Cocoa Bean Growing Conditions

As we’ve already discovered, the cocoa tree is native to the forests of Central and South America, enjoying a hot, humid environment but also a little shade. It’s now grown in many more regions but it is still limited to a relatively thin area around the equator, as pretty specific conditions are required for the trees to thrive.

It’s a pretty sociable tree and prefers to grow alongside other trees and plants. It’s for this reason that cocoa plantations don’t always follow the traditional style of uniform rows of trees evenly planted in an exposed area of land. The cocoa tree is a bit more haphazard and I think that’s a nice touch. Despite this rather bohemian attitude, the tree is actually pretty fussy when it comes to climate. Shade is good, but not too much, likewise just the right amount of sun and rain are essential. People have tried to persuade the cocoa tree to settle in places that don’t fulfil its rather exacting standards but the tree just wouldn’t play ball. Quite right too I say – when you’re producing the raw ingredient for the world’s favourite treat you can afford to make a few demands.

In the wild, the trees can reach up to an incredible 20 meters in height, however, when they’re planted they tend to be a bit shorter than this, to enable workers to more easily reach the pods. Can you imagine the ladders you’d need to reach cocoa pods at the top of a 20-metre tree? You definitely would want to suffer from vertigo.