Seamus Blackley, a tech executive known best for inventing the Xbox game console, inspects his cacao trees. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) There are technological and biological wonders inside the ...

Archaeologists have shed light on the origins of chocolate by tracing the spread of the cacao tree. A new study published in Scientific Reports found that the cacao tree, which grows cocoa beans, ...

It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without chocolate. Yet cacao trees, which are the source of chocolate, are vulnerable. I am a passionate chocolate lover and an entomologist who studies cacao ...

Cacao has long been a sought-after raw material for the worlds food industry. At first glance, it therefore seems surprising that biology knows little about the pollination of the cacao tree – ...

Gardeners who love chocolate may want to grow cacao and make their own chocolate. Cacao trees grow well here in Hawaii and with room for a small tree where it can have a shady overstory, it’s worth ...

The productivity of cacao trees decreases with time, forcing farmers to renew their plantations by either cutting down the old trees or establishing a new crop elsewhere. Frequently, new plantations ...

For as much as modern society worships chocolate, cacao — the plant chocolate comes from — was believed to be even more divine to ancient Mayas. The Maya considered cacao beans to be a gift from the ...

You may think you know all there is about chocolate, but cacao beans are only part of the story. With a rich history, cacao ...

Seamus Blackley is best known for creating the Xbox game console. Now he has a new mission: to start a Los Angeles chocolate company. The challenge? Cacao trees don’t grow in the Southern California ...