wo years ago, my wife and I traveled to the Amazon. On one of our expeditions, our guide pointed out a cacao tree growing wild in the jungle. 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. Our guide picked one of the hand-sized fruits, stripped off the rippled outer layer with his knife, and handed us chunks of the fibrous white pulp inside -- the fruit of the cacao 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. Embedded in the pulp were dark, purple-colored seeds that, after being dried and processed, chocolate lovers like myself have come to recognize as "chocolate beans."

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