Belizean Chocolate (How Chocolate Will Save the Rainforest) From Bean to Bar

Before there is chocolate, there is a tree.  These trees grow in the rainforests of the world, located 20-degrees above and below the equator, of which Belize is a part of. 

The cacao tree is suited to grow perfectly within the latitudes of 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. Cacao trees grow under the great canopy of towering shade trees. These graceful trees bear fruit that looks like footballs and grows straight out of the trunk. The cacao pods thrive in the tropical heat around the equator, and produce an array of colors and shapes. The pods can range from bright green to pale yellow, dark purple to burnt orange or Crimson.

The cacao tree does not have a distinct harvest season, it puts forth flowers continuously, but only about 3 out of a 1000 get pollinated and progress to fruit. They are pollinated by midges (nat-like bugs) that love the rainforest. It takes 5-8 months for a bud to progress to a ripe fruit.

(3) Main Varieties of Cacoa Beans
Three main varieties of cocoa are: Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario.  Cacao production in Belize, mainly focuses on Trintario and Forastero varieities.  The Trintario is the most widely used, comprising 80–90% of the world production of cocoa. 

The Trinitario - Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero cacao.  These are normally more resistant to diseases than the Crillo but are not normally found in the wild.  The pods contain up to thirty or more beans varying in colors but rarely white in color.  The outside color of the pod varies ranging from green, light green, red, yellow.  Fermentatin also takes approximately three to five days (3-5 days).

The Forastero - Forastero pods produce up to 30 seeds weighing less than one gram.  The color of the pod varies to green, light green and red, while the inside of the pod is covered in a deep or light purple pulp  It has a strong bitter taste (strongest flavor).  Therefore, the fermentation normally takes about six to eight days (6-8 days).  It is most common in West Africa and South America and it makes up most of the cacao production.

The Criollo - Criollo pods tend to be much rarer, and considered to be a delicacy.  Cacao has lower yields than Forastero and the Criollo tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plant, hence very few countries produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela (Chuao and Porcelana). The Criollo mainly used for tine chocolates, contains up to fifteen to thirty white, ivory or pale purple seeds which weight more than one gram.  These have pointed-ended pods, its color reanges from yello to ruddy orange whitle the inside appears almost white.  It has a softer skin, its flower is white with two pink lines.  These do not require a lot of fermentation and roasting to soften them and develop their flavor.  Fermentation takes approximately three to five days (3-5 days).

Belize Exports Annually (Statistics as of 2016)
United Kingdom (34%) $69,273,699. USD
United States (23%) $47,304,948. USD

Cultivation
A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough, leathery rind about 2 to 3 cm (0.79 to 1.18 in) thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod) filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called baba de cacao in South America) with a lemonade-like taste enclosing 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and a pale lavender to dark brownish purple color.

During harvest, the pods are opened, the seeds are kept, and the empty pods are discarded and the pulp made into juice. The seeds are placed where they can ferment. Due to heat buildup in the fermentation process, cacao beans lose most of the purplish hue and become mostly brown in color, with an adhered skin which includes the dried remains of the fruity pulp. This skin (or shell) is released easily by winnowing after roasting. White seeds are found in some rare varieties, usually mixed with purples, and are considered of higher value.

Cacao Pod Varieties - Various Stages

There are over 25 cacao farms located in Southern Belize.

Harvesting the Beans

Belize Harvesting Season (November to June)
Chocolate begins with Theobroma Cacao tree. Pods from this tree are harvested for the making of chocolate only once fully ripened. Unripened pods yield beans with low cocoa butter content and low sugar content. The natural sugars in cocoa beans fuel the fermentation process, which is responsible for much of the classic cocoa flavor.  Once harvested, the seeds are separated from the pods and pulp and allowed to begin the fermentation process.

Cocoa trees grow in hot, rainy tropical areas within 20° of latitude from the Equator. Cocoa harvest is not restricted to one period per year and a harvest typically occurs over several months. In fact, in many countries, cocoa can be harvested at any time of the year.  Pesticides are often applied to the trees to combat capsid bugs, and fungicides to fight black pod disease.

