with prosecution of traffickers. Few chocolate makers ever do anything about it, and consumers demand the cheapest goods possible.
1.1 How chocolate is made
Cacao beans grow in pods about 20cm( 8 inches) long that sprout off of the trunk and branches of cacao trees. The pods start out green and turn golden-orange when theyʹre ripe. The pods are harvested by hand, using short, hooked blades on poles. Then they are split open using a machete and the cacao beans, sometimes more than 50 per pod, are removed. Fresh cacao beans grow inside white husks, and do not taste like chocolate at all.
After the beans are extracted from the pods, they undergo the fermenting process. If the climate is right, they may be simply heated by the sun. During this time the beans turn brown. This takes five to eight days.
Once fermented, they are dried and shipped to factories across the world. The drying process usually takes about a week and results in seeds that are about half of their original weight. In factories, machines will refine the beans to a roasted nib by winnowing( removing the husk) and roasting.
At the factories, they will be heated and melted into chocolate liquor. Then the chocolate liquor is mixed with sugar and milk. After the blending process, the liquid chocolate will be delivered to the molding factory in tanks and will be poured into molds. Finally, machines will pack the chocolate and then it will be ready to sell.
5
From cacao to cocoa:
Cacao beans are the seeds from which cocoa is made. Cocoa powder is used to make chocolate.
Throughout this book I refer to cacao plantations. as cocoa plantations, as that is the product that cacao is made into.