Chocolate Comes From A Fruit

A cacao pod grown in the Philippines.

If you’re a chocolate enthusiast, you may take for granted that most of the public have no idea chocolate comes from a fruit. Many even think chocolate and coffee come from the same bean.

In this image, we see a cocoa pod. A cocoa pod grows on a cacao tree (T. cacao) and produces a fruit. The texture is unlike many other fruits most of us are used to. The best I can describe it is maybe a cross between lychee and sweetsop (AKA custard apple).

The fruit tastes nothing like chocolate. Chocolate is made from the seeds of this fruit, but the fleshy fruit part itself is nothing like chocolate. It can be sweet, tart, floral, and/or tropical in flavour depending on the variety.

Fun fact - the flavour of the fruit does impact the flavour of the seed (which we use to make chocolate) during the fermentation state. Therefore, the better tasting the fruit, likely the better tasting the seed (AKA cocoa bean).