Me encanta el chocolate. Mucho. I watched a documentary on cocoa production a few years ago and ever since have wanted to visit a cocoa plantation. Well, dreams come true. One November night I fell asleep in a village in Africa, and about an hour after waking up the next morning I ran into a cocoa grove.
It was dark when we arrived at the Guesthouse Sunday morning so while we were waiting for everyone to get ready on Monday morning Kassinita and I were exploring and saw the cocoa pods on this tree and then realized they were all cocoa trees. In the front and center you can see the baby pineapple and in the back is a cocoa tree. The pods grow really close to the trunk.
Stephen saw us admiring his grove so he took his cutlass and chopped a pod open for us. The white inner fruit is really sweet. It doesn't taste anything like chocolate but it is delicious. Stephen was adamant about only sucking on the fruit because apparently the inner part of the bean is really bitter.
After the pod is ripe the inner beans are spread on bamboo to dry out and ferment. You can see the seeds laying out all over Ghana. On the ground, on raised platforms like this, everywhere. And it smells quite disgusting. The beans lay out for about a week drying in the sun. If it rains you cover them in leaves from the plantain trees.
When the pods are yellow they are ready to be harvested.
Love the cocoa bean fruit.
"This turns into this" Beyond amazing.
Should have listened. If you bite into the cocoa bean it is EXTREMELY bitter.
Remember: Only suck on the white fruit.
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