Cocoa bean
The cocoa bean, the dried and fermented seed of the cacao tree, once paid for rabbit dinners in Mesoamerica. Before the Spanish conquest, it served as common money across the region. Beans bought small items such as tamales and rabbit dinners, while turkey hens called for a greater quantity.
Today that same seed is pressed, ground and traded on futures markets, and it sits behind chocolate in all its forms. This documentary follows the bean from a wild tree in the Amazon rainforest to exchanges in London and New York. Three questions run through it. Who first decided a bitter seed was worth growing? What turns a heap of purple seeds into chocolate? And who bears the cost when the world's appetite for the bean keeps rising?
At Santa Ana-La Florida, a site in the Zamora-Chinchipe Province of southeast Ecuador, artifacts show people cultivating cacao as long as 5,300 years ago. They belonged to the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, the earliest known domesticators of the tree. The plant itself is native to the Amazon rainforest. Wild cacao still grows in the Andean foothills of the Amazon and Orinoco basins, in places such as Colombia and Venezuela. People have tended the tree there for so long that evidence of its original wild range may be hidden.
The first attraction was probably not the bean at all. Long before anyone prized the seed's flavor, the sweet pulp around it was used to make a fermented drink of 5.34% alcohol. That drink appears to be what first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.
Evidence as of 2018 points to Central America domesticating the tree roughly 1,500 years after South America. Chemical analysis of residue on pottery from Puerto Escondido in Honduras shows cocoa products were in use there between 1500 and 1400 BC. More than 3,000 years ago, cultures along the Yucatan, including the Maya, used cacao in spiritual ceremonies. The practice reaches back to the Olmec civilization as well.
One account of that world comes from a Spanish soldier who fought on the side of Hernan Cortes in the conquest of the Aztec Empire. He recalled that Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor, took no drink at dinner except chocolate, served in a golden goblet. It was flavored with vanilla or other spices and whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. Reports suggest Moctezuma II may have taken no fewer than 60 portions a day, with 2,000 more going to the nobles of his court.
The Spaniards brought chocolate to Europe, where it was a popular beverage by the mid-17th century. They also carried the cacao tree to the West Indies and the Philippines. Europeans later introduced it to the rest of Asia, to South Asia and to West Africa. Venezuela became the largest producer of beans in the world. In the Gold Coast, now Ghana, a Ghanaian named Tetteh Quarshie introduced the tree. That West African foothold matters today, because the region now grows nearly 81% of the world's crop.
Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus named the tree Theobroma cacao in his original classification of the plant kingdom. Theobroma means food of the gods.
The everyday word cocoa is a variant of cacao, probably produced by confusion with the word coco. Both trace back to kakaw(a). Linguists argue sharply over whether that word comes from Nahuatl or from a Mixe-Zoquean language. The phrase cocoa beans dates to the 19th century. In the 18th century, people said chocolate nuts, cocoa nuts, or simply cocoa.
Three names dominate the trade: Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. Criollo has traditionally been the most prized. It is believed to be native to South America, and by the time of the Spanish conquest it was grown in Mesoamerica. After European colonization, disease and falling populations led the Spanish and Portuguese to turn to other cacao from South America. These newcomers were named Forastero, a word that can be translated as strange or foreign. They are generally of the Amelonado type and are tied to West Africa. Trinitario covers any hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, and Forastero is the most widely used of the three.
Recent genetic research complicates the tidy picture. It suggests that Forastero and Trinitario are better understood as geohistorical inventions than as true botanical groups. Marketing material still uses all three labels.
A ripe cacao pod measures about 17 to 20 cm long and wears a leathery rind 2 to 3 cm thick. Inside, a sweet pulp with a lemonade-like taste, called baba de cacao in South America, surrounds 30 to 50 large seeds. The seeds are fairly soft and range from pale lavender to dark brownish purple. The pods hang straight from the trunk and thick branches, much like jackfruit, rather than from branch tips. That makes hand harvesting easier, because most pods are not in the high branches.
