Breeding for Agronomic Traits vs Flavor - You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

Collecting of cacao cultivars began in the 1930’s with F. J. Pound, then at the Imperial College in Trinidad.   Breeding began in earnest in the years following those first collections.   With just a few exceptions, over the past 80 years, until recently little has been accomplished to change yield or disease resistance delivered at farm level.  While two programs have been successful in preserving traditional flavor (Trinidad’s and Papua New Guinea’s), the most oft cited example of progress in breeding is also the one cited for deviating most strongly from traditional flavor—CCN 51.  The question is can you have high yielding and disease resistance clones that also preserve traditional cacao flavor?

Work over the past 12 years by both CATIE and INIAP with core funding from the USDA / Mars Trust has shown that yields and disease resistance can be delivered while still preserving traditional flavor.  The strategy used at CATIE involved several rounds of crosses, field evaluations to reduce the number of trees under consideration, and then flavor evaluations in highly quantitative format.   Through three rounds of flavor screenings, clones are now available with disease resistance and remarkable flavor—even winning an international award at the Salon du Chocolat, Cocoa of Excellence in 2009.

Similarly, the INIAP program has also been able to maintain traditional Nacional type flavor while delivering yields comparable or exceeding that of CCN 51. 

Both the CATIE and INIAP cocoas will be tasted as part of the session as 65% cacao chocolate.