Effect of drying processes on pH of cocoa beans: Measurements of pH of cocoa beans dried by each drying method are presented in Fig. 1. The results show that whatever the drying process used, pH values of fermented cocoa beans are comprised roughly between 3.8 and 4.5. While natural drying processes (C9 and C14) and mixed drying methods (C9 EV18 and C14 EV24) produce less acidic cocoa beans with pH up to 4, artificial method (EV34) gives high acidic cocoa beans with pH is around 3.7
Effect of drying processes on volatile acidity content of cocoa beans: Changes in volatile acidity of cocoa beans are shown in Fig. 2. Volatile acidity content of fermented cocoa beans was largely dependent on drying methods. All drying methods used reduced significantly the volatile acidity content to values ranged from 0.10 to 0.30 meq of NaOH.10G1g while standard drying method increases it to 0.40 meq of NaOH.10G1g. Artificial drying method (EV 34) and mixed drying method (C9 EV18) have the same