Cacao

Theobroma cacao or the cacao (cocoa) tree is native to the deep tropical regions of South America from Mexico to the Amazon. (The terms “cacao” and “cocoa” are interchangeable, but for the sake of consistency “cacao” has been used throughout this article.) The trees grow as an understorey in humid forest ecosystems, and the evidence suggests that the wild trees survived the last ice age 21,000 years ago.

The cacao bean is the dried and fully fermented seed of from which cacao solids and cocoa butter are extracted. These beans are the basis of the myriad forms of chocolate.