Cocoa Chronicles

Delving into the Basics of Chocolate

Did you know that the name of the cocoa tree Theobroma Cacao means “food of the gods” in Greek? Chocolate was first discovered in Latin America and many Aztec legends abound about the origins of the plant. One popular Aztec legend names Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent deity, as the planter of cocoa trees in the tropics of southern Mexico.

Another popular ancient Aztec legend tells the story of how a valiant warrior, before leaving to defend the empire’s borders, left his wife - a princess - to guard his treasure. During the battle, some enemies tried to force her to reveal where the treasure was hidden, but when she refused to tell them, they killed her. While she was dying on the ground, they saw a cocoa plant germinating from her blood in whose fruit was hidden a treasure of seeds: bitter as the suffering of love, strong as virtue and red as blood.

VARIETIES OF COCOA

According to a universally used classification, three varieties of cocoa are produced. They are:

Criollo - The word means “indigenous” and it is the name the Spanish gave to the cocoa produced by the Aztecs. In this type of cocoa, the pods containing the seeds are elongated and grooved. They are green when they sprout and become reddish orange when they are ripe. Unfortunately, the Criollo tree is very fragile and prone to various diseases, so the production of this type of cocoa beans is very small and barely covers 10% of world production. For this reason, it is only used for top quality chocolate, and for adding flavour and aroma to cocoa blends.