Cocoa Trees

Money may not grow on trees, but cocoa beans do!

Delicious chocolate has been a treat for over 5,000 years. But what do we know about this cousin of okra and cotton? Let’s find out.

First, when I hear the word bean, I think of legumes. In the case of cocoa beans, I would be incorrect. Like coffee beans and kola nuts, cocoa beans are the seeds of a fruit. The cocoa we enjoy as chocolate is the dried and fermented seed of the cacao or cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao). That Latin name comes from the Greek word for “food of the gods”.

​Cocoa tree description

Evergreen cocoa trees grow 20 to 40 feet tall. The leaves are broad, 3” long, and alternate along the stems. Thousands of tiny flowers grow in clusters directly from the trunk and large branches in a behavior known as cauliflory, but mature trees may only produce 20 fruits each year.

Cocoa flowers (Vinayaraj) CC BY-SA 4.0

The fruit or pod can grow nearly a foot long and weigh up to one pound. Inside the fruit, 20 to 60 seeds are held in a white pulp. In some countries, cocoa pulp is used to make jellies and juice. But it is the seeds that give us chocolate. Cocoa seeds contain 40–50% fat. We call that fat cocoa butter. And it takes more than 500 seeds to make one pound of cocoa paste.

A cacao tree with fruit pods in various stages of ripening. (Medicaster) Public Domain

Cocoa seeds inside fruit (Keith Weller, USDA) Public Domain

There are three types of cocoa trees, each with distinct characteristics:

• Criollo is the least bitter and most aromatic bean and costs the most.
• Forastero is the most common bean and tends to be more disease-resistant than the other two varieties.
• Trinitariois a hybrid of the Criollo and Forastero. It is grown in Trinidad and Tobago and has a more fruity, floral taste.

The three traditional varieties- Forastero, Trinitario, and Criollo (Tamorian) CC BY 3.0

How cocoa trees grow

Cocoa trees are grown from budding, cuttings, grafting, or seeds. You can also buy seedlings.  Native to the understory of the American tropics, cocoa trees grow best in warm, wet, somewhat shaded locations. [USDA Hardiness Zones 10-12] They cannot tolerate temperatures below 55°F for long.

Cocoa trees do not produce pods until they are four or five years old. They have extensive root systems that thrive in red clay (laterite) soils with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0 and good drainage.

Unlike many other fruiting trees, biting midges (Forcipomyia) pollinate cocoa flowers instead of bees and butterflies.

Pests and diseases of cocoa trees

Most cocoa tree pests are region-specific. In the Americas, the cocoa fruit borer (Carmenta theobromae) causes significant problems, as do rats, squirrels, and woodpeckers. Fungal diseases of cocoa trees include Ceratocystis wilt, frosty pod rot, vascular streak dieback, Verticillium wilt, and witches’ broom. The cacao swollen shoot virus can infect cocoa trees, and mistletoe can drain your trees.

Habitat loss is the biggest threat to modern cocoa trees. Many current growing areas are expected to be unsuitable by 2050. If you can, you might want to plant one today!