'Stressed Out' Cocoa Trees May Produce More Flavourful Chocolate: Study

However, to gain higher yields, growers sometimes plant cocoa trees in solitary, 'monocultural' groves in which the trees are exposed to stressful conditions. In response to the stress, trees produce antioxidants that can potentially counteract the damage, but these compounds also could change the quality characteristics of the beans.

The researchers happened to harvest beans from five cocoa tree farms in Bolivia at the beginning and end of the dry season, which runs from April to September. The trees were raised in full-sun monoculutral groves or in agroforest settings. The beans were fermented and dried, then analysed. The research team detected only minor differences in the chemical composition among the beans harvested from the farms during the same weather conditions. Slightly more phenols and other antioxidant compounds were detected in beans taken from monoculturally grown trees than those that came from trees grown with agroforest methods, but the differences were not significant.

The larger contribution to chemical composition was the weather. Overall, the antioxidant content increased and fat content of the beans decreased during the dry season as the temperatures rose and soil moisture dropped.