Chocolate - All About Chocolate

Fun Facts

Chocolate Comes from Cacao
All the chocolate we eat comes from one rather special plant—the cacao (kah KOW) tree. These trees produce pods containing pulp-covered seeds. The seeds, once fermented and dried, are processed into chocolate.

	Cacao trees thrive beneath the shady branches of taller trees in the rainforest. They won’t begin to bear fruit, however, until they are at least three to five years old.
	Cacao trees produce flowers year-round. Tiny flies called midges pollinate these small flowers. Eventually, cacao pods will sprout from the trunk and branches of the tree.
	Midges have the fastest wingbeat of any creature on earth—1,000 beats a second! They’re so small that they fit easily on the head of a straight pin.
	A cacao pod contains about 30-50 almond-sized seeds—enough to make about seven milk chocolate candy bars!

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