The Cocoa Bean

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The name Theobroma cacao was first given to the cocoa tree by Carolus Linnaeus –the father of modern-day taxonomic plant classification. Theobroma comes from ancient Greek and translates as ‘Food of the Gods’. Cacao is the Mayan root word retained by the Spanish colonizers of Mesoamerica to describe the tree and its produce.

There are three types of cocoa bean which are used in chocolate production today. They are the noble Criollo (my favourite), the common Forastero and a hybrid between the two, the Trinitario.

Criollo and Trinitario are often referred to as fine or flavour cocoa beans, while Forastero is considered the ordinary or bulk bean for mass production (although there are exceptions to this rule — see below). Over 90% percent of the world’s cocoa is bulk production, mostly from the Forastero bean. The remainder is fine/flavour cocoa, from most of the Trinitario and all of the Criollo varieties.

 

CRIOLLOThe Criollo tree is native to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean islands and Sri Lanka. Only 5% of the world’s production is Criollo.

Criollo chocolate has a distinctly reddish colour, and an equally distinctive complex taste which can include flavours of caramel, nuts, vanilla and tobacco. What the fine Arabica bean is to coffee, the even finer and rarer Criollo bean is to chocolate.

Criollo bars are fairly rare and should definitely be sampled if encountered. These tastes however are fairly recent — two hundred years ago Criollo was the predominant cocoa bean.

The reason for the general scarcity of Criollo cocoa today is the lack of resistance of the Criollo tree towards disease, which is why the more robust Forastero now dominates the world-wide market for cocoa. Today, most Criollo trees are closer to Trinitario than their pure ancestors. The most important Criollos are Ocumare 61 and the well-publicized Chuao, both of which are found in Venezuela. Only very few true Criollo trees remain. 

 

FORASTEROThe most commonly grown cocoa is Forastero. It is most likely native to the Amazon basin. Today, Forastero is mainly grown in Africa, Ecuador and Brazil and accounts for 80% of the world’s cocoa supply.

This is the equivalent of the Robusta bean in coffee. Originally from the Amazon region, there are many types of Forastero trees all over the world. While most Forastero is bulk cocoa, there are exceptions, such as the Ecuadorian Cacao Nacional or Arriba Forastero which is used as fine/flavour cocoa. In 2015 Arriba Nacional won the prestigious “Cocoa of Excellence Award” at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris, today the Nacional is considered one of the best cocoa available.

Forastero means “foreigner” in Spanish, in contrast to Criollo which is the word for “native”. This distinction was made by the Spanish who at first imported Criollo cocoa exclusively from Venezuela and thus regarded Criollo as the original variety of cocoa, as opposed to the “foreign” Forastero from the Amazon region.

 

TRINITARIOTrinitario is a hybrid between the Criollo and Forastero trees and originated in Trinidad. Legend recounts that it first came into existence on the Island of Trinidad, after a hurricane nearly completely destroyed the local Criollo crops in 1727. Assuming all the trees were dead, the plantations were replanted with Forastero, but spontaneous hybrids appeared.

The new variety was combined with the remaining Criollo trees, resulting in the new Trinitario variety. In the 19th century Trinitario trees spread across the globe and can be found in Venezuela, Ecuador, Cameroon, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Java and Papua New Guinea.

Trinitario is the predominant fine/flavour cocoa and is the most likely bean to be found in high-quality dark chocolate today. A particular mention should go to the Venezuelan Carenero and Rio Caribe varieties, which are very highly regarded. An exception is the Trinitario from Cameroon which is generally classified as bulk produce.