Cocoa Beans

Description

A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough, leathery rind about 2 to 3 cm (0.*9 to 1.*8 in) thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod) filled with sweet, pulp (called baba de cacao in South America) with a lemonade-like taste enclosing *0 to *0 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 is released easily by after roasting. White seeds are found in some rare varieties, usually mixed with purples, and are considered of higher value