Immature cocoa pods have a variety of colours, but most often are green, red, or purple, and as they mature, their colour tends towards yellow or orange, particularly in the creases.  Unlike most fruiting trees, the cacao pod grows directly from the trunk or large branch of a tree rather than from the end of a branch, similar to jackfruit. This makes harvesting by hand easier as most of the pods will not be up in the higher branches. The pods on a tree do not ripen together; harvesting needs to be done periodically through the year. Harvesting occurs between three and four times weekly during the harvest season. The ripe and near-ripe pods, as judged by their colour, are harvested from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree with a curved knife on a long pole. Care must be used when cutting the stem of the pod to avoid damaging the junction of the stem with the tree, as this is where future flowers and pods will emerge. One person can harvest an estimated 650 pods per day.

Fermenting the Beans

Fermenting the Cocoa Beans
The wet beans are then transported to a facility so they can be fermented and dried. The farmer removes the beans from the pods, packs them into boxes or heaps them into piles, then covers them with mats or banana leaves for three to seven days. Raw cocoa beans have a bitter and undesirable flavor. Fermentation transforms this bitterness making it into the more complex precursor to the classic cocoa flavor we are familiar with. Fermentation is achieved with natural yeast and bacteria that are present in the cocoa beans. The beans are simply left out in the heat and moisture to ferment for approximately seven days. After fermentation, the beans are quickly dried to prevent mold growth.

Drying the Beans

Drying Cocoa Beans
Finally, the beans are trodden and shuffled about (often using bare human feet) and sometimes, during this process, red clay mixed with water is sprinkled over the beans to obtain a finer color, polish, and protection against molds during shipment to factories in other countries. Drying in the sun is preferable to drying by artificial means, as no extraneous flavors such as smoke or oil are introduced which might otherwise taint the flavor.

Cleaning the Beans

Cleaning the Cocoa Beans
After the beans have dried, they are cleaned for any additional pieces of dried cocoa pulp, pieces of pod and other extraneous materials. 

Shipping the Beans

Bagging the Beans for Shipment
The beans should be dry for shipment (usually by sea). Traditionally they are exported in jute bags. Shipping in bulk significantly reduces handling costs (shipment in bags), is still very common.

For Beans Which Stay in Belize
Roasting the Beans

Roasting the Cocoa Beans
Most beans are shipped out of the country for export.  For beans which stay in the country for consumed locally, they are typically roasted using the dry roast method.  This method employs constant stirring to ensure even heating.  Dry roasting does not require the addition of extra oils or fats, which allows the flavor to stay pure.  This is the final step in creating the classic cocoa flavor that we are all familiar with. 

To bring out the chocolate aroma, the beans are roasted over an open fire.  Depending upon the variety of the beans and the desired end result, roasting can last from (30) minutes to (2) hours at temperatures of 250 degrees Fahrenheit and higher. As the beans turn over and over, their moisture content drops, their color changes to a rich brown, and the characteristic aroma of chocolate becomes evident. Although all steps are important, proper roasting is one of the keys to good flavor.

Winnowing the Beans

Winnowing - Is the process of removing the shell from the cocoa bean.

Winnowing the Beans
The cocoa beans are cooled after roasting, and their thin shells, which have become brittle by roasting are removed.  Winnowing the beans, is the process of removing the shell after roasting.  In the process of winnowing, a series of mechanical sieves separate the broken pieces into large and small grains, while fans blow away the thin shell like dust from the meat or "nibs." After the winnowing process, the shell is removed and the inner nib is extracted. The nibs contain about 53% cocoa butter, and are ground between two large grinding stones to create a fine powder.  The cocoa powder usually begins to liquify from the frictional heat while grinding the nibs, which produces a cocoa paste. 

