It all starts from the basics of the cocoa bean. These cocoa beans mainly grow in hot environments and where it rains often. The cocoa bean trees cannot be exposed to the sun or wind or else the new trees will be destroyed. Chocolate is this lovely treat but no one ever thinks about where it originally came from. It in fact comes from these hot countries near the equator and these forests of cocoa bean trees.
A cocoa bean tree has a unique look to it. It is a big enough tree with large green leaves. The beans grow in the flower that the tree produces called pods. These flowers are on the trunk of the tree. Each tree creates about 20 to 30 pods of cocoa beans each year. Inside each of these pods there are 30 to 40 cocoa beans. This is not very much considering that each tree only has 20 or 30 pods altogether on it. In a full year one tree produces only one pound per year.
~ Rachel
