Origins of cacao and its spread around the world?
The genus Theobroma originated a very long time ago in South America, to the east of the Andes. Theobroma was put into 22 different species. It was the Maya who provided real evidence of cacao as a domesticated crop.
The first person to drink chocolate was Christopher Columbus, who reached Nicaragua in 1502, as he was looking for a sea route to the spices of the East. But it was Hernan Cortés, leader of a trip in 1519 to the Aztec empire, who returned to Spain in 1528, with the recipe. The drink was originally received unexcitedly and it wasn’t until sugar was then added to the drink that made it so popular in the Spanish area, Caribbean, South America and Africa.There were many attempts to please the Spanish domestic request, by planting cacao in Spanish area, like the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Haiti but these originally resulted as nothing. France introduced cacao to St Lucia and Martinique in 1660, the Dominican Republic in 1665, the Guiana’s in 1684, Brazil in 1677, and also Grenada in 1714. In Cameroon, cocoa was introduced during the colonial period of 1925 to 1939. The outburst in demand brought about by chocolate's money cost that required more cacao to be refined.
Where is cocoa produced?
Cacao is produced in countries where the climate is appropriate for growing cocoa trees. The largest producing countries are Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia.
The genus Theobroma originated a very long time ago in South America, to the east of the Andes. Theobroma was put into 22 different species. It was the Maya who provided real evidence of cacao as a domesticated crop.
The first person to drink chocolate was Christopher Columbus, who reached Nicaragua in 1502, as he was looking for a sea route to the spices of the East. But it was Hernan Cortés, leader of a trip in 1519 to the Aztec empire, who returned to Spain in 1528, with the recipe. The drink was originally received unexcitedly and it wasn’t until sugar was then added to the drink that made it so popular in the Spanish area, Caribbean, South America and Africa.There were many attempts to please the Spanish domestic request, by planting cacao in Spanish area, like the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Haiti but these originally resulted as nothing. France introduced cacao to St Lucia and Martinique in 1660, the Dominican Republic in 1665, the Guiana’s in 1684, Brazil in 1677, and also Grenada in 1714. In Cameroon, cocoa was introduced during the colonial period of 1925 to 1939. The outburst in demand brought about by chocolate's money cost that required more cacao to be refined.
Where is cocoa produced?
Cacao is produced in countries where the climate is appropriate for growing cocoa trees. The largest producing countries are Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia.