Short answers, pulled from the story.
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans, which are the processed seeds of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. The beans are fermented, dried, cleaned, and roasted, then shelled to reveal nibs that are ground into chocolate liquor.
The cacao tree was first used as a source for food at least 5,300 years ago in what is today southeast Ecuador, by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture. Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Mayans and Aztecs widely consumed bitter cacao beverages before chocolate reached Europe in the 16th century.
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes may have been the first European to encounter chocolate in the court of Moctezuma II in 1520. The first official recording of a shipment of cocoa beans to Europe dates to 1585, after which it spread across the continent during the 17th century.
Cocoa beans and their pulp are fermented in bins for up to seven days, then dried in the sun for five to seven days. The beans are cleaned, roasted, and shelled to extract nibs, which are ground into chocolate liquor, then conched and tempered before molding.
The traditional types of eating chocolate are dark, milk, and white, all of which contain cocoa butter. Dark chocolate resembles pure cocoa liquor, milk chocolate replaces some cocoa solids with milk solids, and white chocolate replaces them entirely with milk solids.
Chocolate contains theobromine, which is toxic to animals such as dogs, cats, horses, and parrots because they cannot metabolize it effectively. The theobromine can remain in their circulation for up to 20 hours and may cause seizures, heart attacks, internal bleeding, and death.
Cocoa beans for most chocolate are grown in West African countries, particularly Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together contribute about 60% of the world's cocoa supply. This concentration is tied to ongoing concerns about child labor in cocoa farming.