OTAL - Cocoa

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Commodities > Cocoa

Background Information
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What is Cocoa?

Cocoa is a natural food made from a natural product of the cocoa tree. The cocoa tree produces cocoa pods from which the beans are extracted, fermented and dried. The dried cocoa beans are then roasted and ground to produce cocoa liquor which is cocoa mass in semi-liquid, non-alcoholic form. This is then pressed to obtain cocoa butter and cocoa cake. The cocoa cake is then ground to form cocoa powder.

These natural products from cocoa beans are then mixed with different proportions of milk and sugar to form chocolate. The cocoa powder is also used as a principal ingredient in a rich variety of foods and beverages making cocoa truly one of nature's most versatile products.

Cocoa is natural, nutritious and delicious as any chocolate lover will testify. A tablespoon of cocoa powder contains potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron and a host of other minerals and vitamins.

Sportsmen around the world value it for the energy in the calories cocoa provides. Best of all, cocoa has no cholesterol making it a healthy, nutritious food or beverage.

From the decades of research, the facts are now quite clear. Cocoa has been shown not to cause any increase in blood cholesterol levels. The cocoa butter gives chocolate its distinctive smoothness and that unique 'melt-in-your mouth' texture.

Cocoa butter is the fat that occurs naturally in the cocoa beans. And these ground roasted beans are used to manufacture all chocolate and cocoa products.

The History of Cocoa

Cocoa has a history rooted in the mists of time. In South America, the Aztecs considered the beverage a royal drink served in ceremonial golden goblets. It was the nectar of the gods and even the cocoa tree's botanical name, 'Theobroma cacao' translated from the Greek means "food of the gods".

Cocoa as a beverage was "the divine drink". Hernando Cortez brought back the first cocoa and chocolate drink recipe to the Court of King of Spain in 1528. Gradually a transformation began. Cane sugar was added. Newly discovered spices such as vanilla and cinnamon were also used as flavourings.

The cocoa tree soon began to appear in Spanish colonies and the processing of cocoa beans began in earnest, but under a veil of secrecy in monasteries. Chocolate was restricted to nobility and the recipes were kept secret for nearly 100 years.

Then chocolate spread, to France in 1615, the UK in 1650s and in America in 1755. There was no looking back. Cocoa and chocolate took America and the world by storm. Today it is the most popular and most relished flavour in the world.

Preparing the Crop for Shipment

The cocoa beans or seeds that are removed from the pods are put into boxes and covered. Around the beans is a layer of pulp that starts to heat up and ferment. Fermentation lasts from three to nine days and serves to remove the raw bitter taste of cocoa and to develop the flavour.

Fermenting is a simple "yeasting" process in which the sugars contained in the beans are converted to acid, primarily lactic acid and acetic acid. The process generates temperatures as high as 125 degrees Fahrenheit, which kill the germ of the bean and activate existing enzymes in the beans to form compounds that produce the chocolate flavor when the beans are roasted. The result is a fully developed bean with a rich brown color, a sign that the cocoa is now ready for drying.

As the fruit is filled with moisture, the beans must be dried if they are to keep. Drying is accomplished simply by laying the beans on trays or on concrete bays leaving them to bask in the sun. Artificial methods can be used. For example, the beans can be carried indoors and dried by hot-air pipes.

With good weather the drying process usually takes several days. In this interval, farmers turn the beans frequently. During drying, beans lose nearly all their moisture and more than half their weight.

When the beans are dried, they are prepared for shipping in 130 to 200 pound sacks. They are seldom stored except at shipping centers, where they await inspection by buyers.

Marketing for Export

Buyers sample the quality of a crop by cutting open a number of beans to see that they are properly fermented. Purple centers indicate incomplete fermentation. If the prevailing crop is found satisfactory, the grower is paid at the current market price.

The market price depends not only on the abundance of the worldwide crop and the quality of farmers' crops in a number of countries, but on a number of economic conditions throughout the world.

The industry has set up Cocoa Exchanges, similar to stock exchanges, in principle cities such as New York, London, Hamburg and Amsterdam.

