Planting Chocolate Trees Vlog Series: Episode #2 What Does Cacao Fruit Taste Like?

In this episode, Ken will share a brief history and some facts about cacao.

So let us give you a quick overview of what is cacao and where did it originate? 

Cacao is a plant that has two edible parts: the seeds or also called the beans and the fruit. Its scientific name is "Theobroma Cacao", theos for God and broma for food which means Food for the Gods. 

It is native to the deep tropical regions of Mesoamerica. And back in time, the aztecs used cacao beans as currency and drank the cacao drink during royal feasts and use it during rituals.

Cacao trees grow ten to twenty degrees above the equator belt where Philippines, India, South America and Africa are located.  

Cacao is not a native plant to the Philippines however, this is the first landing spot of cacao in Asia around 1670. It was brought in by the Spaniards during the Manila Galleon Trade between Mexico and Manila. And since those foreign plants proliferated in the country, it then already springboarded to the neighboring Asian countries. 

Commercial cacao farms in the Philippines started to develop at around the 1950s and the production of cacao peaked at 35,000 MT by 1990. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep up with this because of different factors like aging trees, pests or farm issues and the world market price of cacao was declining. 

Fast forward to today, we have yet to reach 35,000 metric tons (MT) peak like before. Since the production of cacao today is estimated to 10-12 MT only. 

In the Philippines, 80% of the cacao production is concentrated in the Davao region which includes provinces like Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Comval and Davao City. 

Learn more facts about cacao by watching this episode as we collaborated with Health and Fitness Vlogger, Cassie Umali, and let her try the actual cacao fruit! It was fun doing this video with Cassie and we learned a lot from her as well. Subscribe on Cassie's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/cassieum...

If you're interested about cacao watch our second episode down below, subscribe to our Youtube Channel, don't forget to like and leave some love on the comments!

JOIN US ON OUR CHOCOLATE JOURNEY!