Fruit of the pod of a tropical tree (Theobroma cacao) found in South America.
After the discovery of the New World by the Spanish in 1492, a wide variety of products were introduced into the Old World. One of those items was cacao—a product treasured by the Aztecs. The fruit of the tree is a pod with a sweetish pulp that contains seeds known as cacao beans. These beans are fermented in the pods by a bacteria and yeast that transforms the flavor of the beans from a bitter to a sweet taste. After harvesting, the beans are roasted and then placed under intense pressure to extract the cacao butter. Cacao butter is used in many products, including soaps, cosmetics, and medicines. After the cacao butter has been extracted, the remnants of the beans are ground into a powder that can be used for beverages and as a flavoring.
Although cacao has held a high value since pre–Columbian exchange days, the perfection of the blending of the cacao plant with sugar and especially condensed milk to manufacture milk chocolate tremendously increased its marketability. The first person to successfully perform this process was M.D. Vevey of Switzerland. Chocolate, the primary product of cacao, is used in an array of foods as a topping or an ingredient.
The plant has since been shipped to many countries of the world within 10° North and 10° South of the equator, the best climate to grow cacao. The largest cacao producer in 1998 was Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), which grew 1,325 tons; Ghana produced 398 tons; Indonesia, 390 tons; Nigeria, 198 tons; Brazil, 138 tons; Cameroon, 124 tons; Ecuador, 75 tons; Malaysia, 75 tons; Colombia, 38 tons; Mexico, 37 tons; Papua New Guinea, 35 tons; and the Dominican Republic, 26 tons.
Cynthia Clark Northrup
See also: Columbian Exchange.
Minifie, Bernard W. Chocolate, Cocoa, and Confectionery: Science and Technology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989.
Young, Allen M. The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1994.