Cool Beans: How Chocolate And Coffee Get Made

<p>How is chocolate made? Why can't we eat chocolate all the time? Why is chocolate dangerous for dogs? Why do adults like coffee? In this episode, we tour <a href="https://www.tazachocolate.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Taza Chocolate</a> in Somerville, Massachusetts to learn how chocolate goes from bean to bar. Then we visit a coffee roaster in Maine to learn about this parent-fuel that so many kids find gross! And we'll learn a little about Valentine’s Day.</p> <p><strong>Download our learning guides: <a href="https://www.vpr.org/sites/vpr/files/202102/cool_beans_how_chocolate_and_coffee_get_made.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PDF</a> | <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1e5k7wKeZStgRTlI3zAMj9QpDt4MajwNNwH1_D4vxPpc/copy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Slides</a> | <a href="https://www.vpr.org/sites/vpr/files/202102/But_Why_146_Chocolate_TRANSCRIPT.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Transcript</a></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>"How is chocolate made?" - Samarah, 8, Johnson, VT</p> </blockquote> <p>"Chocolate actually comes from cocoa beans--which is no bean at all--they are seeds of the cacao trees," says Ayala Ben-Chaim of Taza Chocolate. Taza is a "bean-to-bar" chocolate maker. That means starting with raw cocoa beans and going all the way through the process to turn those beans into a chocolate bar you can buy in a store. (Some chocolatiers get chocolate that's already mostly made and they just add stuff to it and shape it.)</p> <p>The tree that those cocoa beans come from is called the Theobroma cacao tree, which grows in warm tropical parts of the world--within 20 degrees of the equator. Taza Chocolate sources (buys) cocoa beans from farmers in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Belize and Bolivia.</p> <p>It takes about five years from when it's planted for a cacao tree to produce cocoa pods. "Cocoa pods are a little bit funny to look at. They look like a gourd growing off of the tree, or like a lumpy tiny American football. The cocoa pods grow off of the branches of the tr