Who Depends On It?
Humans’ love affair with chocolate began at least 4,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, in present-day southern Mexico and Central America, where cacao grew wild. When the Olmecs unlocked the secret of how to eat this bitter seed, they launched an enduring phenomenon.
Since then, people around the world have turned to chocolate to cure sickness, appease gods, show love, buy rabbits, fete holidays, survive fasts, ward off scorpions and sustain warriors.
In fact, the making of chocolate has evolved into an industry so large that 40 to 50 million people depend on cocoa for their livelihoods—and chocolate farmers produce 3.8 million tons of cocoa beans per year.
Chocolate is full of mysteries, and the cacao tree’s birthplace remains one of them.
While scientists agree the tree originated in South or Central America, the exact location eludes them. Some believe it first grew in the Amazon basin of Brazil. Other scientists point to the Orinoco Valley of Venezuela, while still others root for Central America.
Others propose an enigmatic tale and posit that the Olmecs, the first known people to eat cacao, brought the tree from their original homeland, and that this unknown location may have disappeared under the sea.