What is cacao?

Theobroma cacao is a small understorey tree that grows only within roughly twenty degrees of the equator. Its flowers and fruit grow directly from the trunk and main branches rather than from the twigs, which is unusual and is why every pod must be cut by hand. A tree produces fruit for decades from the same flowering cushions.

Each pod holds thirty to fifty seeds surrounded by a sweet white pulp. The pulp tastes of tropical fruit — lychee and mangosteen are the usual comparisons — and is the fermentation's fuel. The seeds are what become chocolate, and inside an intact pod they taste bitter and astringent and nothing like it.

The seeds are fermented in their pulp for several days, dried for about a week, shipped, roasted, cracked, winnowed to remove the shell, and ground. The result is chocolate liquor — pure cacao in fluid form. Add sugar and refine it and you have chocolate; press the fat out instead and you have cocoa butter and cocoa powder.

In trade usage 'cacao' tends to mean the tree, pod and unprocessed bean, and 'cocoa' the processed products. The convention is loose and inconsistently applied even within the industry. What matters is that neither word carries a legal guarantee about processing or nutrition, despite 'cacao' being used heavily as a health signal.