Cocoa originated in Central and South America. It is said that Christopher Columbus introduced cocoa beans in Europe in 1502. The cocoa seeds however were first commercially planted in 1879 in Ghana. Upto 1913 Ghana was the leading cocoa producing country in the world. Even today Ghana is the largest cocoa producer. It is believed that several lakhs of people are associated with the production of cocoa in Ghana.
The cocoa trees grow to a height of about 7 metre. It is an evergreen plant. Twice a year, small, star like, pink and yellow flowers appear on it. After sometime flowers grow into fruits or pods of the shape of an egg which are about 6-10 inches long and 3-4 inches thick. These pods take about six months to ripe.
Equatorial regions are most suitable for growing cocoa trees. It needs constant moisture and in some countries watering is also necessary. Regions having a rain fall of 50-100 mm are most suitable for these plants.
Generally there are two crops of cocoa —first crop from October to March and other crop from May to August. When cocoa tree is five years old it starts bearing fruits. The ripe fruits are cut with sharp knives from branches. Women and girls usually collect these in baskets and take it to another place where cocoa beans are scooped out from these pods. After this, beans are subjected to fermentation. For this purpose, beans are put into perforated boxes and heated at constant temperature. By this process which takes about six days, impurities are removed to bring out the flavour.
Cocoa is used in many eatables. But it is mainly used in preparing chocolates. Chocolate powder is made from dry cocoa seeds. Cocoa butter is made by extracting fats from cocoa beans. In ice cream it is used for flavour. It is also used in the manufacture of some medicines.