By Michael Hanson, (Offset), http://www.offset.com/photos/39356
General knowledge:
-30-60ft tall trees, which are about 30ft around. They are plants susceptible to disease, and cannot be grown in full sunlight.
They are only grown in the tropics, 20 degrees above and below the equator. Any temperature below 56 degrees will kill the entire tree.
Harvest:
The cacao pods are heavy and football shaped, slightly bumpy and wrinkly. There are usually two harvests a year, one in October/November, and one in April/March. The pods grow are anywhere from 25-55 pods per tree, with about 500 blossoms. The pods strangely enough only grow on the main trunk, and branches.
40% of the crop is lost each year due to damage and insects. This means there is only about 60% yield, which is a very poor amount.
The pods attached to the placenta, centered in the cacao fruit pods, with a “corn on the cob” like structure.
Taste:
The fruit itself is a very light but very fruity flavor. Stringy and attached to a large pit- which is the cacao bean. The bean is oval shaped about an inch big, and is a rich deep purple color on the inside. Overall much more of a bean to fruit ratio.