Scientific research

Cocoa and chocolate manufacturers buy beans for colour, fat and flavour. This paper deals with the contribution of planting material to these qualitative characteristics. All three could be tuned to manufacturers' requirements by the traditional processes of selection and plant breeding. Selection and breeding cannot realistically produce any more than a five point increase in fat content over the current average of about 55%. It is better to consider initially yields of cocoa butter per hectare, or better still, per unit labour cost, and select high yielding, disease resistant and easily managed planting material. Trials which have demonstrated clear and consistent effects of pollen donor on bean size and colour have shown no corresponding effect on flavour. Flavour characteristics are heritable but are expressed in fruit from the first generation of seedlings, not in the beans that result from the initial act of pollination. Flavour is the property of the mother tree alone, thereby facilitating selection. The use of a small scale flavour test which allows parents and individual progeny to be compared directly has shown that flavour characteristics may be segregated among progeny.

Notes on possible non-genetic factors affecting flavour outcomes:
"There was more variability in flavour development in certain genotypes, e.g. PA 13, KA 5-201 and ICS 95, than in others. Variable flavour development does not appear to be related to one or other of the fermentation media. [...] It is possible that an unrecognised, or unrecognisable, variation in the condition of the pods which were selected for the tests may account for these differences in flavour. The use of fewer pods for a flavour test makes selection for uniformity of ripeness and other conditions more critical."

"The intensity of the [floral/fruity] characteristic may differ between progeny although instances where the flavour was clearly present in two of the replicate preparations but absent in the third sounds a note of caution. Further testing and replication are required and are in progress."