> On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:01:13 -0400, Paleogal <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> 
> 
> >
> > I've never understood the romanticism of this bean.

> Didn't someone write that it is a berry?
> 
> William

That's close, William. Normally I could just refer people to good 'ol
Wikipedia :-) , but this one's pretty complicated and a quick read of
Wikipedia entries without some guidance might confuse people. Cocoa "beans"
(aka cacao "beans") are the seeds of a fruit pod from the theobroma cacao
tree. They are not really beans despite being called that. There are
numerous seeds, fruits, beans (legumes) and nuts that are given the name of
one of the other categories because of their appearance or taste rather than
their scientific classification (the peanut is another good example--being
called a nut despite being a bean/legume). Ray Audette was apparently
confused by this because he listed "chocolate" as a bean in NeanderThin. 

Chocolate is clearly not Paleo (it will invariably have at least one modern
ingredient--sugar, soy lecithin, milk, butterfat, etc.), though dairy-free
dark chocolate is closer to Paleo than most candies and I have seen one or
two dairy-free dark chocolate bars that did not contain soy lecithin (they
still contained sugar, however--not many would want to eat a chocolate bar
without sugar--yuck!). Cocoa powder is technically not Paleo but comes
close. Cocoa powder is fermented, which is not Paleo, though black tea is
also fermented and neither Cordain nor Ray Audette prohibit black tea. Ray
does say that green tea is preferable (black tea is just fermented green
tea). Cordain even allows wine, which is also fermented. Fruit seeds are
usually not eaten intentionally (they are often too hard to chew and/or
contain sufficient toxins--such as the cyanide-sugar compound in apple seeds
and the pits of cherries, peaches and apricots--to make them non-nutrative),
but sometimes are (as with pomegranate seeds). Cocoa is also New World,
though that is not sufficient to make something non-Paleo (otherwise winter
squash and turkey would be non-Paleo too).

--------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacao

The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older
branches; they are small, 1-2 cm diameter, with pink calyx. The fruit,
called a cacao pod, is ovoid, 15-30 cm long and 8-10 cm wide, ripening
yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g when ripe. The pod contains 20 to
60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp. Each seed
contains a significant amount of fat (40-50% as cocoa butter). Their most
important active constituent is theobromine, a compound similar to caffeine.

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta
 
Class: Magnoliopsida
 
Order: Malvales
 
Family: Sterculiaceae
 
Genus: Theobroma
 
Species: T. cacao 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa

Cocoa is the dried and partially fermented fatty [fruit] seed of the
[theobroma] cacao tree from which chocolate is made.