Cocoa is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree, from which chocolate is made. (The word "cocoa" is derivative of "cacao".) "Cocoa" can often also refer to the drink commonly known as hot chocolate; to cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa solids; or to a mixture of cocoa powder and cocoa butter.
A cocoa pod has a rough leathery rind about 3 cm thick...
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Cocoa is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree, from which chocolate is made. (The word "cocoa" is derivative of "cacao".) "Cocoa" can often also refer to the drink commonly known as hot chocolate; to cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa solids; or to a mixture of cocoa powder and cocoa butter.
A cocoa pod has a rough leathery rind about 3 cm thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod). It is filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called 'baba de cacao' in South America) enclosing 30 to 50 large almond-like seeds (beans) that are fairly soft and pinkish or purplish in color.
The cacao tree is native to the Americas. It may have originated in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America where today, examples of wild cacao still can be found. However, it may have had a larger range in the past, evidence for which may be obscured because of its...
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