Cacao beans are found in the fruit or pods of the cacao trees; each nine-inch pod contains 20 to 50 beans. The average yield per tree is between 20 and thirty fruits. Trees begin producing when about eight years old and can be maintained for forty years. Mature trees can reach up to 60 feet in the wild, but they are topped off at 15 feet to make harvesting easier.

The pods grow attached to the trunk and thicker branches of the tree. When they are ripe they turn bright red, orange or yellow. Once harvested, the pods are split open to reveal beans encased in a white pulp. The beans are removed and fermented on the ground for several weeks. Then they are dried in the sun for about a week, during which time they begin to develop flavor. The dried beans are classified, then packed into burlap sacks and shipped to manufacturers in Europe and the United States where they are cleaned, selected, blended, roasted and ground, determining much of the chocolate's final character in the process.

We tend to think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times. But actually, chocolate dates back to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage. For these people, chocolate wasn't just a favorite food it also played an important role in their religious and social lives.

The first people clearly known to have discovered the secret of cacao were the Classic Period Maya (250-900 C.E. [A.D.). The Maya and their ancestors in Mesoamerica took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their own backyards, where they harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste.

Chocolates Rainforest Home

Cacao farming can impact the Rainforest.
To increase the size of their farms, some cacao farmers must clear out sections of rainforest. This not only destroys the homes of rainforest creatures, it also damages the conditions cacao needs to grow.

Animals depend upon cacao.,BR. Cacao and its neighboring trees perform an important function. They provide homes and food for other valuable animals and organisms.

Cacao depends upon animals.
One good turn deserves another. These same animals, insects, and other organisms give back to the cacao tree. For example, tiny flies called "midges" (which live in the debris from decaying rainforest plants) pollinate the cacao trees flowers so that pods develop. Midges, the insects that pollinate cacao, have the fastest wing beat of any creature on earth1,000 beats per second

We have the New World to thank for chocolate, but in the hands of the English, Swiss, Dutch, and French it became the raw material for hundreds of tantalizing new uses. In 1828 a Dutch chemist named Van Houten devised a press to extract cocoa butter from the mass of roasted ground beans. Soon other Dutch chemists learned that by alkalizing cocoa beans, they could reduce their characteristic bitterness. A rough-textured candy bar was created In England during the 19th century by Cadbury's.

In 1879 Rodolphe Lindt developed the chocolate kneading technique known as conching, which produces a smooth-textured solid eating chocolate. Henri Nestle, a Swiss baby food manufacturer, developed a way to incorporate condensed milk into the candy, creating milk chocolate and Switzerland's place as the chocolate capital of the world. At the same time in the United States, Milton Hershey substituted fresh whole milk for the condensed milk and the Hershey Bar was born. The rest is history

The Aztecs adopted cacao. By 1400, the Aztec Empire dominated a sizeable segment of Mesoamerica. The Aztecs traded with Maya and other peoples for cacao and often required that citizens and conquered peoples pay their tribute in cacao seedsa form of Aztec money.

Like the earlier Maya, the Aztecs also consumed their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spicessugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans.
Drinking chocolate was an important part of Maya and Aztec life. Many people in Classic Period Maya society could drink chocolate at least on occasion, although it was a particularly favored beverage for royalty. But in Aztec society, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants could partake of this sacred brew.

Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.