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Cacahuatl - Cacao - Theobroma cacao (part 1)

by Abigail Hinsman May 3, 2021

Native to Mesoamerica's deep tropics, the cacao is an ancient plant that fruits and flowers directly from the trunk in cauliflory. The seeds (cacao beans) from its enormous fruit pods are encased in mucilaginous pulp. They slide out of their rind like a floppy cob of corn, sewn onto a non-bony spine of edible flesh.

Cacao - 'bean of the cocoa-tree' from Classical Nahuatl 'cacahuatl,' from Proto-Nahuan '*kakawatl,' a borrowing from Proto-Mixe-Zoque '*kakawa' + '-tl.' 'Kakaw' in Yucatec Maya, Kʼicheʼ, and Tzeltal. 'Kagaw' in Sayula Popoluca. Doublet of 'cocoa.'

Theobroma - from Greek θεός theos ('god') and βρῶμα broma ('food'). So, 'food of the gods.'

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