Chocolate is delicious and chocolate comes from cacao beans, so cacao beans should also be delicious, right? Well, you may want to reconsider eating them raw.

Therefore, even raw cacao products aren’t made with beans straight from the pod. Rather, once cacao beans are harvested, they go through several processing steps. In brief, the basic process is ...

Cacao pods are harvested from the trees and are turned into cocoa — then eventually chocolate — through a multi-step process. ... Try raw, unroasted cacao nibs to satisfy your chocolate cravings.

Cacao pods are harvested and processed to make cocoa powder using the following steps, ... Turning raw cacao into cocoa powder gradually removes some of the naturally occurring minerals, ...

Black pod, or pod rot, caused by the fungus Phytophthora palmivora further impacts cocoa yields. The disease results in the loss of 20-30% of cocoa pods pods and kills about 10% of the trees every ...

So before you start imagining cacao pods as the next health-food trend, it's worth understanding what makes these raw beans a no-go. Read more: 10 Milk Chocolate Bars, Ranked By Taste And Texture ...