Stephanie Villegas uses a traditional comal to roast cacao while carefully tending to the fire. (Nalani Hernandez-Melo / For De Los) Making chocolate is a sacred process, particularly for descendants ...

HUNTINGTON — Although most harvesting is done in the fall, December was the best time for employees at the Huntington Museum of Art to start picking fruits off its tropical cacao plant. “Our cacao ...

You may think you know all there is about chocolate, but cacao beans are only part of the story. With a rich history, cacao ...

One chef's guide to making chocolate bars from fermented cacao seeds has fascinated the internet. My Nguyen has amassed a considerable following for her healthy recipes and home cooking hacks on ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists are getting a better taste of the early history of the domestication and use of cacao - the source of chocolate - thanks to residues detected on a batch of ancient ...

Cacao, Theobro-ma cacao, or chocolate was first cultivated in the ancient tropical rain forests by indigenous people of Mesoamerica. They esteemed the dried and toasted seeds for making rich sauces to ...

Any chocolate lover can probably tell you that cacao is the most important ingredient in any chocolate confection. But not only does cacao hold the key to chocolate’s rich and seductive flavor but it ...

Cacao fruit, of which the peel is chewed on by a squirrel, and the seeds removed from the fruit. Squirrels seem to be attracted by the sweet pulp around the cacao seeds and usually predated cacao ...

Making chocolate is a sacred process, particularly for descendants of the ancient Mesoamerica, and for those looking to reconnect with ancestral practices, like Stephanie Villegas of Xochitl Vegan, a ...