Cacao grows in hot, rainy tropical areas within 20° of latitude from the Equator. A tree takes five years to grow and typically lives about 100 years. Growers often apply pesticides against capsid bugs and fungicides against black pod disease.
Pods on a single tree do not ripen together, so pickers return three to four times a week during the season. Color is the guide. Young pods are green, red or purple, and ripening pushes them toward yellow or orange, especially in the creases. Workers cut ripe and near-ripe pods with a curved knife on a long pole. They take care not to damage the junction of stem and tree, because future flowers and pods emerge from it. One person can harvest an estimated 650 pods a day. In many countries the harvest is not tied to one period of the year and can run over several months.
A machete or knife opens each pod, the rind is thrown away and the pulp and seeds are piled in heaps, bins or on grates for several days. One person can separate the beans from about 2000 pods in a day. During this stage, called sweating, the thick pulp liquefies as it ferments and trickles away. Some cocoa-producing countries distill alcoholic spirits from that liquefied pulp. The seeds turn from pale yellow or violet to brown. Raw beans have a strong, bitter taste, so sweating decides quality. If it is interrupted, the cocoa may be ruined. If it is underdone, the seed keeps a flavor like raw potatoes and becomes prone to mildew.
An average pod weighs 400 g but yields only 35 to 40 g of dried beans, about 9-10% of its weight. Roughly 400 dried beans are needed to make 1 lb of chocolate.
Farmers pack the wet beans into boxes or heap them in piles, then cover them with mats or banana leaves for three to seven days. Heat from fermentation strips most of the purple hue. Next the beans are trodden and shuffled, often by bare feet. Sometimes red clay mixed with water is sprinkled over them for finer color, polish and protection against mold on the voyage to overseas factories.
Sun-drying is common among smaller farmers, since it adds no smoke or oil flavors that could taint the beans. Large chocolate producers often choose artificial drying because it is faster, easier to control and independent of weather. Drying too fast can leave the beans overly acidic and lower their quality.
Dry beans usually travel by sea. They were traditionally exported in jute bags, but in the last decade shipments have shifted toward mega-bulk parcels of several thousand tonnes, which cut handling costs significantly. Bagged shipments are still common. A standard 20 ft container holds either 200 or 240 bags of 62.5 kg.
In the tiendas de chocolate of Mesoamerica, fermented beans are still ground to order. The shop mixes them with cinnamon, chili peppers, almonds, vanilla and other spices to make drinking chocolate. Ground cocoa is also an important ingredient in tejate, an indigenous Mexican drink.
Factories follow a different path. To make 1 kg of chocolate, they process around 300 to 600 beans. The beans are roasted, cracked and deshelled, leaving pieces called nibs. These are the cotyledons, of which a bean generally has two. Grinding the nibs produces a thick paste known as chocolate liquor or cocoa paste. Adding cocoa butter, sugar, and sometimes vanilla and lecithin turns the liquor into chocolate.
A second route splits the liquor into powder and butter, using a hydraulic press or the Broma process. Cocoa powder may hold about 12% fat, though that varies significantly. Cocoa butter goes into chocolate bars, other confectionery, soaps and cosmetics. Even the husks find work. Cocoa bean husks used as bedding for cows may help udder health by limiting bacterial growth and lowering ammonia levels.
Treating cocoa with an alkali, generally potassium carbonate, produces Dutch process cocoa. Untreated cocoa is acidic, and the alkali raises its pH. The result is less acidic, darker and more mellow than untreated cocoa. The treatment can happen to the nibs, the liquor or the press cake. Roasting shapes flavor too, and it can be done on the whole bean or on the nib. A low roast gives a more acid, aromatic flavor. A high roast tastes more intense and bitter, and lacks complex notes.
Chocolate labels often state a cocoa percentage, meaning the sum of all ingredients derived from dried, shelled beans. The phrase cocoa solids adds confusion, because it may also refer only to the non-fat solids concentrated in defatted powder.