Grinding the Bean

Creating Cocoa Paste

As cocoa powder is ground (the heat generated by grinding), causes the cocoa butter to melt and form a paste.  The cocoa paste has important functions, as it become the basis for almost every recipe and it helps provide the structure, lustre and glaze seen in chocolate bars. 

Creating Cocoa Liquor

When heat is applied to the cocoa paste, it begins to liquify and this produces what is known as chocolate "liquor".  The liquor is then poured into molds and allowed to solidify, thus producing unsweetened or bitter chocolate known as Baker's Chocolate.

Blending the Liquor

It is from blending this cocoa liquor that many chocolate recipes are created.  Cocoa liquor, baking chocolate, cocoa powder, and cocoa butter, can all be blended with various ingredients to create an endless number of cocoa products.  To produce the chocolate candies which we are all familiar with, cocoa liquor is combined with extra cocoa butter (for smoothness and mouthfeel), sugar, milk powders, vanilla, emulsifiers, or stabilizers. The ratio of sugar and milk to cocoa creates varying degrees of milk or dark chocolate. The specific ratio in which ingredients are blended creates signature recipes, which specialty brands often guard closely.

Tempering Chocolate

Tempering the Chocolate
The still warm conched chocolate is placed in a tempering machine so that it can be slowly and steadily cooled. Cooling chocolate at a fixed rate keeps the flavor from being compromised, and prevents separation when the chocolate is poured into bar molds. Proper tempering also results in a silky sheen and crisp "snap" when broken… another sign of a superior quality chocolate bar. The tempered chocolate is pored into molds of many sizes, from individual sized bars to a ten pound blocks used by confectionery manufacturers.

Creating Chocolate Treats

The end result, is to take your tempered chocolate liquor and pour it into molds.  Hope this helps you to see the process that chocolate goes through from bean to bar.  It all starts with a tree, located in a rainforest.  So the question, which started this blog post was "How Will Chocolate Save the Rainforest".  Let's answer that question.

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How Chocolate Will Save
The Rainforest?

Belizean Chocolate Makers

There are many chocolate companies operating in Belize.  For the purposes of this blog, let's take a look at a local family operating their chocolate business in the Toledo District - Ixcacao Mayan Belizean Chocolate

IXCACAO Maya Belizean Chocolate
IXCACAO is a Maya family - Juan, Abelina, Henry and Lucresha Cho, bringing to you an original Maya Gold in a Chocolate Bar form. IXCACAO is the only Maya Chocolatier in the Country of Belize and in the entire world!, IXCACAO is prepared to take you on the Chocolate trail, imagining yourself early years of early exploration 1500AD.   Using our stone tool that has been passed down from five (5) generations, IXCACAO maintains a cultural heritage that is of it's origin and a tradition you will find to be an unforgettable experience!

IXCACAO Mayan Belizean Chocolate is a Farm to chocolate process, managed and operated by Maya Belizeans in the Toledo District of Belize.  Owner Juan and Abelina Cho in the village of San Felipe in the country of Belize, our products are made using all organic Cacao Beans that is grown and harvested on our Farm, processed without the use of any artificial flavoring or synthetic stabilizers. 

Juan Cho, has been working for the past years along with Sustainable Harvest International promoting sustainable and Organic farming methods to farmers in Belize, and other countries in Central America.  Understanding the needs of our farmers to learn and our children, is for them to taste the products we all produce together, resulting we have came across a processing facility whereby not only Visitors can experience Chocolate but also teaching our children about healthy eating and appreciating our natural resources through chocolate.

Abelina Cho, being very cultural she has came from a family of Cacao to Chocolate, presenting her cooking skills preparing Chocolate Chicken, to Chocolate Pork and Fish and in whatever forms you wish to have your Chocolate for Lunch she is just the Magic, with the romantic touch that will make you experience the taste of Belize at its best.  Abelina need not to follow recipes from cook books but rather walk through our garden and harvest all the freshest of vegetable she can find and prepares for lunch uh-Yum!  With all that is Magical this brings Abelina to her title as "The Chocolate Queen".

