Many of us happily eat our Chocolate.com chocolate in a blissful stupor, not at all wondering about things like the cacao plant, the cacao bean, or cacao trees, for heaven's sake. But others are driven to find out the mysteries of their chocolate mouthful down to every last detail.
So it is to the latter group that this article is dedicated. And thus, here unfolds this agricultural tale. Your beloved chocolate all starts with the cacao plant, whose original name is translated "food of the gods." And did those gods ever know the matter of which they spoke!
A little cacao plant will grow into big cacao trees in a moist and tropical climate, and each tree will produce 60 to 70 pods. After about 6 months of maturation, each pod will yield 20 to 40 soon-to-be-coveted white cacao beans. Fermenting for a few days will give them their brown color and that fabulous chocolate flavor. Then they are dried and their new life in the world begins.
Where will they go? What will they do? What will they be when they grow up? Cue the organ music . . .
Now you know everything that's fit to print about the Big Three of Chocolate; the cacao bean, the cacao plant and cacao trees too. So perhaps you can be called a "Certified Chocolatologist." A "Chocofessor?" A "Chocotor?" Well maybe just a "Chocolate Eater" will do.
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