Chocolate

Chocolate is a yummy food that many people love. It comes from the seeds of a tree called the cacao tree. The seeds are called cocoa beans. People roast the beans and grind them up. Then they mix the cocoa with sugar and milk to make chocolate. Chocolate can be a candy bar, a drink, or a topping for ice cream.

Where Chocolate Comes From

Chocolate starts on a cacao tree. These trees grow in hot, rainy places near the equator. Big pods grow right on the tree trunks. Inside each pod are white beans. Farmers pick the pods and take out the beans. The beans dry in the sun. Then they get sent to factories to be made into chocolate.

An old Mayan symbol for cacao, the bean that makes chocolate.
An old Mayan symbol for cacao, the bean that makes chocolate. (VVVladimir / Wikimedia Commons)

Kinds of Chocolate

There are three main kinds of chocolate. Dark chocolate has lots of cocoa and is not very sweet. Milk chocolate has milk and sugar added, so it is creamy and sweet. White chocolate is made from cocoa butter but has no cocoa powder. That is why it is white and tastes very mild.

Fun Facts

  • It takes about 400 cocoa beans to make one pound of chocolate.
  • Long ago, the Aztecs drank chocolate as a bitter drink, not a sweet one.
  • Chocolate is poisonous to dogs, so never share it with your pet.

Did You Know?

The word chocolate comes from an old Aztec word, xocolatl, which means bitter water.