Cocoa Bean Fermentation

Cocoa bean fermentation is an essential step in processing cocoa beans into chocolate. After the beans are removed from their pods, they are gathered together so that yeasts, lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria can break down the surrounding pulp and develop the flavor precursors within the bean that later become chocolate flavor during roasting, while also reducing bitterness and giving the beans a browner hue. Fermentation is carried out either on the farm, most common in West Africa, or at centralized facilities, more common in the Americas and parts of the Asia Pacific; on-farm fermentation, historically the more common method, typically wraps the beans in leaves for about five days or moves them daily between wooden boxes.