The fruit of the Cocoa tree grow directly from the trunk.
They look like small melons, and the pulp inside contains 20 to 50 seeds or beans.
It takes 5 years for a cocoa tree to produce its first seed pods.
It takes about 400 beans to make a pound of chocolate.
Cocoa beans grow on trees in tropical climates. This is because cocoa trees need hot, slightly wet weather to grow, and they only grow close to the Equator. Cocoa trees started out in Central and South America around 100 million years ago. Now, cocoa trees grow in places like Africa, Cuba, and some Caribbean islands too. Even though cocoa trees need heat to grow, they also need shade. Too much direct sunlight isn't good for the cocoa tree, so they are usually grown in the shade of other plants, like papaya trees or mango trees. Cocoa trees produce orange fruit (or pods) the size of small pumpkins. So where do the beans come into this story? Well, if you open the pod from the cocoa tree, you will find many little beans inside, sometimes as many as fifty.
Cocoa beans are white and they taste bitter. They have to be dried out and then they are roasted at the chocolate factories. Once they are roasted they produce a rich chocolatey smell. The beans are then chopped and put under heat and pressure. Eventually a liquid comes out of the beans that is then used to make the chocolate that we all love to eat!
Click the photo for more information on cocoa beans and chocolate!
