The practice of pod storage (PS) has been applied in many cocoa producing countries, especially by Ghanaian farmers over the years. However, the study of PS has not received much attention, hence, until now, its potential impact on specific flavor precursor development and implications on the flavor of cocoa beans still remains uncovered. The study was therefore aimed at exploring this possibility through physico-chemical and flavor precursor analyses, carried out on equally fermented and dried pod stored (0, 3 and 7 days) Ghanaian cocoa beans. Flavor analysis was also conducted on equally roasted pod stored cocoa beans. Through visual assessment of the pods, pulp and beans, the compelling impact of PS on fermentation index (FI) and nib acidity could be demonstrated by the various biochemical and physical changes such as respiration, moisture reduction, and cellular degradation, occurring during the process. Whereas the entire reaction of sugar degradation may be deemed complex, a clear relationship between the FI, nib acidity and the glucose content was observed. Also, PS was found to increase with marginal increase in total reducing sugars (glucose and fructose). Although the concentration of free amino acids was directly proportional to the duration of PS, within the framework of this study, a significant difference (p < .05) was only observed in the case of extended duration (7 days). Overall, 7 PS seemed to have enhanced the formation of more volatiles. This was followed by 0 PS and finally 3 PS. Suggestively, these findings could provide some indications in explaining the typical flavor profiles of the Ghanaian cocoa beans, considering the fact that 87.8% of Ghanaian farmers adhere to this practice. Meanwhile, for the chocolate industry, the surging demand for cocoa/chocolate products exhibiting unique flavors, could be partly addressed by adopting PS as a tool for varietizing the flavor capacity of “bulk” cocoa through the expression or suppression of specific flavor precursors in the raw material on the farm level, which comes with almost no additional cost.

多年来，豆荚贮藏（PS）的做法已在许多可可豆生产国采用，尤其是加纳农民。但是，对PS的研究并未引起太多关注，因此，直到现在，它对特定风味物质前体发展的潜在影响以及对可可豆风味的影响仍然未被发现。因此，本研究旨在通过理化和风味前体分析来探索这种可能性，该分析是在加纳可可豆经同样发酵和干燥的豆荚（0、3和7天）中进行的。还对同样烘烤的豆荚贮藏的可可豆进行了风味分析。通过对豆荚，果肉和豆类进行视觉评估，可以通过各种生化和物理变化（例如呼吸作用，在此过程中会发生水分减少和细胞降解。尽管糖降解的整个反应可能被认为是复杂的，但观察到FI，笔尖酸度和葡萄糖含量之间存在明确的关系。同样，发现PS随着总还原糖（葡萄糖和果糖）的少量增加而增加。尽管游离氨基酸的浓度与PS的持续时间成正比，但在本研究的框架内，显着差异（p  <.05）仅在持续时间较长（7天）的情况下观察到。总体而言，7 PS似乎增强了更多挥发物的形成。其次是0 PS，最后是3 PS。提示说，考虑到87.8％的加纳农民遵循这一做法，这些发现可能为解释加纳可可豆的典型风味提供了一些迹象。同时，对于巧克力行业，对表现出独特风味的可可/巧克力产品的需求激增，可以通过采用PS作为通过表达或抑制特定风味前体来改变“散装”可可的风味能力的工具来部分解决。农场一级的原材料，几乎没有额外的成本。