WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists are getting a better taste of the early history of the domestication and use of cacao - the source of chocolate - thanks to residues detected on a batch of ancient ...

You may think you know all there is about chocolate, but cacao beans are only part of the story. With a rich history, cacao has been used as currency, for medicinal remedies, during spiritual rituals, ...

Any chocolate lover can probably tell you that cacao is the most important ingredient in any chocolate confection. But not only does cacao hold the key to chocolate’s rich and seductive flavor but it ...

Why cacao-rich Indonesia is not (yet) a global chocolate producerBuilding on its decades-old role as a major cacao producer, ...

Making chocolate is a sacred process, particularly for descendants of the ancient Mesoamerica, and for those looking to reconnect with ancestral practices, like Stephanie Villegas of Xochitl Vegan, a ...

Would you like to have a chocolate tree right in your own back yard? In Costa Rica, it’s easy, particularly if you live in the warmer regions of the country. Enjoy planting the cacao tree as a special ...

More than 4,000 years ago in ancient Mesoamerica—a region that covers much of Mexico and Central America today—the first cacao plants were found. The plant gave us chocolate, which is celebrated ...

It is dried and the seeds can be fermented to make cocoa butter. Bitter chocolate is made by roasting cocoa seeds then pressing them. Cocoa powder is made by crushing bitter chocolate removing the fat ...

Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop cocoa ...