Chemistry gives the bean a second reputation. Cocoa carries flavanols such as epicatechin, along with procyanidins and other flavonoids. A systematic review found moderate evidence that flavanol-rich chocolate and cocoa products cause a small blood pressure drop of 2 mmHg in healthy adults, mostly in the short term. Raw cocoa holds the most flavanols and dark chocolate somewhat fewer, since cooking degrades flavonoids. The beans also contain theobromine and between 0.1% and 0.7% caffeine, against about 1.2% in dry coffee beans. The theobromine in non-fat cocoa solids is fat soluble.
One cocoa futures contract on the ICE Futures US Softs exchange covers 10 tonnes, with a tick size of 1 and a tick value of US$10. Cocoa beans, cocoa butter and cocoa powder all trade on futures markets. London focuses on West African cocoa, and New York on cocoa from Southeast Asia. Cocoa is the smallest soft commodity market in the world.
Butter and powder prices follow the bean price multiplied by a ratio. The combined ratio has tended to sit around 3.5. If it falls to about 3.2, production stops being economically viable. Some factories then quit extracting butter and powder and trade only in cocoa liquor.
Exchange trading depends on safe storage. Beans are traditionally shipped and stored in burlap sacks, where pests can attack them. Fumigation with methyl bromide was due to be phased out globally by 2015. Hermetic storage in sealed bags or containers with lowered oxygen is among the alternatives.
In 2024, global bean production reached 5.8 million tonnes. Ivory Coast led with 38% of the total, followed by Ghana and Indonesia.
Processors measure what happens next in grindings, which serve as the main yardstick for market analysis. The Netherlands is one of the largest processing countries and handles around 13% of global grindings. Europe and Russia together handle about 38% of processing. Demand growth has averaged just over 3% a year since 2008. Europe and North America are fairly stable markets. Rising household incomes in developing countries are the main reason demand keeps growing.
For Nigeria, cocoa makes up the largest part of foreign exchange earnings and brings income to farmers. Those farmers face volatile prices, and some of the farms behind the trade have a far darker record.
The first allegations that cocoa production relied on child slavery appeared in 1998. In late 2000, a BBC documentary reported enslaved children working in West African cocoa. Other media followed with reports of widespread child slavery and child trafficking, and the industry stood accused of profiting from both.
In 2001, the Harkin-Engel Protocol was signed and witnessed by the heads of eight major chocolate companies. US senators Tom Harkin and Herb Kohl, US Representative Eliot Engel and the ambassador of the Ivory Coast were also present, along with the director of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor. Critics, including the International Labor Rights Forum, called it an industry initiative that falls short. The goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labor by 2005 was not reached. The deadline was extended several times, and the goal was changed to a 70% reduction in child labor.
The numbers moved the wrong way for a time. An estimated 819,921 children worked on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast alone in 2008-09. By 2013-14 that figure had risen to 1,303,009. In Ghana, the estimate for the same period was 957,398 children.
The 2010 documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate revealed that children smuggled from Mali into the Ivory Coast were forced to earn income for their parents. Others, it found, were sold as slaves for 230 euros. That same year, the US Department of Labor formed the Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group, a public-private partnership with the governments of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.
By 2017, approximately 2.1 million children in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire were involved in harvesting cocoa, carrying heavy loads, clearing forests and facing exposure to pesticides. Sona Ebai, the former secretary general of the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries, said: "I think child labor cannot be just the responsibility of industry to solve. I think it's the proverbial all-hands-on-deck: government, civil society, the private sector. And there, you really need leadership." A three-year pilot program run by Nestle with 26,000 farmers, mostly in Cote d'Ivoire, reported a 51% decrease in children doing hazardous jobs in 2018.
In 2021, eight former children from Mali filed a class action lawsuit. They alleged that Barry Callebaut, Cargill, The Hershey Company, Mars, Mondelez, Nestle and Olam International aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast. The suit accused the companies of knowingly engaging in forced labour. The plaintiffs sought damages for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich dismissed the case because no "traceable connection" could be established between the defendants and the specific plantations where the plaintiffs were enslaved.
In Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, barriers to land ownership have pushed migrant workers and farmers without money to buy land into expanding cocoa farms illegally inside protected forests. For decades, farmers encroached on virgin forest, mostly after logging companies had felled the trees. That trend has eased as governments and communities protect what forest remains. Deforestation from cocoa is still a major concern in parts of West Africa, where the relative poverty of many farmers pushes environmental costs down their list of priorities.
A web of initiatives now targets the problem. Three of them are the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa, the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa, and Beyond Chocolate in Belgium. In 2020, they signed a memorandum to address child labor, living income, deforestation and supply chain transparency. Beyond Chocolate was created in 2018 with partners including Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade. The International Cocoa Organization and the Ghanaian Cocoa Authority aim to raise the sustainable share of Ghanaian cocoa imported to Switzerland to 80% by 2025. Cocoa is also one of seven commodities covered by the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free products.
Voluntary certifications, including Fairtrade and UTZ, which is now part of Rainforest Alliance, try to separate more sustainable cocoa from the conventional kind. At least 29% of global production complied with such standards as of 2016. Results are uneven. Certification can raise farm income, but the premium consumers pay does not always reach farmers in proportion. A 2012 finding from the International Cocoa Organization showed that farms under 1 ha were less likely to benefit. Up-front costs are a barrier, especially for female farmers.
Agroforestry offers one answer. Growing cocoa under shade trees reduces pressure on protected forests for resources such as firewood and protects young plants from extreme heat. It also lowers the risk of soil erosion and evaporation. Plantains are often intercropped with cocoa to shade seedlings and help soil resist drought. Leguminous cover crops planted beforehand improve soil nutrients and structure. Cocoa agroforests become more forest-like over time but never fully recover the original forest community within a plantation's productive life of about 25 years. They also do not significantly raise productivity. Growing cocoa in full sun can boost yields temporarily, but nutrient loss, desertification and erosion eventually undermine them and create a dependence on inorganic fertilizers.
About 70% of West Africa's cocoa supply comes from smallholder farmers. Public-private efforts such as the Cocoa Forest Initiatives in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire and the Green Cocoa Landscape Programme in Cameroon aim to prevent further deforestation and restore degraded forests. Education and finance reach male farmers more readily than female ones, and access to credit decides whether a farmer can adopt practices like agroforestry or survive a bad year.
Heat may be the largest threat of all. Severe droughts have lowered soil fertility and cut yields, and some farmers have abandoned cocoa. A paper published in 2013 by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture warned that Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, the two top growers, will lose suitable cocoa land as temperatures rise by up to 2 °C by 2050.
Up next
Continue browsing
Updated
Common questions
What is the cocoa bean?
The cocoa bean, also called cacao, is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree. Its high fat content lets it be ground into a liquor, from which cocoa butter and cocoa powder are extracted.
Where did the cocoa bean first come from?
The cocoa bean traces to the Amazon rainforest. The Mayo-Chinchipe culture first domesticated the tree at least 5,300 years ago at Santa Ana-La Florida in southeast Ecuador, before it reached Mesoamerica.
Why were cocoa beans used as money in Mesoamerica?
Cocoa beans were a common currency throughout Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest. They bought small items such as tamales and rabbit dinners, while larger items such as turkey hens took a greater quantity.
Which countries produce the most cocoa beans?
Ivory Coast leads cocoa bean production with 38% of the world total in 2024, followed by Ghana and Indonesia. Global production that year reached 5.8 million tonnes, and West Africa grows nearly 81% of the world's crop.
What are the main varieties of cocoa bean?
The three traditional varieties of cocoa bean are Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. Forastero is the most widely used, Criollo has traditionally been the most prized, and Trinitario is any hybrid between the two.
How is a cocoa bean turned into chocolate?
