In ancient Maya civilization, cacao wasn’t just for the elites. Traces of the sacred plant show up in ceramics from all types of neighborhoods and dwellings in and around a former Maya city, ...

Walking barefoot across the cool tile floor, her silver face gems twinkling in the sunlight, sound bath practitioner and energy healer Maya Andreeva distributed paper cups filled with brown liquid to ...

Cacao beans are processed through fermentation, roasting and grinding to make chocolate flavoring. They only comprise 30% of the harvested weight of the Cacao crop Cacao is harvested as pods, only 30% ...

In 2014, during a short stay on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, walking along a dirt road, I came across a poster for an upcoming event stapled to a telephone pole. It read of a “cacao ceremony ...

As long as there is chocolate, there will be happiness.​” But how much does the average person really know about chocolate? The Morton Arboretum’s annual Chocolate Weekend expo, taking place Jan. 31 ...

After spending years sourcing cacao for the biggest chocolate brands around the world, Rob Weidner discovered a little secret of the cacao industry. Cacao farmers were eating the white fleshy center ...

On Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, visit the Morton Arboretum in Lisle for a Chocolate Weekend celebrating all things chocolate. Sample an array of chocolate confections and unique items with a chocolate twist ...

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. Joel Palacios says he used to have it all — a well-paying government job that let him travel across Colombia, the respect of everyone ...