Of all the memories of my childhood, none is more precious to me than the thrill I felt anytime my grandmother would come back from her cocoa farm. She never came back empty-handed but always back with a couple of cocoa pods from the cocoa she had just harvested. I remember the joy I felt bursting inside me. The excitement was the moment she started to take out the cocoa pod and hit it until it cracked open. The thick outer shell cracked open like an egg, and the inside was filled with the rows of white, shiny, soft beans that were contained in the cocoa pod and perfectly aligned amongst themselves.
As a kid, I was not particularly interested in chocolate bars or gourmet candy. Raw cocoa beans were always my first choice. I would take out each bean individually and lick off the juicy pulp. The taste was both naturally sweet and tangy. It was just something else entirely. I believe there is something pure and childlike about eating cocoa in its natural state, directly from the cocoa pod. It was more than just food. It was all of the love, family, and tradition behind it.
Without a doubt, Ghana is blessed to have some of the best cocoa in the world. Even in its raw form, our cocoa is awesome. The quality of Ghanaian cocoa and our ability to grow it is something we can all be proud of as a nation. It is something we inherited from our ancestors. However, for me, it will never be about this. It will always be about the uncomplicated happy moments with my grandmother underneath the cocoa trees.
Every so often I will think back to those times. The smell of fresh cocoa, my grandmother's warm hand cracking it open, the delight that often came with bursting the cocoa open, and sometimes surprise have stayed with me for many years. Cocoa is part of my narrative, my culture, and my connection to the land.
I may not get to eat raw cocoa in this way as often as I used to these days, but I will never forget it. I miss being a kid in those times, but I feel fortunate to have lived them. I feel fortunate to be reminded of the wealth of the land and of the simple joy it can give you when you have a close kinship with it.
If you have never sampled raw cocoa beans directly from the cocoa pod, you are missing out on some of the greatest underrated delicacies life has to offer. If you have sampled raw cocoa beans, then you know how precious those moments can be.