Fermented and dried cocoa beans are roasted, cracked and deshelled into nibs, which are ground into chocolate liquor. Cocoa butter, sugar, and sometimes vanilla and lecithin are then added. Around 300 to 600 beans go into 1 kg of chocolate.
Is child labor a problem in cocoa bean production?
Yes. Allegations of child slavery in cocoa production first appeared in 1998, and by 2017 approximately 2.1 million children in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire were involved in harvesting cocoa. The Harkin-Engel Protocol of 2001 set goals to end the worst forms of child labor, but the 2005 target was not reached.
All sources
120 references cited across the entry
- 1CacaoFree Dictionary
- 2JournalThe use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper AmazonSonia Zarrillo et al. — 29 October 2018
- 3JournalCocoa bioactive compounds: significance and potential for the maintenance of skin healthGiovanni Scapagnini et al. — 2014
- 4JournalThe Origins of Cacao Use in MesoamericaTerry G. Powis et al. — 2008
- 5BookChapter 2: Ethnohistoric sources on foodways, feasts, and festivals in MesoamericaJohn E. Staller — Springer — 2010
- 6JournalChocolate in the Underworld Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Classic Mortuary CaveKeith M. Prufer et al. — 2007
- 7JournalRegionalization of Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in ColombiaCarlos E. González-Orozco et al. — 2022-06-09
- 8JournalContribution of local knowledge in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) to the well-being of cocoa families in Colombia: a response from the relationshipGustavo Adolfo Gutiérrez Garcia et al. — 2024-11-22
- 9JournalExploring the diversity and distribution of crop wild relatives of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in ColombiaCarlos E. González-Orozco et al. — 2020
- 10JournalDoes Criollo cocoa have the same exophysiological characteristics as Forastero?Wilmer Tezara et al. — September 2016
- 11JournalVariation and its distribution in wild cacao populations from the Brazilian AmazonLuiz Antônio dos Santos Dias et al. — 2003
- 12JournalHuman influence on the distribution of cacao: insights from remote sensing and biogeographyColli-Silva Matheus et al. — 2024
- 13Jaén y la cultura MarañónRoberto Ochoa — Domingo semanal (La República) — 19 November 2017
- 15The Earliest Chocolate Drink of the New World13 November 2007
- 16A Brief History of ChocolateAmanda Fiegl
- 17Climate & ChocolateMichon Scott — 2016-02-10
- 18JournalThe physiological responses of cacao to the environment and the implications for climate change resilience: A reviewFiona Lahive et al. — 2019
- 20JournalInfluence of geographical origin in the physical and bioactive parameters of single origin dark chocolateJosé Cartas et al. — 2024-10-01
- 21BookChocolate and HealthMaria Laura Colombo et al. — Springer — 2012
- 22JournalFood of the Gods: Cure for Humanity? A Cultural History of the Medicinal and Ritual Use of ChocolateTeresa L. Dillinger et al. — 1 August 2000
- 23Díaz del Castillo, Bernal (2005) 1632. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España. Felipe Castro Gutiérrez (Introduction). Mexico: Editores Mexicanos Unidos, S.A. .
