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Theobroma cacao·Central / South America
The original chocolate, in its raw form. Long ridged pods open onto sweet white pulp wrapped around the beans — the pulp eats like lychee sorbet, the beans are what becomes chocolate once they're fermented and roasted. Rarely seen outside the cacao belt, almost never sold whole in the UK.
Cacao pods (Theobroma cacao) are where every chocolate bar starts. Each pod is around 15–25cm long, ridged, ranging from yellow to deep red-purple depending on cultivar, and contains 30–50 seeds (the cocoa beans) suspended in a sticky, sweet white pulp.
The surprise for almost everyone is the pulp. It tastes nothing like chocolate — it eats like lychee sorbet, with hints of mango, passion fruit and pineapple, and is wildly aromatic. This is the part you eat fresh. The beans inside the pulp are bitter and astringent at this stage; chocolate flavour only develops after fermentation, drying and roasting.
Crack the pod with a heavy knife or by knocking it on a countertop, prise it open, suck the pulp off each bean. Spit the bean, or save a cluster to ferment if you're committed. Pods are extremely seasonal and rarely shipped fresh outside cacao-growing countries — when they're available, they're available.
