What Does Cacao Fruit Taste Like?

Many people are surprised to learn that chocolate begins inside a fruit.

The cacao beans used to make chocolate grow inside colorful pods that hang directly from the trunk and branches of the cacao tree. When opened, each bean is surrounded by a soft, white pulp. Long before it becomes chocolate, cacao is first a fruit.

And the biggest surprise?

It doesn't taste like chocolate at all.

Sweet, Floral and Unexpected

Fresh cacao fruit is juicy and surprisingly sweet. Depending on the variety and the region, people often describe the flavor as somewhere between:

• Lychee

• Mangosteen

• Pineapple

• White grape

• Citrus

• Melon

Some fruits are intensely tropical and fragrant, while others are delicate and floral. Just like wine grapes, cacao varieties express themselves differently.

The Flavor Behind Fermentation

The white pulp surrounding the beans plays an important role in chocolate making.

During fermentation, naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria consume the sugars in the fruit. This process generates heat and begins transforming the flavor of the beans themselves.

Many of the fruity notes found in finished chocolate actually begin here, inside the fresh fruit.

A chocolate with notes of pineapple, raisin, red berries or tropical fruit is often expressing something that started during fermentation.

Is Cacao Fruit Seasonal?

Yes.

In Costa Rica's Caribbean region, cacao trees produce fruit during different periods of the year. Walking through a cacao farm during harvest season can feel magical: bright yellow, orange and red pods hanging directly from the trees, waiting to be opened.

Fresh cacao pulp is one of those flavors many visitors have never experienced before.

Can You Eat Cacao Fruit?

Absolutely.

The pulp is edible and delicious. Around the world, people enjoy cacao fruit fresh, while others turn it into juices, syrups, jams and fermented drinks.

The beans themselves are usually not eaten raw. (The contrast between the sweetness of the fruit and the bitter astringency of the bean is purposeful: the tree doesn't want us to eat her seed.) Their transformation into chocolate requires fermentation, drying, roasting and careful processing.

A Fruit Before It Becomes Chocolate

Chocolate often feels familiar. Cacao fruit feels surprising.

Perhaps that is part of its magic.

Before becoming bars, drinks and desserts, cacao begins as a living fruit growing beneath the shade of tropical forests.

And once you taste fresh cacao for the first time, it becomes impossible to think of chocolate in quite the same way again. At Cacao Huasi we make a chocolate bar from the whole fresh seed and fruit together, without the usual fermentation, drying and roasting of the bean. The bar is fruity, naturally sweet and smooth. It doesn't taste much like chocolate at all, and it's the favorite of many of our guests. 

Want to go deeper?

At Cacao Huasi, we share cacao through hands-on chocolate classes, tastings and longer educational journeys inspired by the living world of cacao.