“Cacao “is the botanical name of the plant, and the drink made from Cacao beans is called “Cocoa.”
Cacao pigment is one of the flavonoids and is often called Cocoa pigment.
Cacao is a well known ingredient of chocolate/cocoa, and Cacao pigment can be extracted from cacao beans and/or cacao husks. Main components of the pigment are Catechins and Leucocyanidin. Home of Cacao is Central/South America. The favorite drink of Aztecs or Mayans "Chocolatl" which is a mixture of Cacao beans, maize, sugar and milk is said to be the original state of chocolate.
Cacao fruit is in a large sized egg shape of 15-30cm in length with 8-10cm in diameter. (Some types of Cacao have fruit of different shapes like long oval, flat egg shape or triangular shape). The fruits grow directly out of the tree hanging down as you see in the photo. Every fruit contains 20-60 Cacao beans. To get the dye, soak the beans with the wrapping tissue on in water and let fermentation take place. In the process of fermentation the beans get heated up to 40～50℃ and organic acids are generated. As a result, Anthocyanine pigment in the fresh Cacao beans will change its form to brown colored compound.
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