Most cocoa trees bear fruit in the fifth year. Some trees may early  yield pods in the third and forth years.

A cocoa tree reaches peek production in about 10 years and will continue producing pods for the next 12-13 years. Some 30-40 years old tree  still producing pods.

This 50 years old Cocoa tree in Tawau is still producing pods

Thousands of tiny, white five-pedaled blossoms cluster together on the trunk and branches. Only 3% to 10% of the blossoms will mature into fruits.

The fruit grows as green or maroon pods on the trunk. Shaped like an elongated melon, these pods ripen to golden with multicolored flecks.

To harvest cocoa beans, first the ripe pods must be removed from the trees. Cocoa farmers  reach the cocoa pods with long handled, mitten-shaped steel tools. These tools reach the highest pods and snip them without wounding the soft bark of the tree.  A parang (machete) is used for pods growing closer to the ground.

An experienced pod breaker takes one or two blows to split the shells with a short and heavy knife.  A good breaker can open 500 pods an hour.

A typical pod has 20 to 50 cream-colored beans.

Once the beans have been removed from the pods, the farm workers heap them into piles and covers them with mats.  A layer of pulp that surrounds the beans heats and ferments the beans.

Fermentation  last about 1 week. This process  removes the raw, bitter taste of cocoa.  The sugars contained in the beans are converted to acid  during fermentation.

The process generates temperatures as high as 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius), activating existing enzymes in the beans to form compounds that produce the chocolate flavor. When the beans are brown color they are now ready for drying.

Cocoa beans are dried to keep from spoiling. They are dried by laying on  matting under the sun.  This drying process takes several days. During the period the beans are turn frequently and checks for foreign matter and flat, broken or germinated beans.  During drying, beans lose nearly all their moisture and more than half their weight.

Dried beans from one pod weigh less than two ounces.

About 400 beans make one pound of chocolate.