Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is produced worldwide with a view to extracting the almond, which is the raw material for making chocolate. The fruit is a large berry, commonly called an “ear” or “coconut”, with an oblong or oval shell, yellow or purple, 15 to 30 centimeters long, and 7 to 10 centimeters thick, with pointed ends and longitudinal grooves.

Each fruit usually contains between thirty and forty large seeds, the size of an almond, which have a bitter taste and are covered by a white mucilaginous pulp, with a taste that is both sweet and sour. “Cacahuatl” is a Nahuatl (Aztec) word that means “bitter juice”.