FIRST SENSORY MAP OF COCOA BEANS THE STATE OF PARÁ, BRAZIL

Currently, in the state of Pará, there is an area of approximately 201,000 hectares of cocoa plantations in Agroforest System (147,000 hectares are in production), cultivated by 28,000 farmers and, in year 2021, 133,000 tons of this commodity were produced. This area of cocoa trees is established in 30 municipalities, distributed in five production zones: Southwest Pará, Southeast Pará, Northeast Pará, Tocantins River (island region) and Middle Amazon. These regions, because they have some climatic and soil differences, as well as their planting propagation materials maintain the genetic diversity of the plants, provide interesting differences in their aromas and flavors, opening opportunities for aggregation of values. Thus, knowing the organoleptic constitution of cocoa beans produced in the state of Pará is of fundamental importance for placing them on the international market, especially when it is intended to produce special chocolates. Therefore, obtaining a sensory map of these cocoa beans by region of production will enable a marketing structure capable of positioning the product in a more demanding market. Based on the condition that, in order to produce a quality chocolate, it is necessary that the raw material has good genetics (diversity), proximity to the place of origin of the culture and in the production process, the primary processing of the cocoa beans contemplates the technical rigor in the its main stages (fruits at the point of harvest, good fermentation and natural drying), the first "Sensory Map" of cocoa beans in the state of Pará was established, based on samples that competed for the award for the best beans for chocolate from the state of Pará, during the International Chocolate and Cocoa Festival of the Amazon in 2019, whose responsibility for the evaluations and results was the experts from Ceplac (Neide Alice B M Perira) and the Cocoa Innovation Center (Adriana Cristina R Ferreira).