- 27JournalMetabolite Storage in Theobroma cacao L. Seed: Cyto-Histological and Phytochemical AnalysesMartina Cerri et al. — 2019-12-05
- 28NewsRare Cacao Beans Discovered in PeruFlorence Fabricant — 11 January 2011
- 29BookThe manufacture of chocolate and other cacao preparationsPaul Zipperer — Verlag von M. Krayn — 1902
- 30BookCocoaG. A. R. Wood et al. — John Wiley and Sons — 2001
- 31BookHandbook of food science, technology, and engineeringYiu H. Hui — CRC Press — 2006
- 32BookThe international cocoa tradeRobin Dand — Woodhead Publishing — 1999
- 33BookLabor practices in the cocoa sector of Ghana with a special focus on the role of childrenOlivia Abenyega et al. — International Institute of Tropical Agriculture — 2003
- 34BookLabor practices in the cocoa sector of southwest Nigeria with a focus on the role of childrenJ. Gockowski et al. — International Institute of Tropical Agriculture — 2003
- 35BookFoods: Facts and PrinciplesN Shakuntala Manay — New Age International Publishers — 2023
- 36Yeasts key for cacao bean fermentation and chocolate qualityConfectionery News — 15 May 2013
- 37FAQ: Products that can be made from cocoaInternational Cocoa Organization
- 39JournalUnravelling Cocoa Drying Technology: A Comprehensive Review of the Influence on Flavor Formation and QualityMargareth Santander et al. — 2025-02-20
- 40JournalPerformance of different drying methods and their effects on the chemical quality attributes of raw cocoa materialTagro Simplice Guehi et al. — 2010-08-01
- 41JournalControlling risks in sea transportation of cocoa beansYilmaz Uygun et al. — 2020-01-01
- 42NewsMexican Chocolate: Rustic, Stronger, BetterAlex Whitmore — 10 April 2009
- 43JournalChemical and sensorial characterization of Tejate, a Mexican traditional maize-cocoa beverage, and improvement of its nutritional value by protein additionIza F Pérez-Ramírez et al. — 2021
- 44NewsSlaves feed world's taste for chocolate: Captives common in cocoa farms of AfricaSudarsan Raghavan et al. — 24 June 2001
- 45Combating Child Labour in Cocoa GrowingInternational Labour Organization — 2005
- 46BookNaked Chocolate: The Astonishing Truth about the World's Greatest FoodDavid Wolfe — North Atlantic Books — 2005
- 47NewsMali's children in chocolate slaveryHumphrey Hawksley — 12 April 2001
- 48NewsIvory Coast accuses chocolate companiesHumphrey Hawksley — 4 May 2001
- 49Fourth Annual Report: Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector of Côte d'Ivoire and GhanaPayson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer — Tulane University — 30 September 2010
- 51NewsThe Human Cost of ChocolateTricia Escobedo — CNN — 19 September 2011
- 52NewsThe bitter truthKaren Ann Monsy — 24 February 2012
- 53Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector of Côte d'Ivoire and GhanaPayson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer — Tulane University — 31 March 2011
- 56Human Rights and Child Labour13 August 2013
- 58Child Labor in the Production of CocoaBureau of International Labor Affairs, United States Department of Labor, Washington, DC — 2018
- 59NewsFalling cocoa prices threaten child labor spike in Ghana, Ivory CoastKieran Guilbert — 12 June 2017
- 60Inside Big Chocolate's Child Labor ProblemBrian O'Keefe — Fortune — 1 March 2016
- 61Child Labour: the true cost of chocolate productionOliver Balch — Raconteur — 20 June 2018
- 62NewsMars, Nestlé and Hershey to face child slavery lawsuit in USOliver Balch — 12 February 2021
- 63NewsHershey, Nestle, Cargill win dismissal in U.S. of child slavery lawsuitJonathan Stempel — 29 June 2022
- 64Cocoa bean production in 2022, Crops/Regions/World list/Production Quantity/Year (pick lists)UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) — 2024
- 65BookProceedings of the Fourth Conference of West African Cocoa Entomologists, Legon, Cameroon, 1974E. W. Kisiedu et al. — Zoology Department of University of Cameroon — 1975
- 66ThesisThe State of Pesticide Use Among Cocoa Farmers in Volta Region of GhanaRichard Kodjo Kosivi — University of Cape Coast — October 2020
