Interesting Facts about Cocoa:
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans which are the seeds inside cacao fruit.
Cocoa trees are found in hot, rainy, tropical climates, 20 degrees north and south of the equator.
The Swiss consume 22 pounds of choclate per capita which is more then any other nation on earth.
It takes a cocoa tree 5 years to produce its first cocoa beans.
The peak growing period for cocoa trees is a duration of 10 years.
Cocoa trees range from 13-26 feet tall. Sometimes they can reach up to 32 feet.
Flowers bloom on cocoa trees all year round, however the flowers will die within 24 hours if they aren't pollinated.
Each cocoa tree produces around 1,000 beans every year.
Most of the worlds cocoa beans come from Africa.
There are 4 main varieties of cocoa beans: Forastero, criollo, trinitario, and nacional.
Nactional is the rarest variety of cocoa bean and almost became extinct until it was recently rediscovered in Peru in 2011.
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The cocoa beans are inside the cacao fruit shown in the left image. Click it to learn more about the varieties of cocoa beans.