Cocoa Bi-Products

Cocoa Butter	Cocoa butter, the fat that occurs naturally in cocoa beans or found as a coconut oil product, gives chocolate its distinctive smoothness and "melt-in-the-mouth" texture. Extraction: The cocoa liquor is pumped into giant hydraulic presses weighing up to 25 tons, where pressure is applied to remove the desired cocoa butter. The fat drains away through metallic screens as a yellow liquid. It is then collected for use in chocolate manufacturing. Research has shown that cocoa butter, despite its high saturated fat content, does not raise blood cholesterol levels as do other saturated fats. This is due to its high stearic acid content. Stearic acid, one of the principal fatty acids in cocoa butter, has been found to be used in the body differently, in that it may reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood. The cocoa butter is used as raw material for several industries, such as chocolate industry, pharmaceutical industry, as well as for the cosmetic industry. It is unique among vegetable fats because it is a solid at normal room temperature and melts at 89 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit Its success in resisting oxidation and rancidity makes it very practical. Under normal storage conditions, cocoa butter can be kept for years without spoiling.
Cocoa Liquor	Produced by grinding the cocoa bean nib (center) to a smooth, liquid state. The chocolate liquor can then be cooled and molded into blocks also known as unsweetened baking chocolate. The liquor and blocks contain roughly 53 percent cocoa butter. The term liquor does not refer to alcohol, it simply means liquid.
Natural Cocoa Cake	Pressing cocoa mass or pouring cocoa liquor into molds and allowed to solidify generates cocoa cakes. The cakes are often grinded into cocoa powder.
Alkalised Cocoa Cake	Cocoa cake that has had an alkalising agent added to produce a specific flavour, coloured and dispersability.
Natural Cocoa Powder	The cocoa liquor is pumped into giant hydraulic presses weighing up to 25 tons, where pressure is applied to remove the desired cocoa butter. The fat drains away through metallic screens as a yellow liquid. It is then collected for use in chocolate manufacturing. The pressed cake that is left after the removal of cocoa butter can be cooled, pulverized and sifted into cocoa powder
Alkalised Cocoa Powder	Cocoa powder that has had an alkalising agent added to produce a specific flavour, coloured and dispersability.

Processing Cocoa Beans

Cocoa ButterSifting, cleaning and sorting	Eliminates foreign matter, remove dirt and debris and separate the beans by size for even roasting.
Alkalisation	Prior to roasting, alkalisation may take place in order to acquire a specific flavour and coloured cocoa for different applications. Alkalising also modifies the dispersability in beverages. Extreme treatments can produce black cocoa powder.
Roasting	Beans are roasted in large rotary cylinders at a temperature of 250F to 300F for anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. This depends on the type of roasting equipment, the variety of beans being roasted and the quality and type of chocolate product being made. Every manufacturer has desired flavor characteristics and product specifications which determine roasting time and temperature. Roasting also loosens the thin outer shells of the beans.
Cracking	Once roasted, beans are sent through a winnower (also called a cracker and fanner) where they are cracked into smaller pieces to further loosen the brittle shells. Fanning separates the pieces of shell and blows them away from the beans. The tiny hard bitter germ in each bean is also removed in the process. Cleaned, shelled and de-germed, the roasted cocoa bean pieces are now called nibs.
Grinding	The roasted nibs are ground and then milled to a finer and finer particle size through a series of steel rollers. The nibs contain 53% fat (cocoa butter) they are readily transformed, first to a paste and then to a flowing thick chocolate colored molten mass as the fat liquefies from the warmth and friction of the rollers and the particles of solid cocoa become smaller. The molten mass of nibs is now called cocoa liquor or cocoa mass. This is the most important raw material for the chocolate industry. Further processing of cocoa mass gives other product categories.
Blending	When chocolate is made from a blend of cocoa beans of different varieties and different parts of the world, as it usually is, blending is done after each bean variety is separately roasted to its own optimum specifications.

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[ Cocoa News - 2003 ]

[ Cocoa News - 2002 ]

[ Background Information ]