Funday Times

CACAO - THE COCOA TREE
It is likely that all of you have eaten a chocolate sometime. Perhaps some of you have had a chocolate drink or chocolate flavoured foods. Did you know that a main ingredient in making chocolate is cocoa? Look at a label of a chocolate, the ingredients will say 'cocoa mass' or 'cocoa solids' or on fine chocolates 'cocoa butter'. Where does cocoa come from? It comes from the cocoa bean, which is the seed of the cocoa tree, or cacao, known in Latin as Theobroma cacao. The Sinhalese term is phonetically the same as the English being called Coco or Cocova. Sterculiaceae is the botanical family.

The cacao tree has it's origins in Central America, where it grows naturally to over 10 metres (about 40 ft.). But on plantations the tree is pruned and kept at about 4 m (15 - 20 ft) to make it easy to collect the fruit. Cacao has been introduced to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1819, but cultivation as a crop was around 1878 with the first export of cocoa beans.

The tree has a wide spreading head encouraged by a particular manner of pruning the tree. The large, nearly one foot long simple leaves are elliptic to oblong and hang downwards (pendulous). The older leaves are dark green and leathery. The bark on the trunk of the tree is dark brown and rough with long cracks or fissures. The pink stalked whitish to pale purplish flowers appear on the trunk and larger branches in clusters. These flowers develop into the fruit, which are green when young, maturing into yellowish or reddish purple, large ellipsoid shapes with a bumpy (warty) surface with ridges along the length. Although the fruit is popularly called a pod, it is botanically a berry and carries 25 to 50 seeds in five rows along a central rib surrounded by a mucilaginous (gummy) pulp.

It is the seeds in the pod that make cacao a commercial plantation crop. Cacao is not a very hardy plant requiring many conditions. A well-drained soil, light shade, regular but not too much rainfall and a cool climate are necessary. Pests and diseases may be a problem. In Sri Lanka, cacao grows best on gentle slopes between 300m to 700 m (approx 1000 and 2000 ft) elevation. It was grown as an inter-crop on rubber plantations and is also suited to mid-country home gardens (intermediate and wet lowland sites). There are many varieties of cacao with Central American names such as 'Forastero', 'Criollo' and so on. 'Criollo' grown here is also called 'Red Ceylon' or 'Caracas'.

It is an aesthetically pleasing tree at all times, whether in leaf, flower or with the pods along the trunk. It gives a dark heavy shade under the tree. The pods are harvested by cutting it off the cacao trunk. They are cut open and the seeds scooped out and a process of fermenting, drying and crushing is done to extract cocoa butter. The cocoa solids are processed. Chocolate (foods and beverage), cosmetics, medicines are some of the uses.

The major growers of Cacao are the Central African countries and Brazil.

When you have your next chocolate, look at the ingredients printed on the label. The story of chocolate is as fascinating as the cacao tree.

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