Inside a Cacao Pod (Photos!)
Ever wonder where Cacao comes from? Cacao nibs are broken beans, which come from a large pod, which grows on a tree in the tropics. The tree has no season and produces Cacao pods all year long!
You may have experienced the beans or nibs, hard crunchy bitter bits. When the pod is fresh, the beans are fresh too. They are chewy, often purple on the inside and encased with a sweet white slippery flesh, known as the husk. By the time you eat Cacao as a chocolate bar, the husk has been removed. The fresh beans are generally fermented, roasted, then ground into a paste, then a liquor mixed with sugar and other stuff. Sometimes the powder is separated from the butter (the fat) and re-combined with sugar and perhaps dairy to make chocolate.
Here are some photos of a Cacao pod bursting open that I took years ago at the Source Farm Ecovillage in Jamaica. This Cacao was grown sustainably and with a lot of love! Sandy is the man cracking open the pods with his machete. He was an incredible man raised in the Jamaican bush who knew all the plants and seemingly could survive anything. He tragically died in a truck accident. I’m forever grateful for him!! This one is for Sandy <3
Cacao offers us so much beauty and healing! To discover the mind and body benefits of Cacao, check out my previous post. Happy healthy days to you all!
What an interesting looking bean!
Thanks for the pics
Yea, their texture is amazing, so slippery! Unlike many other beans I've experienced.
Wow have you ever eaten some of the husk, what does it taste like??
It's yummy! The husk is fleshy, floral and sweet! Which is a nice compliment to the bitterness of the beans.
Would totally love to try fresh beans. What are they like? Or are they even edible at that point?
Yea! They are edible fresh, though some people say not to eat Cacao raw, I ate them fresh! I preferred to eat them in husk and solar dried than the fresh wet version. When the husk is dried is has the texture of a dried fruit wrapped around the bean. The white fleshy part is sweet and floral, the fresh bean itself is chewy and somewhat fruity but also has the bitterness that is familiar with Cacao. I used to be able to find dried raw Cacao beans in the husk at the health food store, International Harvest was the brand. But I think they stopped selling them 😝
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