Ghana and Cocoa

Cocoa was brought to Ghana in the late 19th century by Tetteh Quarshis and I’m sure we’d all like to thank him for that. We visited the Cocoa farm named after him. You will find cocoa farms all over Ghana. In fact Ghana it is one of the worlds leading exporters of Cocoa together with neighbouring Ivory Coast. I had the good fortune to visit a cocoa farm not to far from Accra as part of a day trip which included the Aburi Gardens (more about that in the next post).

Briefly the Cocoa plant will usually only grow in hot humid climates where both rainfall and heat are important factors. This usually means countries 10ºN and 10ºS of the Equator, The cocoa tree produce large pods. When the pod is cut in half you will find the seeds which are covered with a smooth silky coat. These seeds are actually delicious, tasting very much like mango. Once they are removed from the kernel they are dried, usually for several days before being exported to their final destination more often than not somewhere in Europe. I really enjoyed the tour of the farm. Unfortunately there were no free samples at the end of the tour. To

Tinyteddys’ feedback: “Get a grip folks! What a carry on over chocolate! Give me a nice piece of toast and a cup of tea any day of the week. Check me out looking rather cool and hip in the pod”