Cacao Beans In Sacks Stock Photo

Bagged seeds from a cacao tree. On top of one sack sits an open cacao pod. The cocoa bean, also cacao bean or simply cocoa or cacao, is the dried fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter can be extracted.The `beans` are the basis of chocolate, as well as Mesoamerican foods, such as mole and tejate. The cacao tree is native to the Americas. It originated in Central America as well as parts of Mexico. Originally over 5000 years ago, consumed by pre-Columbian cultures along the Yucatán including the Mayans, and as far back as Olmeca civilization in spiritual ceremonies. It can be found as well in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, current-day Colombia and Venezuela