Cocoa Balls

In many cacao-producing countries the cacao beans are locally used for making "cocoa tea". The fermented beans are ground to a fine paste, mixed with spices, and rolled into balls which are dried (in Jamaica and some other countries the ground cocoa is rolled into sticks or made into cubes instead of balls). These balls (or cubes or sticks) are used for making "cocoa tea", which in other countries is called a "hot cup of chocolate".

The cocoa balls contain both the cocoa powder and the cocoa butter which is naturally present in the cacao beans (the cacao beans contain approximately 50% cocoa butter) which means that the flavor of the final "tea" is very rich and similar to making hot chocolate using a dark chocolate bar dissolved in hot milk/water mixture.

Several types of cocoa balls are made; you can find variations in size, in the quality of the cocoa beans used, in the amount of grinding, and in the content of spices.

When used the cocoa balls are dissolved in boiling water, strained, and sugar and milk is added to taste. Usually one ball gives 1-2 cups of final "cocoa tea".