Any chocolate lover can probably tell you that cacao is the most important ingredient in any chocolate confection. But not only does cacao hold the key to chocolate’s rich and seductive flavor but it ...

As you nibble on a chocolate truffle or bite into a chocolate-dipped strawberry on Valentine’s Day, consider the elongated, ribbed pods of the cacao tree, which made that sweet treat possible.

The seeds, by contrast, are exceedingly bitter. It takes time and skill to turn them into chocolate. The flesh that surrounds cacao beans is delicious straight from the pod, but it takes talent to ...

Volunteers separate seeds and pulp from halved cacao pods during Friday’s harvest at Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate’s Lahaina farm. The workers are sitting next to next to piles of just ...