Cocoa
This article is about "cocoa", the food. For information about "Cocoa", the API and programming environment for the Mac OS X operating system, see Cocoa (software). For information about the city in Florida, see Cocoa, Florida.
Cocoa may refer to either the dried and partially fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree, which are used to make chocolate; or, more usually in the United States, to cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding the seeds and removing the cocoa butter. Hot cocoa is often confused with hot chocolate, but hot cocoa is made from the cocoa solids, while true hot chocolate is made from whole chocolate. See the end of this article for a recipe for Mexican-style hot cocoa.
History
Chocolate and cocoa are made from the beans of the cacao tree, which apparently originated in the highlands of the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America. The tree was introduced into Central America by the ancient Maya, and was cultivated in Mexico by the Toltecs and later by the Aztecs.
Cocoa was an important commodity in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Spanish chroniclers of the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés relate that when Moctezuma II, emperor of the Aztecs, dined he took no other beverage than chocolate, served in a golden goblet and eaten with a golden spoon. Flavored with vanilla and spices, his chocolate was whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. No less than 50 pitchers of it were prepared for the emperor each day, and 2000 more for nobles of his court.
Chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards and became a popular beverage by 1700. They also introduced the cacao tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was used in alchemical processes, where it was known as Black Bean.
Today, most of the world's crop of beans is grown in equatorial Africa, especially on the Gold Coast, and a small amount in South America, chiefly Brazil. The use of chocolate, cocoa and other products is world-wide. Belgium has the highest per capita consumption of cocoa at 5.5 kg, ten times the world-wide average.[1] (http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp2/tropical/1997/97-10/cocoapercap.htm)
Prices for the commodity reached a five year high in November, 2004; this is because exports from the Ivory Coast will likely be cut, due to escalating violence in the region.
Cultivation
The cacao is an evergreen and ever-blooming tropical tree that grows to between 20 to 30 feet high. Linnaeus gave it the scientific name Theobroma, meaning "food of the gods" (theobroma cocoa) It requires shade, protection from winds, and a rich porous soil but does not thrive in hot steamy lowlands. Its small pink flowers and their fruits grow in an unusual way: directly from the trunk and older branches. The fruit is a pod (called maraca), shaped like an elongated acorn squash, that becomes reddish or purplish yellow and weighs about a pound when ripe. A tree begins to bear when 4 or 5 years old. In one year, when mature, it may have 6000 flowers, but only about 20 pods.
Cacao is planted on over 7,000,000 hectares worldwide with forty percent of production coming from Côte d'Ivoire. Ghana and Indonesia each produce about 15% with smaller amounts from Brazil, Nigeria and Cameroon.
Harvesting
A pod has a rough leathery rind about 1½ inch thick. It is filled with slimy pinkish pulp, sweet but inedible, enclosing from 30 to 50 large almond-like seeds or "beans" that are fairly soft and pinkish or purplish in color. As fast as they ripen the pods are removed with a curved knife on a long pole, opened with a machete, and left to dry until taken to fermentation.
There the beans are removed and piled in heaps, bins, or on gratings where, during several days of "sweating," the thick pulp ferments until it thins and trickles off. The quality of the beans, which originally have a strong bitter taste, depends upon this sweating. If it is overdone they may be ruined; if underdone they have a flavor like raw potatoes and are liable to mildew.
Then the beans are spread out, constantly raked over, and dried. On large plantations this is done on huge trays, either outdoors by sunshine or in sheds by artificial heat. However, thousands of tons from smaller producers are dried on small trays or on cowhides. Finally, the beans are treaded and shuffled about (often using bare human feet) and sometimes, during this process red clay mixed with water is sprinkled over the beans to obtain a finer color, polish, and protection against molds during shipment to factories in the United States, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and other countries.
About 3,000,000 tonnes of cocoa are grown each year. The Netherlands is the leading cocoa processing country, followed by the U.S.
Producing chocolate
To make a pound of chocolate, about 400 beans are processed. In a factory the beans, after being washed and roasted, are de-hulled by a "nibber" machine that also removes the germ. The nibs are ground between three sets of stones until they emerge as a thick creamy paste. Cocoa powder is made from this "liquor" by removing part of its fatty oils -- the "cocoa butter" used in confectionery, soaps, and cosmetics -- either with a hydraulic press or by using the Broma process. With starch and sugar added, the liquor is churned and beaten in a "Conges" machine to produce sweet chocolate. Adding an alkali produces Dutch process cocoa powder, which is what is generally available most everywhere in the world except the United States and has less acidity.
- (based on text from the public-domain Web site of the Argonne National Laboratory)
Use of cocoa
Uses of cocoa are numerous. It may be used in cakes, creams, drinks, toppings...
For example, a hot cocoa drink, Mexican-style may be done by combining one heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder with two tablespoons of sugar (brown sugar makes a nice variation), and a small pinch of cayenne pepper (just a tiny amount on the tip of a spoon is enough for most people). Add a very small amount of water, about two tablespoons, and stir and heat (this may be done in a microwave) until it boils -- but watch out as it will spill over very quickly at this point. Add enough milk (whole milk is best) and a cinnamon stick to make a mugful, and continue to stir and heat until hot and well-blended. Take off the heat and add half a teaspoon of vanilla. Stir again and serve.
Besides its use as a food, science has discovered that cocoa is actually good for you. Cocoa has nearly twice the anti-cancer antioxidants of red wine, and up to three times those found in green tea.
Issues with cocoa as a commodity
- Many cocoa farmers receive a low price for their produce. This has led to cocoa and chocolate being available as 'fair trade' items in some countries, but this fair trade remains a tiny percentage of total trade.
- Slavery has commonly been used in its production: see Cocoa Protocol for an effort to end this.
- Pollination is exclusively by midges, which may be affected by pesticides
See also
- Theobromine, an alkaloid present in cocoa
- Chocolate
External link
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