Cocoa

Growing in the tropics and sub tropics, this well-known tree produces flowers, and ultimately fruit, directly on hard wood branches or sometimes straight from the tree trunk. The small trees make intriguing conversation pieces in a large pot or hot garden. When they mature, the attractive five-petalled pink flowers slowly enlarge to produce a sizeable fruit which is remarkably like an elongated melon. The seeds we sell are as fresh as possible and are sent on a weekly basis from a professional collector in Indonesia. Pods have to be at exactly the correct stage of ripeness to contain viable seeds. The cocoa pod has a thick, rough leathery rind and is filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called 'baba de cacao' in South America) enclosing up to 30 large, soft white seeds which become violet or reddish brown when they dry out. These are the seeds which ultimately, after roasting and processing, become cocoa or chocolate. However, not all of the seeds are viable. But we pick out the fertile ones, and immediately exclude all air by wrapping them tightly in a plastic skin. In this state they are viable for a month or so, and we obtain a constant supply of fresh pods to ensure some of the seeds are always viable. The actual procedure to germinate them has several stages and must be followed exactly and carefully, and we enclose full detailed instructions with every order.