5.4 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa bean fermentation | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean_fermentation | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:15:07.650805+00:00 | kb-cron |
== History == It is unclear why humans first fermented and dried cocoa, other foods were perhaps first fermented and roasted and then such principles then applied to cocoa. The method and length of cocoa bean fermentation has for hundreds of years depended on who is fermenting and where they are located. During the latter half of the 18th century, beans were fermented for three days in Trinidad under leaves and four to five in the neighbouring Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue. William Gervase Clarence-Smith says this suggests extra time was necessitated by different varieties of cocoa beans being grown. In Venezuela, fermentation was undertaken for three days in stores, rarely at all in the lower Amazon, and in tins in São Tomé and Príncipe. By the middle of the 19th century, the length of fermentation was adjusted for which markets the beans were intended for: lightly fermented at night for the British palate, and for a longer five to eight days under banana or plantain leaves for the French and Spanish palates, which Clarence-Smith describes as "more discriminating". As Trinidad moved to growing cocoa on estates at the end of the 19th century, fermentation, undertaken in wooden boxes, varied in length from eight up to fourteen days for cocoa considered inferior. Beans in Mexico were washed pre-ferment, and in Nicaragua were left in concrete containers. In the early 20th century, Criollo beans in Venezuela were fermented up to two days, while those categorised as Trinitario were fermented for up to eight days. For the latter, beans were left, drying in the sun, before being piled under banana leaves at night. Then coated with a red soil intended to protect against insects and disease, they underwent a final drying and were exported to French and Spanish markets. In the Americas, fermentation lengths varied from a day in Guatemala to 5–8 days in Suriname. In Suriname, fermentation was a labor-intensive process, involving beans being moved every day between compartments in long wooden crates for under controlled temperature conditions. In the Amazon and Brazil beans were rarely fermented; Brazilian farmers who did rarely did so for longer than three days in old canoes, covered or in boxes. By 1923 in Costa Rica, United Fruit grew beans, and when harvested, transported them by rail to a single factory, where they were fermented for a relatively short four days, impacting quality. Small farmers still fermented in heaps.
In Africa at the beginning of the 20th century, many countries fermented beans for around three days, although farmers fermented beans in the Congo Free State for eight days. In some countries such as east Java and São Tomé and Príncipe and, beans were fermented in boxes while in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, they were sometimes left in old canoes. In Gold Coast, farmers regularly ignored Department of Agriculture advice to use boxes as they found wrapping piles of cocoa beans in banana leaves just as effective, and less labor-intensive. In Nigeria, smallholders rarely fermented for more than three days, while Creole landowners fermented beans for six. Similarly, in the Caribbean, Dominican Republic smallholders rarely fermented beans, while estates fermented for up to eight days.
== Bean characteristics ==
=== Color === Poor-fermentation can be seen visually, as most cacao is purple and becomes increasingly brown as it ferments. The color of beans is determined by their polyphenolic content, which undergoes changes during fermentation. The conversion of anthocyanins into cyanidins and sugars lightens the purple color typical of some cacao varieties, while the conversion of flavan-3-ols to quinones is responsible for the development of a brown/brown-purple coloration.
=== Flavor === Chocolate produced from beans dried without fermentation tastes bitter and has a muted cocoa flavor. Different amounts of fermentation create beans with flavors that are sour, "winey" or fruity, and different methods of fermentation produce different flavors. This can be seen by the practice in Brazil to ferment in wooden boxes, which produces beans more acidic than those produced in West Africa. The flavor precursors developed during fermentation are later turned into chocolate flavor during the roasting process. Cocoa beans consist of cotyledon surrounded by a shell. Cotyledon contain two major types of cells, storage cells and pigment cells. It is within the cotyledon that flavor precursors develop during fermentation, after the bean is germinated and is then killed. In germination, the protein vacuoles within the storage cells take on water. As the cell dies, and the cell walls and membranes deteriorate, the cell components are free to interact and react with each other. These reactions produce the flavor precursors. There are a few molecule groupings responsible for different flavors. Within the pigment cells, polyphenols and methylxanthines (caffeine and theobromine) give the product bitterness and astringency respectively. As fermentation develops, the concentration of polyphenols decreases. Maillard reaction precursors develop from proteins from the storage cells and sucrose, with the former hydrolyzed into oligopeptides and amino acids, and the latter into reducing sugars.
== Industry and politics ==