I had never seen one before. Peeling the cacao fruit. Looking strangely alien, dozens of yellow-green pods hung from the trunk and stems of the tree. Two local children who had followed us into the forest waited impatiently for their own turn. With practiced hands, a girl of about six borrowed the guide's knife, hacked off the covering from another pod, and shared a big chunk of pulp with her brother.
Few people get to sample the fruit of the cacao tree.
It was mild tasting, with a subtle, bittersweet chocolate flavor. Cacao tree detail from a ninth century Mayan mural at Cacaxtla, Mexico. Today, it is cultivated around the equator, and can be found in the Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia, and even in the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and New Guinea. There are three main varieties of cacao trees. Rarest and most prized are the beans of the Criollo variety.