Cacao

It was Hernando Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, who first brought back the precious cocoa bean from South America at the beginning of the 15th century. The fruit containing these seeds grows on trees found mainly in Central South America and Equatorial Africa. They are grouped in pods embedded in a yellow pulp which is allowed to ferment before the beans are removed in order to develop the flavour. After drying in the sun, the beans are then sent to chocolate factories where they are roasted and milled to produce a thick deep brown paste ready for further refinement to produce chocolate or treated with alkalis to remove much of the fat, or cocoa butter, and make it into the soluble powder we know as cocoa. Cocoa is widely used as a flavouring in cake-and pastry-making, as well as in confectionery and in drinks.