Amelonado
The single population behind most of the world's chocolate. Genetically narrow, agriculturally reliable, and almost never named on a wrapper.
Amelonado is the Forastero population that was carried from the Amazon basin to Bahia, then to São Tomé and on to West Africa, where it became the foundation of the world's largest cacao industry. Its name describes the pod, which is melon-shaped and smooth compared with the ridged Criollo type.
It is worth stating plainly how much chocolate this one population accounts for. West Africa grows most of the world's cacao and West African planting is dominated by Amelonado and its descendants, so the flavour that most people mean by 'chocolate' is substantially the flavour of this material, well fermented.
It is also genetically narrow. The plantings that spread across West Africa descend from a small number of introductions, which is excellent for consistency and a recognised vulnerability in the face of disease.
What the name actually classifies
Amelonado is a real and reasonably well-defined population, which makes it unusual in this section — most cacao group names are looser than they sound. It sits inside what the trade calls Forastero, a category that is close to a residual meaning 'not Criollo' and that covers Amazonian populations differing from each other as much as either differs from Criollo. Naming Amelonado specifically is more informative than naming Forastero, and almost nobody does.
What is not known
How much of West African planting is still genetically Amelonado as opposed to hybrid material introduced through breeding programmes is not established in the sources consulted, and the proportion has certainly shifted over decades of replanting. Claims that a given West African bean is Amelonado are usually inferences from geography rather than genetic determinations.
- Also called
- West African Amelonado, Comum, Bahia
- Trade group
- forastero
- Flavour families
- roasted, bitter, nutty
History
Carried from the Amazon basin to Bahia, then to São Tomé and Príncipe, and from there to Ghana and the wider West African belt from the late nineteenth century. That chain of introductions is why the population is genetically narrow.
Cultivation
Hardy, high yielding and reasonably disease tolerant relative to Criollo. The narrow genetic base is a recognised risk, and breeding programmes have introduced other material to broaden it.
Flavour
Well-fermented Amelonado is often associated with straightforward roasted cocoa character, low acidity and low fruit — the profile most people recognise as simply tasting of chocolate.
This is a description of well-handled bulk-grade beans. It reflects a fermentation and drying regime built for consistency as much as it reflects the genetics.
Share of world production
The dominant planted material across West Africa, and therefore behind most of the world's chocolate.
Direction is unambiguous; ChocolateHQ prints no percentage, because the share of West African planting that remains genetically Amelonado is not established.
Related
Characteristic flavours
- RoastedWell-fermented Amelonado gives the straightforward roasted cocoa character most people recognise as simply tasting of chocolate.
Commonly confused with
- ForasteroAmelonado is a real population inside Forastero, which is close to a residual category meaning 'not Criollo'. Naming Amelonado is far more informative and almost nobody does it.
Grown in
- Ivory CoastWest African planting is dominated by Amelonado and its descendants, which is the material most of the world's chocolate is made from.
- NigeriaShares West Africa's Amelonado-derived planting stock, introduced through the same chain of nineteenth-century transfers.
- São Tomé and PríncipeThe islands were the staging post that carried Amelonado from Bahia to the West African mainland, and old plantings survive.
- BrazilBahia was where Amelonado was established before it reached Africa, and the surviving cabruca plantings descend from it.
- GhanaGhanaian planting is overwhelmingly Amelonado-derived, arriving via São Tomé in the late nineteenth century.
Covered in
- Fine-flavour vs bulk cacaoThe bulk-classified material that nonetheless makes most of the world's chocolate.
Regions where this is planted
- AshantiDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Ashanti — A region in central Ghana within the forest belt, and one of the areas where the country's cacao industry was established in the late nineteenth century.
- Western RegionDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Western Region — Ghana's largest cacao producing region, in the wetter south-west towards the Ivorian border.
- San-PédroDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. San-Pédro — A south-western Ivorian region and the site of one of the world's largest cacao export ports.
- DaloaDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Daloa — A central-western Ivorian town at the heart of the country's largest cacao area, sometimes described as the capital of Ivorian cacao.
- KenemaDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Kenema — An eastern Sierra Leonean district where much of the country's cacao is grown, largely on old plantings under forest shade that were abandoned during the civil conflict and are being rehabilitated..
- PríncipeDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Príncipe — The smaller of the two islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, where cacao grows on and around the ruins of the roças — the plantation estates whose labour conditions prompted an international boycott in the early twentieth century..
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao L.) — PLoS ONE, 2008(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)