Ask the master gardeners

Q: Seeing all the holiday treats displayed this time of year makes me wonder how chocolate grows?

A: The Theobroma cacao tree, which resembles an apple tree, grows in shaded tropical forests. It starts bearing fruit in three years and then bears fruit year round for another 30 years.

“Cauliflory” are the clusters of fertilized flowers that grow on the branches and trunk of the tree. Cacao pods grow on these clusters over a five-month period. The pod’s outer layer envelops seeds nestled in soft white pulp. The pods change from green to bright yellow as they ripen. They are picked carefully in a year-round harvest process.

Each pod contains 20 to 40 beans that are extracted with the pulp. This pulp-seed mixture is placed between mats of banana leaves and left to ferment for two to seven days. During this process, the beans change from purple to brown and develop their chocolatey flavor.

The drying occurs over 10 to 20 days in open sunshine or by using machinery. Then the pods are polished to obtain an improved visual appearance. The cacao beans are sometimes treated by alkali in a process called “Dutching,” giving us Dutched cocoa. This process removes some of the acidity of the beans and gives a smoother flavor and a darker color.

Finally, the shells are winnowed from the roasted beans and the beans are ready for making chocolate paste, cocoa, cocoa butter and chocolate.

The beans are ground with heated rollers making cocoa liquor. The liquor hardens to unsweetened chocolate.

Cocoa butter is separated from the unsweetened chocolate by adding heat and pressure. The remaining chocolate is then ground to into cocoa powder.

Chocolate bars are made by adding various quantities of sugar and cocoa butter to the liquor and letting it harden.
— Krys Mernyk, Sleepy Hollow, master gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester