FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
CACAO
Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. I
is the tree from which the cocoa-nibs of commerce are obtained; it is botanically known as Theobroma Cacao, the term Theobroma being compounded of two Greek words, signifying "food for the gods." For many years this beverage, prepared from the Cacao-nut was a favorite in Mexico, passing thence into Spain, France and so to this country.
Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Worlds. Oxford University Press.
is a beanlike seed of a tropical American evergreen tree, from which cocoa, cocoa butter, and chocolate are made.
- ORIGIN via Spanish from nahuatl cacaua
Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
THEOBROMA BICOLOR Sterculiaceae, CACAO
is a plant of New Granada. This species replaces the cacao in part in the West Indies and South America and the seeds are brought into commerce.
THEOBROMA CACAO, CACAO, COCOA
is a plant of tropical America. This is the best-known species of the genus and the bulk of the cacao, or cocoa, of commerce is produced by it. It is largely cultivated in Guayaquil, Venezuela, Trinidad, Grenada, Jamaica and elsewhere in tropical America. Cacao is also grown as an introduced plant in the Mauritius and Bourbon. The fruit is an oblong-ovate capusle or berry, six or eight inches in length, with a thick, coriaceous and somewht ligneous rind, enclosing a whitish pulp in which numerous seeds are embedded. These are ovate, somewhat compressed, about the size of an almond and consist of an itnerior thin shell and a brown, oil kernel. Separated from the matter in which they are enveloped, they constitute the cacao of commerce. Chocolate and cocoa are variously prepared from the nuts.
When Cortez was entertained at the court of the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma, he was treated to a sweet preparation of the cocoa, called chocollatl, flavored with vanilla, and other aromatic spices. Cacao was carried to Spain from Mexico, and the Spaniards kept the cacao secret for many years, selling it very profitably as chocolate to the wealthy and luxurious classes of Europe. Chocolate reached France, however, only in 1661 and did not reach Britain until a few years later. It is now more largely consumed in Spain than elsewhere in Europe. The European consumption of chocolate is estimated at quite 40,000,000 pounds. In the United States, the iports in 1880 were 7,411,045 pounds. Cacao was cultivated by the nations of Central America before the arrival of Europeans. The Nahua nations used the nibs, or grains, as circulating medium instead of money. Stephens states that the nuts re still used in Yucatan as currency, as of old, by the Indians. After maize, says Landa, cacao was perhaps the crop to which the most attention was paid. It was called cacaguat in Nicaragua and several species which grew wild were also much used. In the month of Muan, the cacao planters even held a festival in honor of their patron deities Ekohuah, Chac and Hobnil. Humboldt sttes that he met with no tribe on the Orinoco that prepared a beverage with the seeds of the cacao, but the savages sucked the pulp of the pod and threw away the seeds. Hartt says the cacao tree is qutie extensively cultivated at Bahia but is not often cultivated south of the Amazon. In Jamaica, Lunan rates the average produce of cacao per acre at 1000 pounds, allowing for bad years. it is called in Mexican cacautl.
