Tree that grows spontaneously in the forests of the Amazon and that is, instead, cultivated in the equatorial areas of Africa and South America. Its scientific name is "Theobroma", which means food of the gods : in fact, from its processing, cocoa and therefore chocolate, one of the great gastronomic delights. The fruit, with soft pulp, contains very bitter seeds, particularly fat and rich in caffeine and starch.

Dried, toasted and subjected to various processes, the seeds are transformed into a soft dough from which the cocoa butter and the cocoa residue (called "panel") are extracted, which is then reduced into an impalpable powder: soluble cocoa. . There are two qualities of cocoa on the market: the bitter one, dark brown in color, and the sweet one, lighter in color.