Patrick Edward McGovern ca. 7000-6600 B.C. It was a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey, and grape and/or hawthorn ("Crataegus pinnatifida" and "C. cuneata") fruit. The laboratory and collaborators began studying some of the most ancient chocolate from ancient Mesoamerica (ca. 1400-1100 B.C.) in 2004 Jars from Puerto Escondido in Honduras were in the shape of the cacao ("Theobroma cacao") pod or fruit, as if to advertise the contents as being a chocolate beverage. The fruit's sweet pulp contains about 15% sugar, which naturally ferments to a 5 to 7% alcoholic beverage. This beverage might have led to the domestication of the tree.
Seed tree or the trees may be retained for visual enhancement and as backup against catastrophic losses of regeneration due to agents such as fire or drought. The presence of seed trees distinguishes the seed-tree method from clearcutting. Many people consider the seed-tree method more aesthetically pleasing than clearcutting because some mature trees are retained on the site for at least until regeneration becomes well established. Seed-tree method is usually applied to plants with a wind blown seed (Scots pine), rather not to those with hard seeds, like oak and beech that do not travel far from the originating tree. Seed tree