Microbiology of Chocolate

 
Chocolate comes from the seeds of the cacao or chocolate tree, Theobroma cacao. Linnaeus ascribed the genus name meaning “food of the gods” to the Greek words, theos, (god) and broma (food) and the specific epithet from the Native American word for the plant. The chocolate tree is native to Latin America and was transplanted to West Africa in 1824 by the Portuguese. Presently, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana produce nearly half of the world’s chocolate