Cocoa beans don’t go in tilled soil—they grow as pods on the sides of jungle logs. They’re useful for cookies and brown dye officially highlighted by Minecraft.net, and they’re easy to farm once you have a single bean.

What you need

Gather these before you start:

  • Cocoa beans. In Java Edition, break naturally generated cocoa pods on jungle trees. In Bedrock Edition, you can also find 1–2 beans in 40% of bonus chests and as a fishing junk item while in jungle biomes.
  • Jungle wood to plant on. Any of these work: jungle log, jungle wood, stripped jungle log, or stripped jungle wood.
  • Optional: bone meal to advance growth one stage per use.
  • Optional: an axe to break pods quickly (any tool works; axes are fastest).

Notes:

  • Pods generate only on naturally spawned jungle trees, not on trees grown from saplings.
  • You can place logs anywhere—logs don’t need to be attached to a tree or in a jungle biome.

Plant and grow cocoa pods

Step 1: Place jungle logs where you want to farm. A simple starter layout is a straight row at ground level with a one-block walkway alongside it so you can reach both faces.

Step 2: Equip cocoa beans and place them on the side of a jungle log with Right-click / Use. A small green pod appears. You can plant on any side surface of eligible jungle wood blocks.

Step 3: Let pods grow through three stages. They change from small green, to tan, to large orange. Growth occurs on random ticks; on average it takes about 5 minutes 41 seconds per stage.

Step 4: Optionally apply bone meal to speed things up. Each use advances a pod by one growth stage. Use it twice on a new pod to reach the mature stage.

Harvest and replant

Step 1: Break only fully grown (large orange) pods to maximize yield. Mature pods drop 3 cocoa beans; earlier stages drop only 1.

Step 2: Replant immediately on the same log faces. This keeps your farm producing continuously and quickly compounds your seed stock.

Step 3: Ignore Fortune enchantments for harvesting. Fortune does not increase cocoa bean drops from pods, so use any tool you prefer (axes are fastest).

Design a compact, high-output cocoa farm

Step 1: Build “log walls” two to four blocks tall. Stack jungle logs vertically with a one-block gap for a walkway; mirror with a second wall two blocks away to plant both sides and double coverage.

Step 2: Plant pods on every exposed log face you can reach. A 2×N corridor of logs gives dense planting while keeping harvest paths short.

Step 3: Add lighting if you’ll farm at night or underground. Cocoa doesn’t need farmland or water, but consistent light helps you see stage colors and safely harvest.

Simple semi-automatic harvesting (optional)

Step 1: Line the top of a log wall with water dispensers facing down the planted faces. Fill dispensers with water buckets and wire them to a single lever or button.

Step 2: Trigger the water flush over mature pods. Flowing water breaks pods and drops beans, which slide to your feet or a collection trench. Pods also break if their supporting log is moved or if they’re pushed by pistons, but a water flush is simpler for early farms.

Step 3: Turn the water off and replant. Walk the corridor to pick up beans and re-seed any empty faces.

Mechanics and troubleshooting

Growth and drops. Pods have three stages; each random tick has a 20% chance to advance a stage, averaging 5:41 per stage. Breaking immature pods yields 1 bean; mature pods yield 3 beans.

Valid blocks. Pods can be placed on jungle logs/wood and their stripped variants; other wood types don’t work. You must click a side face; top and bottom faces are invalid.

Breaking behavior. Pods break and drop beans if hit by flowing water, pushed by pistons, or if their supporting jungle wood is removed.

Bedrock Edition notes. Cocoa beans can be used directly in place of brown dye in many dyeing recipes. Fully grown pods also drop 3 beans consistently. Wandering traders now sell brown dye rather than cocoa beans.

Where to get your first cocoa beans

Java Edition: Locate a jungle, bamboo jungle, or sparse jungle and harvest naturally spawned pods on tree trunks.

Bedrock Edition: In addition to jungles, you may roll cocoa beans in the starting bonus chest (1–2 beans, 40% chance) and as a fishing junk item while inside jungle biomes. Once you have one bean, you can generate unlimited beans via farming.

With a few jungle logs and one bean, you can build a compact wall farm that reliably produces stacks of cocoa for cookies, dye, and trading. Expand in segments and add a water flush later for faster harvest loops.