mild beans with some of the finest, most
delicate flavors, reminiscent of flowers and
tea. Unfortunately, they are also disease-
prone, low-yielding trees, and so provide less
than 5% of the world crop. High-yielding,
robust Forasteros provide most of the world’s
cacao crop in the form of full-flavored “bulk”
beans. Trinitarios are hybrids of a Criollo and
Forastero, and have intermediate qualities.
West Africa (Ivory Coast and Ghana) now
accounts for more than half of world cacao
production, and Indonesia also out-produces
Brazil, the largest producer in cacao’s original
homeland.
Storage and Defensive Cells Cacao beans
consist mainly of the embryo’s storage leaves,
or cotyledons (p. 453), and contain two
distinct groups of cells. Around 80% of the
cells are storage depots of protein and of fat,
or cocoa butter, nutrients that will feed the
seedling as it germinates and develops on the