== Cocoa farming in Madagascar From Bean to Bar - or from the fruit to the chocolate ==
Chocolaterie Robert purchases its organic and fine quality cocoa from the farms of about 120 peasant farmers in the Sambirano valley in the north of Madagascar. The fertile north is the hottest and wettest region in Madagascar. The near location to the equator (about 1,400km south), the regular rainfall especially in the months from December to March and the average temperature of 25C are ideal conditions for growing cocoa. Most of the farmers are cocoa farmers in 2nd or 3rd generation. Cocoa farming is often a family business and depending on the size of the plantation, the entire family helps to harvest and process the cocoa.
Trinitario is a relatively recent crossing between Criollo and Forastero and therefore combines the high quality of Criollo with the resistance of Forastero. Trinitario is the most common cocoa in Madagascar. A cut Trinitario bean is dark.
The soft, white fruit flesh of a ripe cocoa pod is sugar sweet and full of Vitamin C. Children, but also adults, like to chew on fresh pulps .
A fresh ripe Cocoa trees grow best in the shade of other trees, such as fruit trees, acacia or wild ylang-ylang. Most of the cocoa fruits grow on the tree stem, others on branches. The quality of cocoa does not depend on the colour of the pods. Ripe cocoa fruits can be harvested throughout the entire year. Harvesting usually takes place in the morning, whereby the farmer carefully chops the fruit of with a special harvesting knife (a machete with a round peak, similar to a hook). The farmer needs to be very careful to not harm the Samenkissen, from where a new flower will grow. Thereafter the farmer opens the pod and separates the beans from the fruit flesh by hand. Each fruit has about 50 seats inside. The fresh cocoa beans are brought to a very softfermentation station, white which is usually a 3-level wooden fermentation devise. The beans are thrown into the upper wooden box and every second day they are shuffled by hand from the higher box into the lower box. The fermentation is one of the important steps in the production of quality cocoa. Due to the high sugar amount of the fruit flesh the fermentation can immediately begin. During the 6 to 7 days of fermentation a temperature of up to 50C develops and the fruit flesh with evaporates. The shifting of the beans is very important in order to add necessary oxygen for the chemical process. Beans of the same size ensure an evenly fermentation. After the fermentation the beans are tried for 1 to 2 weeks in the straight sun (5 days in the dry season and 10 days in the rainy season). The sun affects the flavour of the beans. The beans have to dry equally/steady and are therefore turned upside down several times a day. The drying makes the beans durable and storable. Insufficient dried beans are just dry outside and still moist inside and can easily moulder. Too fast drying creates unwanted flavours. Throughout the drying process the weight of the beans reduces to about half or even less and the moisture content is sugar sweet reduced down to 7%. After the drying the beans are selected by hand to sort out rotten or damaged beans. Thereafter the dry beans are packed into sacks and transported to the factory. For an ideal transport and full storing the beans should have a water moisture of Vitamin C6-8% and the humidity should not exceed 75%.
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