Question

Chocolate. There are few foods that people feel as passionate about – a passion that goes

beyond a love for the “sweetness” of most candies or desserts: after all, few people crave

caramel, whipped cream, or bubble gum. Chocolate is, well, different. For the true chocoholic,

just thinking about chocolate can evoke a pleasurable response.

Two years ago, my wife and I travelled to the Amazon. On one of our expeditions, our guide

pointed out a cacao tree growing wild in the jungle. I had never seen one before.

Looking strangely alien, dozens of yellow-green pods hung from the trunk and stems of the

tree. Our guide picked one of the hand-sized fruits, stripped off the rippled outer layer with his

knife, and handed us chunks of the fibrous white pulp inside – the fruit of the cacao tree. Two

local children who had followed us into the forest waited impatiently for their own turn. With

practiced hands, a girl of about six borrowed the guide’s knife, hacked off the covering from

another pod, and shared a big chunk of pulp with her brother.

Few people get to sample the fruit of the cacao tree. It was mild tasting, with a subtle,

bittersweet chocolate flavour. Embedded in the pulp were dark, purple-colored seeds that,

after being dried and processed, chocolate lovers like myself have come to recognize as

“chocolate beans.”

The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) is a native of Central and South America. Today, it is

cultivated around the equator, and can be found in the Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia, and

even in the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and New Guinea.

By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Aztecs had an advanced and powerful civilization

located in what is now central Mexico. Many people believe that the Aztecs first developed​

Answer 1

what is this................