What is a cocoa bean?

 There is no such thing. Sorry.

That's the bad news. The good news, though, is that there is such a thing as a cacao seed, and it is from cacao seeds that we get our chocolate and our cocoa.

The linguistic confusion of the evolution of the words cacao (ka-kow') and cocoa is beyond even our long-winded abilities to explain. But the cacao tree produces pods containing seeds (not beans), and through the fermenting, roasting, and grinding of these seeds, we get chocolate liquor, from which cocoa butter, cocoa, and all types of chocolate are produced.

So even if you continue to refer to it as a cocoa bean, you'll have to admit, it is a very important bean,... um, seed....

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