First, the pods are chopped from the trees, cut open, and the beans and pulp are removed. This is typically done on a cacao ...

The beans are then removed from the pods with their surrounding pulp. Workers fill sacks with cocoa beans in Kahin village at the edge of the Scio forest reserve in Duekoue, Ivory Coast.

Cacao beans held great prominence in the daily lives of Mesoamerican Indians. According to the Mayan and Mexica religions, cacao had divine origins as the god Quetzalcoatl discovered cacao.