Cacao fruit cut open
| Title | Info |
|---|---|
| Common name | Cacao or chocolate |
| Scientific name | Theobroma cacao |
| Taxonomic group | Sterculiaceae |
| Source | Dan L. Perlman |
| Economic botany | Food plants |
| Food plants | Other |
| Date | 1985 |
| Location | Costa Rica,North America |
Cacao fruit, cut open. Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cacao plant, a small understory tree originally from the New World tropics. Once the beans are harvested from the fruits, shown here, they are fermented by bacteria and yeast for several days, then dried, roasted, and ground into a think liquid called chocolate liquor. During this process, the white pulp that covers the beans is discarded. To make a chocolate bar, sugar, milk, and additional cocoa butter (fat extracted from the chocolate liquor) are then added. Chocolate contains the alkaloid theobromine, which is very similar to caffeine in structure.
