The pod often ripens into a golden color, or it sometimes take on a scarlet hue with multicolored flecks. The job of picking ripe cacao pods in not an easy one. The tree is so frail and its roots are so shallow that workmen cannot risk injuring it by climbing to reach the pods on the higher branches. The planter sends his tumbadores, or pickers into the fields with long handled, mitten shaped steel knives that can reach the highest pods and snip them without wounding the soft bark of the tree. Machetes are used for the pods growing within reach on the lower trunk.
Gathers follow the harvesters who have removed the ripe pods from the trees.
The pods are collected in baskets and transported to the edge of a field where the pod breaking begins. One or two blows from a machete is usually enough to split open the woody shells. A good breaker can open 500 pods an hour. A great deal of patience is required to complete harvesting. Anywhere from 20-50 cream colored beans are scooped from a typical pod.