“Dancing the cocoa” is an ancient tradition practiced in the Caribbean on
cocoa plantations by descendants of the African enslaved and the East
Indian indentured labourers and also by the Cocoa Panyol/Creole peoples. This process was used to polish the beans before the roasting and conching process. After drying the beans, some farmers will “dance” the cocoa, the traditional way of polishing the beans. Some water is splashed onto the pile of dry beans and the farmers will dance bare footed so that the beans rub together. This gives them a nice sheen that might them be more
attractive to the buyer!