I started by listening to Cocoa sitting under her skirt of leaves for six months in 1970 in Bahia, I then learned that Cocoa is the best teacher to learn about Cocoa. The many many books written about Cocoa are at best incomplete. It is difficult to describe the Cococa's richness. It is more easy to smell and taste Cocoa's richness. That is what I did after learning about the large genetic variation for fresh fruit flavours and aromas. I learned that these are transferred into the beans during fermentation and appear later on in chocolates as fine flavor traits.

The first opportunity that rose from the fresh fruit flavor vs chocolate flavor trait relationship was a patented method called TropMix that modifies chocolate fine flavor traits by adding aromatic substances to fermenting cocoa beans. This method warrants unlimited variation for induced natural flavors and aromas of chocolates. The best of the best TropMix quality was achieved in 2020 when I did c0-fermentation of cocoa beans with Durian pulp in Cambodja.

Between 2007 and 2012 I discovered 14 hitherto unknown fresh fruit lavors and aroms in 7 different countries. Soursop was the most common flavor. Mango associated with rose was the most surprising profile. I was not able to explain these findings in the context of what I knew so far about Cocoa fine qualities. A big surprise was also the discovery of a cocoa tree amidst Ancient Trinitario trees that had pulp with pure banana flavor. Chocolates made with beans of this tree revealed a strong "banana jam" flavor, demonstrating that cocoa trees with unique flavors and aromas will produce unique chocolates.

Together with my good friend Carlos Rodriquez we discovered 40 different flavors and aromas in the Chuncho variety. These were represented in 64 sensory profiles. Twentyeight out of the 40 flavors and aromas are mimics from other plant species. The extend of this variation needed some explanation. On one side there are the six frugivore animals and on the other side the secular Chuncho domesticators called "Matsikengas" that have exerted more than common selection pressure on Cocoa to produce so many attractive flavors and aromas. But, when compared to other fleshy fruit species that have only created one unique sensory profile, even with several frugivores as Cocoa has lived with, it becomes clear that Cocoa has done a Phenomenal Job in creating so many full flavors and aronmas including those that mimic faraway plant species.

The next step was to survey 48 Brailian varieties. It appeared that 80% of these varieties had some type of fine sensory traits, something unexpected for the Brazilian Cocoa which is generally considered to be bulk cocoa. Two interesting additional flavors were identified: Licorice and Mangosteen. The Mangosteen cocoa pulp is identical to mangosteen pulp: fantastic.

I looked for a fermentation method that valorizes the many flavors and aromas that we had detected in fresh Cocoa fruits. It took us 250 experimental fermentations between 2017 and 2019 to develop the Anima fermentation method. We now use Anima for full scale commercial production. The typical Anima sensory profile is zero bitterness/astringency, strong caramen/nutty flavor (like Criollo!), varietal fruity and aroma traits, and long savory aftertaste.

Anima transforms bulk into fine cocoa and fine cocoa into very fine cocoa. With Anima, there is no more distiction between fine and bulk cocoas. This means that Anima can produce worldwide large quantities of industrial fine cocoas. Furthermore, these do not need any Dutching anymore. This would result in large quantities of nice cocoa products that are 400% more healthy than current industrial cocoa products.