Editing Chocolate (section)

==Cacao==
[[File:Cocoa Pods.JPG|thumb|upright|Chocolate is created from the cocoa bean. A cacao tree with fruit pods in various stages of ripening.]]Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, the dried and fermented seeds of the cacao tree (''[[Theobroma cacao]]''), a small, 4–8 m tall (15–26&nbsp;ft tall) [[evergreen]] tree native to the deep tropical region of the Americas.

Recent genetic studies suggest the most common [[genotype]] of the plant originated in the [[Amazon basin]] and was gradually transported by humans throughout South and Central America. Early forms of another genotype have also been found in what is now Venezuela. The scientific name, ''[[Theobroma]]'', means "food of the gods".<ref>{{cite web |date=1995–2008 |title=Cacao |url=http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cacao-02.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514090427/http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cacao-02.html |archive-date=14 May 2008 |access-date=27 June 2008 |publisher=Botanica.com}}</ref> The fruit, called a cocoa pod, is ovoid, {{convert|15|–|30|cm|in|round=0.5|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|8|–|10|cm|in|round=0.5|abbr=on}} wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighing about {{convert|500|g|lb|abbr=on}} when ripe.

Cacao trees are small, understory trees that need rich, well-drained soils. They naturally grow within 20° of either side of the equator because they need about 2000&nbsp;mm of rainfall a year, and temperatures in the range of {{convert|21|to|32|C|F}}. Cacao trees cannot tolerate a temperature lower than {{convert|15|C|F}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=All About Chocolate: The Cacao Tree |url=http://www.xocoatl.org/tree.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219204425/http://www.xocoatl.org/tree.htm |archive-date=19 December 2007 |access-date=20 December 2007 |publisher=Xocoatl}}</ref>

===Genome===
The sequencing in 2010 of the genome of the cacao tree may allow yields to be improved.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Chocolate industry avoids collapse as genome published|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11747616|access-date=15 November 2010|publisher=BBC|date=14 November 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101115043552/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11747616|archive-date=15 November 2010}}</ref> Due to concerns about [[global warming]] effects on lowland climate in the narrow band of latitudes where cocoa is grown (20 degrees north and south of the [[equator]]), the commercial company [[Mars, Incorporated]] and the [[University of California, Berkeley]], are conducting genomic research in 2017–18 to improve the survivability of cacao plants in hot climates.<ref name="mars">{{cite news|last1=Brodwin|first1=Erin|title=Chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years|newspaper=Business Insider|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/when-chocolate-extinct-2017-12|publisher=Business Insider, Inc.|access-date=31 January 2018|date=31 December 2017|archive-date=31 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131040813/http://www.businessinsider.com/when-chocolate-extinct-2017-12|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Varieties===
{{main|Cocoa bean#Varieties}}
The three main varieties of cocoa beans used in chocolate are [[criollo (cocoa bean)|criollo]], forastero, and trinitario.