Chocolate: The Love Drug
Common Name Botanical Name AKA Chocolate Theobroma cacao Cocoa Chocolate We Love The rainforest tree from which chocolate derives is Theobroma cacao, named by the 18th century Swedish scientist Carl von Linne’. Botanical experts offer differing opinions regarding the origin of cacao. New genetic testing seems to have settled the matter, pointing to the Orinoco Valley of Venezuela as the first place where the tree grew. Wild cacao then presumably spread up into Mexico, where it was first cultivated. The tree ranges between four and eight meters in height, and its cinnamon brown trunk usually does not exceed two meters in length. The branches of the cacao tree are covered with shiny, dark green leaves about ten inches long and three inches wide. Though the tree bears fruit and flowers all year around, usually there are two harvest seasons for gathering the fruit. The actual ...