We are all familiar with the finished product – chocolate. We generally know the type of chocolate we like and the brands that we like. I love dark chocolate and French chocolate is one of my favorites. But how much do we know about where chocolate comes from? I recently had the opportunity to explore some fabulous chocolate plantations in Far North Queensland, Australia to find out just how this wonderful food is grown.

My journey began just outside of Port Douglas, Queensland, which is about 70 miles north of Cairns, a popular tourist destination for visits to the Great Barrier Reef. Although I did get out to the Reef, my focus was on cacao cultivation (note that before processing it’s called cacao and after it’s called cocoa). I was fortunate to be able to meet with a representative of Cocoa Australia for a day of visiting cacao farms and a processing facility.

It’s very warm during the day and can get very wet in this tropical climate, so we got an early start on visiting our first cacao farm. Rick Ray, who is the Operations Manager for Cocoa Australia, was our guide for the day. The first farm we visited was fairly large with excellent growth of cacao pods. These pods hold the cacao beans that are surrounded by a sticky white mucous membrane. It’s interesting to note that many of the pods grow right off the trunk of the trees, with some trees having as many as 20 or 30 pods. The pods are about the size and shape of a football and can be red, yellow, or green, depending on their ripeness. The trees themselves were about 20 feet high and with the way they were planted, formed a canopy over the entire field. This particular field was about a month from harvest. Rick explained to me that this looked like it would be an excellent crop. After we walked out from under the canopy of the trees, Rick shared a brief story about a very large python that was hanging in one of the trees a week earlier. I was glad he waited to tell that story.

We visited another cacao farm not far away that also had a very healthy looking, but younger, crop. Here we discussed organic growing methods, single source cacao, and types of cacao. Rick commented that they have very little problem with pests and that the soil has plenty of nutrients so they grow organically. Also, the cacao is not in any way genetically modified. Because this is the only cacao growing area in Australia, it can all be considered single source, which eventually affects its unique taste. The type of cacao that is grown in this area is a hybrid of the two main types – criollo and forastero - which is not unusual because there are many hybrids of cacao.

What is happening in this area of Australia is that farmers are being encouraged to grow more cacao by replacing their current sugarcane fields. Cacao is less taxing on the ecosystems and because of the increased demand for chocolate, Australia would have their own source available. Currently the processing of the cacao from this region takes place in Melbourne, but there are plans to move that to an old sugar mill facility near Mossman, which is closer to the fields.

Processing of cacao involves many steps including splitting the pods and extracting the cacao beans, fermenting and drying the beans, cleaning, roasting, and winnowing the beans to get to the inner kernel, called the nib. The nibs are ground, which produces cocoa mass/liqueur, then it is pressed to extract the cocoa butter, leaving a pressed cake, which is then processed into cocoa powder or chocolate.

To make chocolate, cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin, and vanilla are added to the press cake. If it is milk chocolate, milk powder is added, as well. If it’s white chocolate, cocoa butter is the primary ingredient, along with sugar, milk powder, lecithin, and vanilla. The mixture is then conched (stirred in a special machine designed for this purpose) for as long as 72 hours to make a silky, smooth product that is tempered and molded into bars. Cocoa Australia really has a big job on their hands to set up this type of production facility, but I have not doubt they can do it.

The highlight of the day was, of course, the tasting of the finished product. We tasted several of the products including Cocoa Farm Organic Dark Chocolate and Organic Milk Chocolate, which were delicious. Although I haven’t had a chance to bake anything with this chocolate because it is only available in Australia, I hope one of these days as more fields are planted and the new processing facility is built, that they will be exporting. It was an adventure to go to the source of cacao but I could have done without the snake story.