How Cocoa is Farmed

In 2024, Barry and Aude made a trip out to a cocoa plantation in the Ivory Coast - Aude thought it'd be a nice holiday & Barry lost all his clothes en route (hence the Oxfam chinos in the middle of a cocoa plantation, as seen on our Instagram & TikTok).

The trip was mesmerising and both Barry & Aude were so glad to have filmed it all, lest they forget any details of the incredible, hard-working details that go into the process of creating chocolate.

"Ever since I was a kid, I watched Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I am obsessed with chocolate" Barry Broderick

How Is Cocoa Made?

Growing 

Cocoa beans come from the cacao tree, a tropical evergreen that grows best in warm, humid climates close to the equator. The trees begin producing fruit after about 3–5 years, when small, delicate flowers bloom directly from the trunk and main branches — a process called cauliflory.

Only a small percentage of these flowers become pods, and it takes around 5–6 months for each pod to fully develop. The oval pods grow to roughly the size of a rugby ball and change colour as they ripen, usually from green to yellow, orange, or red depending on the variety.

Inside each pod are 20–50 cocoa beans surrounded by a sweet white pulp. 

Farming & Harvesting

Once the pods grow and turn yellow or orange, they're ready for picking. As Aude & Barry learnt, you have to hand-cut the pods away from the trees very precisely to avoid damaging the remaining flowers and the trunk - so that the tree can produce more again in a few months time. 

The pod is hand-cut from trees, tightly to the head of the fruit, if the pod is hanging anywhere from the base of the tree, up to 2 meters high. If it's hanging higher, then a hook with a sharp blade cuts them down - again, held in hand, with precision aim by the harvesters.

These pods are collected and brought to the next stage of the journey.

Processing 

Once picked, the pods get beaten with stick like hammers, to break the shell of the pods and release the beans from within. This then determines what is good enough to use thereafter.

The beans are then transported within a couple of hours to a sorting station and then transferred to fermentation huts, where they're covered with banana leaf to dry out and raise the heat - for a couple of days. 

With Puratos, the company we work closely with, once fermented, the beans are evenly spread over elevated wooden tray, protected from the elements by a roof.

A more common way of doing it is to leave the beans to dry over bamboo sheets but all bean are fermenting together, and dried together with no selection over their quality. They often dry in front of houses, so possible on the side of the road, unprotected from animals, rain etc. This affects the overall quality of the product.

The Next Steps..

In our second installment of this 2024 trip recap, we discuss the quality checks that the cocoa undergoes every time it is farmed, dictating it's next steps in the world.