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What plant does chocolate come from?
Theobroma cacao tree
From chocolate chip cookies to hot cocoa, it can be easy to forget that one of our favorite sweet treats actually starts with a plant. In fact, it’s a plant that’s been around for thousands of years and is part of a lively ecosystem. Chocolate is made from cacao, which comes from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree.
Is it illegal to grow coca?
It is illegal to import, obtain, grow or possess coca plants or any part of a coca plant.
Is cocoa in coca cola?
Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. A preparation made from the seeds of the chocolate tree, and used in making, a beverage; also the beverage made from cocoa or cocoa shells.
Can you grow coca plants in the US?
Outside of Hawai’i (and Puerto Rico, see update at bottom), there is no place in the United States where coca will grow, or at least will grow with any significant cocaine yield outside of a climate controlled structure.
Can you grow chocolate in the US?
Cocoa beans do indeed grow in the USA, but only in very limited areas. There is a narrow band known as the Cocoa Bet or the Chocolate Belt. Hawaii sits just south of 20 degrees north latitude, neatly within the Cocoa Belt. In fact, there is a burgeoning chocolate industry happening in Hawaii today.
Why are coca leaves illegal in the US?
In 1961, the United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs listed coca leaf as a Schedule 1 substance, making its use illegal. The leaves contain alkaloids that are a source of cocaine base, with the principal psychoactive ingredient being benzoylmethylecgonine.
Is the coca plant the same as chocolate?
Related Questions More Answers Below. No. Chocolate is (read should be) made from the cultivated bean of the Cocoa plant, while cocaine is made form the refinement of the leaves of the coca plant. They just sound the same and have a similar deathgrip on society.
What’s the difference between Coca Cola and cocoa?
Coca refers to four plants native to South America that are used to make cocaine. These plants are different from the cacao plant used to make cocoa. Interestingly, the soft drink Coca-Cola contained coca products until the early 20th century.
Are there any similarities between chocolate and cocaine?
, studied at University of Houston. No. Chocolate is made from the seeds of cacao tree fruit where as cocaine is extracted from coca tree leaves. While the names are similar they are two distinctly different plants by both species category and appearance.
Where does chocolate and cocaine get their names?
, Science Writer Chocolate comes from the species Theobroma cacao, commonly known as cacao. Cocaine comes from a bunch of different plants in the genus Erythroxylum, but mostly from the species Erythroxylum coca. So cacao and coca are two completely different plants with coincidentally similar names.