Part 2: Cocoa Farm

It is quite a process to make chocolate and I can now say I have tried some from every step of the process.  My favorite is the very beginning and the very end.  Cocoa forests are very magical looking places like something out of a fairy tale.

The trees start as little plants in pots

The fruits grow from tiny flowers

There are cables across the farm to transport the pods to the main part.  The sloths use these as highways to get around.

The pods come in green, red or yellow.

You suck on the mucous membrane around the seed- it was really sweet and really good.

The pods are drop into the machine.

This separates the pod from the seeds

The seeds are dried under the green tarps in the top of the picture.

Then they are fermented (ok, we didn't try this part).

They are packaged into bags and sent to chocolate companies or made into chocolate at the farm.  The seeds are really bitter at this point.

The seeds get toasted.

After going through a couple more processes you get this liquidy goodness.

They scooped a bunch onto the cocoa leaves for us to eat. They made sure to point out that we could also eat the leaves like Byron the sloth does.

After the chocolate hardens its still in somewhat of a raw form (see above).  It then has to be tempered to make it smooth and different flavors are added.  Tempering is a process of heating and cooling the chocolate and then it is put into molds and you get chocolate from the stores.

Next up: the banana process, from the farm to your grocery store.