Jane's Garden: Just delicious by any name

Nov 17, 2023

Delicious, creamy chocolate is made from flat beanlike seeds that grow inside large oval fruit pods that sprout from the trunks and older branches of the Cacao or Cocoa tree, (Theobroma cacao), in the family Malvaceae.

This pantropical, broadleaf evergreen originally evolved in the hot, humid, lowland rainforests of the upper Amazon basin in northwest South America and spread with native peoples throughout tropical South and Central America as far north as southern Mexico before Europeans became interested in growing and making chocolate.

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Jane Weber

Jane's Garden

Cacao can be grown as an outdoor ornamental tree in warm, frost-free zones 11 and 12 or in heated humid greenhouses. Its natural range is tropical between 20 degrees north and south latitudes. It cannot tolerate temperatures below 40 degrees fahrenheit and dies if frosted or frozen. Small plants can be ordered on the internet, but seldom survive as houseplants. Mature height can reach 8 meters or 28 feet tall with a similar spread.

Broad evergreen leaves are glossy, drooping, alternate, entire, unlobed, 10–40 cm (4 to 15.7 inches long and 5–20 cm (2.0 to 8 inches) wide. Cacao trees grow in fertile, humus-rich, consistently moist but well-drained soils, in full sun to part shade.

This tree has clusters of fragrant, showy, pinkish flowers that sprout directly from on trunks and older wide-spreading branches (called cauliflory). These edible cauliflorous flowers may bloom any time of the year in the tropics. The best natural pollinators are tiny flies called Forcipomyia midges (F. squamipennis), rather than Hymenoptera bees or Lepidoptera butterflies and moths. Natural midge pollination produces more fruit than artificial pollinators.

Oval cacao fruit pods can weigh over a pound and be almost 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. Pods are green but turn yellow or orange red when ripe. Depending on the variety, pods can have thin or thick skin and be wrinkled or smooth.

Inside the pods are 10 rows of dark seeds surrounded by edible white pulp. Chocolate, cacao solids, chocolate liquor and cacao butter is made from the seeds. Seeds contain about 40–50% fat called cocoa butter.

The mucilaginous, sweet-sour, creamy-white pulp is used to make juice, smoothies, jelly and cream and to ferment into alcoholic liquor.

Criollo type of cacao, from Venezuela, has large fruits with a wrinkled, thin or thick surface. It spread northward into Central America and tropical southern Mexico (in North America). Its large seeds have white or pale violet interior. It was cultivated by Olmec, Aztec and Mayan peoples.

The Forastero variety spread east through the Amazon basin towards the Guianas where Jane saw both types growing. This Forastero or true Brazilian cacao, has intensely pigmented seeds, with dark violet or blackish interior prized by chefs and chocolatiers globally. The oval, smooth, green fruit pods turn yellow when ripe.

The fruit's chemical ingredients (biologically active phenolic compounds) are the alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, and antioxidants. The combination does not cause nervous jitters as coffee caffeine does. Cacao plants are the richest natural source of theobromine.

The darker the processed chocolate the more theobromine and caffeine it contains. Plus, darker chocolate contains less fat and sugars. White chocolate is cocoa butter and has almost no cacao solids so has almost no beneficial compounds and plenty of rich creamy fat. Light-colored milk chocolate has much less cacao power or solids than dark chocolate

Aztec people, in what became Mexico, made a drink called "xocolatl" translating to "bitter water" from the tree they called "Cacao." In 1502, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) took cacao seeds back to Europe. In 1520, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) drank xocolatl and sent dried cacao beans home to Spain. In the 16th century, Charles de L'Ecluse, (1526-1609), a French-born Flemish pioneer botanist, first called the cacao tree Cacao fructus.

"Theos" means a god and "broma" means food so in 1737 Linnaeus coined the genus name Theobroma - literally meaning "food of the gods." In 1753, Linnaeus changed the species name or specific epithet from fructus to cacao.

By any name, chocolate is a delicious food.

ane Weber is a professional gardener and consultant. Semi-retired, she grows thousands of native plants. Visitors are welcome to her Dunnellon, Marion County, garden. Contact her at [email protected] or phone 352-249-6899.

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