The cacao trees mature at five years and begin to flower on the trunk. The flowers are pollinated by midges, a small fly.

It makes a fruit called cacao beans. Raw beans can be crushed into cacao powder. But if the beans are roasted first, they become cocoa powder. Unroasted cacao powder is more bitter than cocoa powder.

"Cocoa fermentation is a critical process in the production of chocolate, transforming raw cocoa beans into a form suitable for chocolate making," says Sarin Partrick, chief executive of India Cocoa.

Belizean Beans in the USA 20 Metric Tons of Premium Cacao Beans are now available for purchase in Utah. 40 Metric Tons of Couverture Chocolate is warehoused in Texas, ready for culinary artisans ...

Our first “job” was to plant raw cacao beans in small bags filled with rich soil, covering them with wood ash to discourage pests and provide fertilizer. We then placed these bags in the ...