The cocoa bean or simply cocoa which is also called the cacao bean or cacao is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cocoa beans are the basis of chocolate, and Mesoamerican foods including tejate, an indigenous Mexican drink that also includes maize. Cocoa is the delicious result of fermented and roasted cacao beans, which are basically the seeds of the cacao tree. These seeds are native to the Americans, and were even once used as currency (that’s my kind of society). Nowadays, 70% of the cacao in the world is grown in West Africa and is then shipped off to be made into chocolate.