Touring Our Farm - Is a Sweet Treat
You’ll start at the root of all chocolate production (the cacao tree) and take part in the process that starts with harvested, crushed beans and winds up in your hands as a Maya chocolate bar. Yes, sugar will be added, but otherwise, the process in which you take part is authentic.

While at the organic cacao farm hosting your visit, you’ll meet the farmer in charge. He is happy to answer questions, whether they concern the history, processing or folklore surrounding chocolate. You’ll examine the trees and pods that bring forth the beans, grind them on a stone and hold the chocolate bar you made in your hands.

How Chocolate Will Save
Our Rainforests?

HOW WILL CHOCOLATE SAVE THE RAINFOREST?
The world loves chocolate!  As long as the world continues to love chocolate, people will continue to consume products made from the cacoa tree. 

• The cacao trees can only grow within the latitudes of 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. 
  
• This is the region where most rainforests of the world are located.
  
• Cacao trees can only grow in shade, which means they make great understory rainforest foliage. 
  
• Cacoa trees provide great habitats for birds, and other wildlife. 
  
• The cocoa pods grow straight out from the trunk, making them easy to harvest. 
  
• The cacao tree does not have a distinct harvest season, in most cases they can produce pods all year long. 
  
• Cocoa pod harvesting provides jobs to the local community. 
  
• Planting cocoa trees is being promoted (world-wide) as a method for restoring the rainforest.
  
• Growing cocoa trees is a win-win; it’s good for the environment, it's good for the farmers, it's good for the wildlife, and it produces the chocolate you have come to know and love.
  

So as long as the world continues to consume chocolate products, they need the cocoa tree - which can only grow in the rainforest.

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Mayan Hot Chocolate

MAYAN HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPE
4 c. milk
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp. water
1/4 c. brown sugar
1⁄4 tsp. nugmeg
3 whole cloves, crushed
1/4 tsp. chili pepper, crushed
1 cinnamon stick, broken up
2 tsp. powdered sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
DIRECTIONS

• Sift the cocoa powder and flour.
  
• Measure out 4 cups of milk. From the 4 cups of milk, slowly whisk about 1/4 cup of it, a little more if necessary, into the cocoa/cornstarch mix until it becomes a paste. If you add milk too fast, you get clumpy cocoa. If that happens, use a hand blender to smooth it out.
  
• When all the cocoa and flour are a paste (no more dry flour,) add the remaining spices (sugar, nutmeg, cloves, peppers, and cinnamon).
  
• Heat the rest of the 4 cups of milk in a double-boiler or a saucepan over medium.
  
• Add the cocoa paste & spices, mix in a hot double-boiler. Stir constantly to keep it from burning.
  
• If you prefer a slightly thicker drink, you can add more cornstarch/water mixture now. Continue stirring on the heat until it's to your desired thickness. Not too long; you don't want to be forced to use a knife and fork. ;D.
  
• When the cocoa is ready (it takes about 10-15 minutes until the flavor and heat level are *just right*), strain the cocoa in a fine sieve to remove the cloves and cinnamon pieces. (Careful, it could splatter - I found out last night. *grrr*) Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and stir.
  
• If you like, you can put whipped cream on top, add small marshmallows, or add a stick of cinnamon for stirring.
  

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Make Your Own Chocolate Bar

Ingredients
1/4 c. coconut oil
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 1/2 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Bar Variations

• Chopped Peanuts
  
• Chopped Almonds
• Fleur De Sel Sea Salt
• Chopped Toasted Hazelnuts
• Peanut Butter

Instructions

1. In a small sauce pan on medium-high melt together the coconut oil, cocoa powder, maple syrup, honey, & vanilla. Whisk until completely melted.
2. Pour in to candy bar mold. If using a mix-in (except peanut butter, if using PB add to everything else being melted), add to candy bar mold prior to pouring chocolate.
3. Freeze at least 15 minutes until hardened. Store in freezer.

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SO HOW DOES CHOCOLATE SAVE THE RAINFOREST? 
If the world continues to eat chocolate, then you will need farmers like us.