Can people eat the fruit around the cacao beans? What does it taste like?
Drawing by Geoseph.
Yes! Absolutely. The fruit surrounding the seeds is why humans were first attracted to cacao in the first place! It had nothing to do with chocolate or cocoa beans. It had everything to do with the juicy fruit pulp.
Cacao Fruit Flavour
However, not all fruit is equally as tasty.
I have sampled fruit that is delicious, and some that is just okay. People from my tastings have shared their experiences of tasting cacao fruit when visiting growing regions while on vacation. Some of stated how delicious it was, and some have said how they didn’t like it at all.
The flavour of the fruit is predominately a direct influence of the genetics of the tree. Just like tomatoes and strawberries, you can have something packed with flavour, or you can have something that taste more flavourless than water itself.
At one end of the spectrum, the fruit can have a beautiful tropical flavour, floral, very naturally sweet, and with some tang.
At the other end, it can be very sour and flavourless. This is generally the fruit from the cacao that is used for bulk/commercial chocolate production.
Cacao Fruit Flavour Impacts Cacao Flavour
Cacao pod open (top) and closed (bottom. The white segments are the cacao fruit pulp, each containing one cacao seed. Image property of Bean To Bar World.
Albertus Eskes has done some great research on the flavour of the fruit of the cacao. You can find some of his work in my research blog.
The seeds and fruit are harvested and fermented together. It is the fruit which is fermented, not the cacao seed. Although the seed definitely goes along for the ride, and is impacted by this process. The seed has a pore, which allows aromas from the fruit itself to impart into the seed. Albertus has demonstrated this by his method of adding other flavour ingredients (other fruits, spices, etc.) to the fermentation heap, and changing the flavour of the seed.
Therefore, the better tasting the cacao fruit, the more potential the seed has to absorb some of those favorable flavours. The same is true for fruit which is not very tasty.
The flavour of the fruit comes predominantly from the genetics, but also from harvesting it at optimal point of growth: not too early, and not too late where it begins to decompose.
Repurposing A waste product
Cacao juice isn’t a waste product per se, since it is needed for the fermentation process of the cacao seeds in order to produce chocolate.
However, many cacao producers in the world press a lot of the juice out of the cacao before it is fermented in order to reduce the acidity in the beans which occurs during fermentation. This juice is often wasted, so it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to salvage this delicious juice and sell it. The fresh juice itself contains many nutrients such as magnesium, niacin, thiamin, and potassium.
How can I taste the fruit?
There are many attempting to try and market the fruit. The problem: it decomposes very quickly after picking the pod. Therefore, it is often turned into juice, however, this juice has a short shelf life. Pasteurizing it can help with that tremendously, but it does change the flavour of the fruit juice, and leaves out some of the delicate aromas we love.
Bean To Bar World sells cacao fruit products from time to time. Stay tuned as more manufacturers are finding ways to produce and market cacao juice or cacao fruit!
