off flavoured cocoas are in fact “desirable” but this has generally only lasted until people realised they were actually unpleasant. The largest and most successful “niche” producer – Hotel Chocolat – has retained the traditional flavour profile, even though it has some internal Central America sourcing
In many ways the Ear East has great potential as a supplier of Cocoa, land, plantation companies, favourable climate, etc., and the plantation companies in that region identified Cocoa as an opportunity to build on their existing expertise of plantation production of rubber and palm oil
However when Cocoa was planted there, those companies had only the most superficial understanding of the importance of processing the crop at the plantation. The emphasis was on growing and harvesting, in both of which they had extensive experience. Rubber and palm oil production are motivated by yield and quantity rather, as with Cocoa, the more subtle requirements of flavour and colour potential.
Cocoa in plantations, with large numbers of clonal trees is also extremely vulnerable to pests and diseases. This had been experienced elsewhere, Brazil was at one time a major Cocoa exporter, it now imports most of its Cocoa requirements the crop having been more or less destroyed by a fungal disease (“Witch’s Broom”) to which there seems no solution.
In the Far East there were problems with disease but also with “Cocoa Pod Borer” an insect which was previously a minor problem in Rambutan (a fruit) plantations but which has made Cocoa close to uneconomic in some areas.
Once harvested, the plantation companies understood the need to remove pulp from the beans before drying – and many experimented with simply washing away the pulp as they had done in coffee production rather than understanding the key role of fermentation in flavour development.
“Industrialising” fermentation, whilst necessary to be able to handle the quantities of beans involved, was carried out without much understanding and the process was blamed for the high acidity of the bean. Various modifications were tried, varying the timing and number of turns, increasing the fermentation time, etc. None of this had any effect on acidity and in many cases resulted in off flavours from anaerobic fermentation in too large boxes with poor drainage.
More or less however it is fermented, Cocoa will be highly acidic at the end of the process, diffusion of acid from the fermenting pulp into the cotyledon is part of the process of developing typical Cocoa flavour
A similar logic was applied to drying. Drying required space, so the emphasis was on drying Cocoa as quickly as possible using hot air. Rapid hot air drying of Cocoa results in a number of problems:-
- The shells dry rapidly
- The acids resulting from fermentation are not removed with the water by liquid diffusion
- Air can diffuse into the cotyledon through the dry shell while the cotyledon is still high in moisture resulting in rapid oxidation of flavour and colour components
- Excessive pulp traces remain on the shells, reducing the effective yield and hence value
- The shells become brittle and losses due to broken bean increase
- The germ can become detached from the shell, resulting in a passage for microbiological contamination
Through not understanding these issues (and the admitted limitations resolving them leads to) Cocoa from the Far East continues to have limited value other than as a source of Cocoa butter.
Plantation management and improvements in processing are improving quality of Far Eastern bean, but the region is still a relative minor player in the Cocoa market due to technical, labour costs and availability and duty issues