the.com/cocoa
the bean so prized the Aztecs literally spent it like money.
means A warm chocolate-flavored drink, or the brown powder made from roasted, ground cacao seeds that gives chocolate its flavor.
from The word traces back through Spanish 'cacao' to the Aztec language Nahuatl 'cacahuatl,' the name for the cacao bean. 'Cocoa' itself emerged in English as a variant spelling — possibly a printer's or careless transposition of 'cacao' — that stuck so firmly it became its own word, now usually reserved for the processed powder and drink while 'cacao' points back to the raw plant.
- edible currency
- Aztecs used cocoa beans as actual coins
- divine name
- Latin name means food of the gods
- counterfeiters
- fake beans were carved from clay
- bitter origins
- original drink was spicy, unsweetened, and frothy
- slow grower
- trees take five years to fruit
ivory coast — produces 2.1 million tons annually, 37% of world's cocoa
ghana — second largest producer at 900,000 tons per year
lindt lindor truffles — premium cocoa chocolate balls made in switzerland since 1949
cacao ceremony — sacred mesoamerican ritual dating to aztec civilization, still practiced today