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• Plants for Food: Chocolate
– Cocoa Tree
– Description of plant:
– The Cocoa Tree is a deciduous tree that
grows up to 15m in height, and can live
up to 100 years
– Young cocoa leaves are large, red and
glossy. Mature cocoa leaves are dark
green
– The flowers of the cocoa tree are tiny,
have 5-petals and are either pink or
white.
– The fruit of the cocoa tree grows as green
or maroon pods on the trunk and main
branches. The pods are shaped like
stretched-out melons. When the pods
are ripe they turn golden in color
– Environment:
• This tree needs shade so usually grows under rainforest
trees in the understory of the rainforest
• The Cocoa tree is moisture loving, so they often grow
near rivers
• The trees require deep, slightly acidic soil
• The cocoa tree requires stable, hot temperatures to
grow – between 21 °C to 32°C and a lot of rain.
• Is native to Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria,
Indonesia and Malaysia
– Processing: Cocoa bean to chocolate
• The beans of the plant are what is
used to create chocolate
• The beans are collected by hand and
are then inspected and cleaned.
• The beans of a cocoa pod are spread
out in the sun to dry.
• Next the beans are roasted, shelled
and crushed in a factory.
• The inside of the bean is called the
nib. Once the beans have been
roasted and then shelled, the nib is
ground into a paste.
• A giant press is used to separate the
cocoa butter (white chocolate) from
the powder in the crushed beans.
– References
• http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/learn-aboutcocoa/tree-to-table/growing.asp
• http://www.chocolatewrappers.info/cacao.htm
• http://www.thestoryofchocolate.com/Where/tropics.cf
m?ItemNumber=3300
• http://www.xocoatl.org/tree.htm
• Science Focus 7