home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
/
Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
/
C
/
Cacao
/
INFOTEXT
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-09-03
|
591b
|
15 lines
Evergreen tree, Theobroma cacao, native to
tropical America, West Africa, the West
Indies and Sri Lanka, whose seeds are the
cocoa beans from which cocoa and chocolate
are prepared. The trees mature at five to
eight years, and produce two crops a year.
The fruit is 17-25 cm long, hard, and ridged,
with the beans inside. The seeds are called
cocoa nibs; when left to ferment, then
roasted and separated from the husks, they
contain about 50% fat, part of which is
removed to make chocolate and cocoa. The
Aztecs made a restorative from cocoa beans
and chillis, which they called chocolatl.