There is not a single person who would not try chocolate. As you know, chocolate is made from the seeds of a cocoa tree – cocoa beans. Therefore, it is called the “Chocolate Tree”. Cocoa tree – always green, belongs to the family of Malvaceae. Its name in Greek means “Food of the Gods.”
Perhaps this tree really lives up to its name, because in Europe chocolate has become popular since the 17th century, and in its homeland it has been consumed for more than 3,500 years.
History
Nowadays, chocolate, candy bars, hot drink, shavings, truffles and nutritious cocoa paste are the most sold products. You can find chocolate bars with the taste of malt, vanilla, caramel, with various additives in the form of nuts and raisins. Cocoa butter is used in cosmetics, confectionery and medicine. The word cocoa itself is based on the Aztec origin kakahuatl, with roots from the words of the Olmecs and Mayans.
Today, cultivated cocoa tree grows in tropical regions of Africa, America and Oceania. In the wild, there are almost no cocoa trees. Africa now supplies 69% of the world’s cocoa production. One of the largest cocoa suppliers in the world market is Ghana. Accra, the capital of Ghana, has Africa’s largest cocoa bean market.
Tree description
The cocoa tree is quite high, there are specimens up to 15 meters, but on average, the height of fruitful trees is 6 meters, this makes it easier to harvest. The trunk is straight up to 30 cm in diameter with yellowish wood and brown bark. Crohn is wide and thick. The leaves are oblong-elliptic, thin, whole-marginal, alternate, evergreen up to 40 cm long and up to 15 cm wide with short petioles.
Branches and leaves grow better on the sunny side, but cocoa does not like direct sunlight. Therefore, trees grow better in mixed plantings with avocados, bananas, mangoes, coconuts, rubber trees. The tree is rather capricious and requires careful maintenance, is afraid of many diseases and needs manual harvesting.
Fruits a tree all year round. The first flowers and fruits appear in 5-6 years, and continue to bear fruit for 30-80 years. Small pinkish-white flowers in the form of bunches grow directly from large branches and tree bark. Pollination of flowers occurs not with bees, but with midges, wood lice. Fruits hang on tree trunks.
Cocoa Fruit Description
The fruit resembles an elongated melon, pumpkin or large cucumber. Ripens completely within 4 months. Fruits are 30 cm long, 5-20 cm in diameter with 10 grooves and 300-600 g of weight, which gives 30-50 beans. The bean shell is leathery, dense yellow, red or orange. The bean itself is 2-2.5 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter. Harvested 2 times a year. Most beans give trees after 12 years of life. But the first crop is considered the highest quality.
Collect ripened fruits with a machete or knives on long poles. Fruits are cut into 2 or 4 parts. Seeds are pulled out manually from the pulp. On banana leaves, special pallets or closed boxes dried for 2-9 days for fermentation of the fruit. If the beans are dried in the sun, then the cocoa will have a slightly bitter and tart taste, which is less valued than that which is obtained from drying closed.
Seeds have an oily taste, brown-purple color and a pleasant smell. The sorted seeds are cleaned, fried and separated from the parchment shell, crushed and passed through several sieves to obtain a high-quality powder. The fried crumbs are crushed to a thick stretching mass, which, when cooled, gives bitter chocolate. When vanilla, sugar, milk powder and various additives are added to this mixture, chocolate is obtained, which is sold. The bean shell is used as fertilizer.
Cocoa Benefits
The benefits of cocoa for people are invaluable, so in addition to being a tasty product, it also has healing properties. It contains proteins, fiber, gum, alkaloids, theobromine, fat, starch, and coloring matter. Theobromine has a tonic property, so it is successfully used in medicine. It is scientifically proven that theobromine can successfully treat diseases of the throat and larynx, upper respiratory tract, and fever. Cocoa restores and refreshes strength, has a calming effect on people. It normalizes heart function and is used to prevent diseases such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Cocoa butter is used to treat hemorrhoids.
But keep in mind that cocoa has contraindications, it can be harmful. Since cocoa is harmful to drink with high acidity of the stomach, with constipation, with diabetes, with atherosclerosis, with liver and kidney diseases. Cocoa should not be given to children under 3 years old. It is also not advisable to drink cocoa at night. But, nevertheless, chocolate is the most favorite delicacy of people of all countries. This is what a “record” bar of chocolate in Armenia was made in 2010. It is made from cocoa beans brought from Ghana. Its length is 5.6 m, width – 2.75 m, height 25 cm, and weight almost 4.5 tons.
In Russia, cocoa trees can grow only in greenhouses and conservatories at a temperature of 21-28 ° C. Propagate it by cuttings and seeds. There are mainly 2 types of beans “Criollo” and “Forastero”. “Criollo” has a special aroma and high quality beans. Forastero has a strawberry flavor. Of these two varieties, the Trinitario variety is selectively created, which is now also quite common among lovers of exotic plants.
