Every year as Easter rolls around, I can’t help but ponder on the tremendous journey hundreds of cocoa beans make to star in the glorious Easter pageant of confectionary displays. Whether you prefer your cocoa bean masquerading as a chocolate rabbit; costumed as a foil-wrapped, goo-filled egg; or as cocoa butter in a 100ml pump of Cleanse & Polish delivered by the Royal Mail bunny, the holiday wouldn’t be the same without these small, seasoned travellers.
For 70% of the globe’s cocoa beans, the voyage begins with the hand-harvesting of the cocoa pods in the farms of West Africa. Cocoa trees were introduced to Africa from the slopes of the Andes in the middle of the 19th Century as demand for the brown beans delights skyrocketed in Europe, and the process of harvesting, fermenting and drying the beans hasn’t changed enormously since.
As the pods ripen on the trunks and branches of the Theobroma cacao trees, each one is meticulously harvested with a curved knife on a long pole. A cocoa tree only produces between 20 and 30 pods a year, so each is precious: the average tree produces enough cocoa beans to make 1lb(454 g) of cocoa a year. Using a stick – a free, safe, and carbon-neutral tool – the pods are opened, exposing ‘cotton wool’ pulp cradling between 30 and 40 cocoa beans. Once removed, the pod’s precious cargo of pulp and beans is piled in heaps between banana leaves and left to ‘sweat’ for up to a week. ‘Sweating’ or fermentation is the crucial process through which the bitter beans develop their distinctive flavour and quality. Interrupt sweating beans at your peril: the cocoa may be ruined.
The wet, fermented beans are dried by spreading them out over a large surface under the sun and constantly turning them. Rakes and bare feet are used to tread, shuffle and rotate the beans to ensure that they dry evenly. Yet again in this process, low-tech produces the best results: beans dried in the sun are of a higher quality than those dried using artificial heat sources that may introduce smoke or oil and taint the flavour. Damp beans act as welcoming hosts, opening the door to moulds that will ruin an entire sack of beans.
The romantic image of jute sacks packed with their precious consignment waiting quayside for their boat endures, although over the last decade more industrial scale transport solutions have flourished. Beans are making their way across the oceans in bulk parcels of several thousand tonnes and 7 metre containers (around 25 tonnes). Despite the cost benefits reaped from shipping in bulk , the jute sack still rules the waves, embarking on cruises packed in holds and containers, and carrying between 60 and 70kg of beans.
After arriving at their destination, having travelled by any combination of cart, truck, boat and train, like any travel-weary tourist the beans are cleaned of anything they’ve picked up en-route. Jute bags are breathable which helps reduce the risk of moulds forming, but that means dust and small stones can work their way into a shipment. Then it’s on to roasting in an enormous rotating drum, a ‘continuous roaster’ through which hot air is blown. From there, beans are ‘kibbled’ – broken so that the brittle outer skin of the bean can be blown away in a process called ‘winnowing’.
The now-naked cocoa beans (or ‘nibs’) are run through steel rollers until they become ‘cocoa liquor’ or cocoa mass: the heat created by the friction of pressing the nibs melts the fats in the bean and make a creamy, chocolately liquid. Each kilo (2.2lbs) of coco mass is made from between three and six hundred well-travelled cocoa beans. Cocoa butter makes up as much as 50% of each bean, and about half of this is pressed from the cocoa mass. It’s this half that we take advantage of: cocoa butter gives Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser its luxe feel and makes it so effective at gently lifting away dirt grease and grime (face paint, make-up…the list goes on) from skin.
So as you partake in the annual carnival of Easter chocolate or cleanse, tone and moisturise, pause for a moment and marvel at the miraculous world-traveller whose adventures make both possible.
