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.
Theobroma cacao cacao" through a process of steps that involve harvesting, fermenting of "T. cacao" pulp, drying, harvesting, and then extraction. Roasting "T. cacao" by using superheated steam was found to be better than conventional roasting (use of ovens) because it resulted in same quality of cocoa beans in a shorter amount of time. In 2016, world production was 4.5 million tonnes, led by Ivory Coast with 33% of global production and Ghana with 19% of the total (table).. The pests and diseases to which cacao is subject, along with climate change, mean that new varieties will be needed to respond to