Cacao trees usually get their start in a nursery bed where seeds from high yielding trees are planted in fiber baskets or plastic bags. The seedlings grow so fast that in a few months they are ready for transplanting.

Cocoa beans are the product of the cacao tree. The cacao tree is strictly a tropical plant thriving only in hot, rainy climates. Its cultivation is confined to the lands not more than 20 degrees north of south of the equator – like Peru, Ecuador, Nigeria, and Brazil.

The First Fruit

With pruning and careful cultivation, the trees of most strains will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year.

If you strip off the rippled outer layer of the palm-sized fruits, you will find chunks of the fibrous white pulp inside – the fruit of the cacao tree. It is mild tasting, with a subtle bittersweet chocolate flavor. Embedded in the pulp are dark, purple seeds that, after being dried and processed, are known as the famous “chocolate beans.”

Handling the Harvest

The job of picking ripe cacao pods is not an easy one. The tree is so frail and its roots are so shallow that workmen cannot risk injuring it by climbing to reach the pods on the higher branches.

The planter sends his tumbadores, or pickers, into the fields with long handled, mitten-shaped steel knives that can reach the highest pods and snip them without wounding the soft bark of the tree. Machetes are used for the pods growing within reach on the lower trunk.

The pods are collected in baskets and transported to the edge of a field where the pod breaking operation begins. One or two lengthwise blows from a well-wielded machete is usually enough to split open the woody shells. A good breaker can open 500 pods an hour.

Anywhere from 20 to 50 cream-colored beans are scooped from a typical pod and the husk and inner membrane are discarded. Dried beans from an average pod weigh less than two ounces, and approximately 400 beans are required to make one pound of chocolate.

Exposure to air quickly changes the cream-colored beans to a lavender or purple. They do not look like the finished chocolate nor do they have the well-known fragrance of chocolate at this time.

Preparing the Crop for Shipment

The cocoa beans or seeds that are removed from the pods are put into boxes or thrown on heaps and covered. Around the beans is a layer of pulp that starts to heat up and ferment. Fermentation lasts from three to nine days and serves to remove the raw bitter taste of cocoa and to develop precursors and components that are characteristic of chocolate flavor.

Fermenting is a simple “yeasting” process in which the sugars contained in the beans are converted to acid, primarily lactic acid and acetic acid.

The process generates temperatures as high as 125 degrees Fahrenheit, which kill the germ of the bean and activate existing enzymes in the beans to form compounds that produce the chocolate flavor when the beans are roasted. The result is a fully developed bean with a rich brown color, a sign that the cocoa is now ready for drying.

Left to Dry

Like any moisture-filled fruit, the beans must be dried if they are to keep. In some countries, drying is accomplished simply by laying the beans on trays or bamboo matting and leaving them to bask in the sun. Very often artificial methods are used. For example, the beans can be carried indoors and dried by hot-air pipes. Accelerated or artificial drying is quicker but produces the vastly inferior chocolate used in most mass produced products.

The finest chocolate though is produced when the drying process is done naturally by the sun for about 7 days. In this interval, farmers turn the beans frequently and use the opportunity to pick them out foreign matter and flat, broken or germinated beans. During drying, beans lose nearly all their moisture and more than half their weight.

When the beans are dried, they are prepared for shipping in 130 to 200 pound (60-90Kilo) sacks. They are seldom stored except at shipping centers, where they await inspection by buyers.

In another blog, we’ll continue following the chocolate-making process. Stay tuned!

Chocolates: The taste. No further explanation necessary.

But we’ll offer it anyway.

The velvety texture.

The luxurious, silky feel of the flavor on your tongue.

And there’s a scientific reason too. Chocolate has an endorphin-releasing chemical. Endorphin is also called the “feel good” chemical or the “happy hormone.” It’s the same chemical that’s released when doing exercise. Does that mean I can eat chocolate instead of exercising? Well, actually, for the happiness factor, yes. For other factors, hmmmm.

And flowers?

Also obvious.

The heavenly fragrance.

The burst of stunning color.

The beautiful shape.

The artistic design.

The feel, the sight, the freshness they bring to a room.

But why are we telling you all this? You know it already.

Because, duh, we weren’t asking you why people like to get flowers and chocolates, we were asking you why people like to give them.

The answer?

Because one of the biggest challenges of gift giving is knowing what to give. While a gift is always appreciated and as you were (rightfully) taught from when you were young that it’s the thought that counts, you don’t want the receiver to groan inwardly when getting a gift, something else to declutter at some point in their homemaking future.

And that’s the beauty of chocolates and flowers.

Chocolates, especially. They’re gone before you can say endorphins.

Flowers too. They’re admired, enjoyed, appreciated, and then they too are gone.

So, this Shavuos, give either one or the other, or better yet, a combination of both.

The receiver will love you for it.

View our selection here: https://belgianchocolate.co.il/product-category/momentum-blossoms/

And wait, before you go, we have a grand surprise for you this year!

Just in time for Shavuos,

Butterbliss cookies by 

Melt-in-your-mouth dairy cookies made with butter and dipped in liquid Belgian chocolate. Oooooohhhhh………….
They’re so fresh off the plane, we didn’t even have time to put them up on the site. Call us for more details!!

+9722-538-5515 or call our USA local number: 713-813-8383

Can you put pareve chocolates instead of milchig? Sure

Can you deliver between 5 and 7 pm? We can try

The person I’m sending this gift to loves the hazlenut praline.  Can you set up an entire platform with only hazlenut pralines? If you say so

Can you use colors to match our company logo? No problem

Can you replace the wine with a bottle of liqueur? Of course. You can also switch to a cheaper wine or more expensive wine or no wine at all. This week somebody asked us for a Finch whisky, and although we don’t stock whisky, we offered to buy it for him. We have a wine shop across the road, so that helps.

Can you deliver on Purim? No, but we can deliver your order as close as possible to Purim.

Can you add an extra length of ribbon since my sister’s cat loves playing with ribbon? Why not? (This is a true request.)

And the list goes on.

Do you have any requests of your own?

We would love to accommodate them, but here’s the thing:

The closer it gets to Purim, the harder it gets for us to customize orders. The phone rings off the hook, the emails ping their way in, and the internet orders need attention, too. The pressure mounts. And much as we’d like to, we can’t scramble for the dry wine instead of the semi-dry or replace the calla lily flower for a bird-of-paradise.

So if you’d like that extra bit of attention, order now!

We’ll be happy to accommodate you.

To view our catalog, click here.

A freilichen Purim!

We’re gearing up big time for Purim. The staff at Ben Gurion airport is busy handling huge quantities of Hauser chocolates flown in from Belgium. In the last few weeks 6 pallets carrying 600 kg of chocolates have arrived – that’s almost 4 tonnes! And another two tonnes should be arriving G-d-willing before Purim.
Our designers, too, are busy, preparing the most outstanding shalach manos arrangements, outdoing themselves this year.

We hope to G-d-willing make lots and lots of recipients happy!
We invite you to be part of Momentum’s Purim experience. As a valued customer, we are offering you 5% discount if you order a shalach manos for your friends in Israel before Rosh Chodesh Adar – that’s Feb. 20. Hurry! Just type Coupon code Purim2017 when you check out and the 5% discount is yours.

Looking forward to help you make somebody ever so happy this
Purim!
The Momentum Team