- 67JournalEffect of low pressures on the survival of cocoa pests at 18 °C.S. Finkelman et al. — 2003
- 71Partnerships to make cocoa production more sustainable30 April 2019
- 74Global Market Report: CocoaV. Voora et al. — 2019
- 80Ferrero to double Fairtrade cocoa purchasesOliver Nieburg — 8 June 2016
- 83Mondelez pumps $400m in sustainable cocoa supply chainOliver Nieburg — 19 November 2012
- 84Cocoa sector remains 'far from' from sustainableOliver Nieburg — 20 June 2016
- 85Our WorkRainforest Alliance
- 88Schulte, I.; Landholm, D.M.; Bakhtary, H.; Cabezas, S.C.; Siantidis, S.; Manirajaj, S.M.; and Streck, C. (2020). Supporting smallholder farmers for a sustainable cocoa sector: Exploring the motivation
- 89Dohmen, M. M., Noponen, M., Enomoto, R., Mensah, C., & Muilerman, S. (2018). Climate-Smart Agriculture in Cocoa A Training Manual for Field Officers (pp. 1–111, Rep.). Washington, DC: World Cocoa Foun
- 90MagazineClimate Change Could Melt Chocolate ProductionTiffany Stecker — 3 October 2011
- 91NewsClimate change: Will chocolate become a costly luxury?30 September 2011
- 92JournalPredicting the future climatic suitability for cocoa farming of the world's leading producer countries, Ghana and Côte d'IvoireP. Läderach et al. — August 2013
- 93Climate adaptation increases vulnerability of cocoa farmers, study showsJodi Heckel — 13 January 2022
- 94'Devastating' impact of climate change on cocoa can't be ignored, says Rainforest AllianceOliver Nieburg — 21 December 2015
- 95How climate change has altered cocoa farming in Ivory CoastTony Juniper — 25 January 2020
- 96JournalCacao bean husk: an applicable bedding material in dairy free-stall barnsAkira Yajima et al. — 2017
- 97JournalAgroforestry: a refuge for tropical biodiversity?Shonil A. Bhagwat et al. — 2008
- 98JournalConnecting sustainable agriculture and wildlife conservation: Does shade coffee provide habitat for mammals?S. Amanda Caudill et al. — 2015
- 99JournalTree Diversity in Cacao Agroforests in San Alejandro, Peruvian AmazonHana Vebrova et al. — 2014
- 100JournalSoil-dwelling insect pests of tree crops in Sub-Saharan Africa, problems and management strategies-A reviewF. C. Ambele et al. — Wiley — 16 April 2018
- 101JournalTraditional cocoa-based agroforestry and forest species conservation in Ondo State, NigeriaD. O. Oke et al. — 2007
- 102JournalFarmers Accumulation Strategies and Agroforestry Systems Intensification: The Example of Cocoa in the Central Region of Cameroon over the 1910–2010 PeriodPhilippe Pédelahore — 2014
- 103BookThe State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and peopleFAO & UNEP — 2020
- 106JournalDose-Response Study of Daily Cocoa Intake on the Oxidative Susceptibility of Low-Density Lipoprotein in Healthy Human VolunteersNaomi Osakabe et al. — 2004
- 108BookBaking For DummiesEmily Nolan — For Dummies — 2002
- 109Cocoa: From Bean to BarJohn Urbanski — 27 May 2008
- 110BookScience and Technology of Enrobed and Filled Chocolate, Confectionery and Bakery ProductsTalbot, Geoff — Elsevier — 2009
- 111Codex Alimentarius Standard: The standard for chocolate and chocolate productsFood and Agriculture Organization
- 112JournalEffect of cocoa on blood pressureKarin Ried et al. — 25 April 2017
- 113NewsCocoa nutrient for 'lethal ills'11 March 2007
- 114JournalCocoa phytochemicals: Recent advances in molecular mechanisms on healthJiyoung Kim et al. — 2014
- 115JournalPsychopharmacology of theobromine in healthy volunteers.M.J. Baggott et al. — July 2013
- 116JournalCacao and Chocolate: A Uto-Aztecan perspectiveKaren Dakin et al. — 2000
- 117BookBeckett's Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and UseMark S Fowler et al. — Wiley — 2017
- 118BookChocolate: History, Culture, and HeritageJames F. Gay — John Wiley & Sons, Inc. — 2009
- 119BookCocoaKristy Leissle — Polity — 2018
- 120JournalMesoamerican mantic names as an etymological source of Mixtec vocabularyMichael Swanton — Cambridge University Press — May 9, 2024