The Cocoa Bean: The Unexpected Super Fruit

It’s true – the cocoa bean is actually part of a fruit. In fact, a “super” fruit. Our cocoa extract is packed with unique active plant compounds called flavanols and other nutrients. The cocoa pod is the fruit of the tropical treeTheobroma cacao, and the cocoa “bean” is actually a seed. On average, each tree produces 50-60 seedpods per year and each seedpod contains 20-30 cocoa “beans.”

People have been enjoying cocoa for thousands of years – both for its taste and reported health benefits:

• The name "Theobroma cacao" is derived from a combination that blended Greek and Mayan etymology: Theobroma means "food of the gods" and cacao comes from the Aztec word cacahuatl.
• Cocoa was used extensively as medicine in South America and later in European and colonial settlements.
• The Europeans maintained that cocoa gave stamina in battle or allowed one to travel over long periods without needing other food.
• The island-dwelling Kuna tribe off the coast of Panama drinks cocoa as their main source of hydration, averaging 35 cups of cocoa each week. It was in part through research on the Kuna diet that scientists first began to identify the link between cocoa and health.

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