Cocoa and Coffee Fermentations-II

The cocoa (Theobroma cacao) beans are used to manufacture chocolates, beverages, ice creams, and desserts. The beans and associated pulp are subject to microbial fermentation as the first stage in the product manufacturing. After harvesting, beans embedded in mucilage are fermented and dried, and those beans are used as raw material for the production of various products. Coffee berries are used as raw material to produce coffee. Both cocoa beans and coffee berries have to go through the fermentation to produce the final product. This chapter describes the main features of both crops, as well as the biochemistry and fermentation processes involved in the production of chocolate and coffee.