chocolate is made from cocoa, the dried and partly fermented seeds of the cacao tree ("theobroma cacao"). the cacao tree is a small (4–8 m (15–26 ft.) tall) pine tree found in the deep tropical areas of the americas. new studies show that the most found type of the plant first came from the amazon basin. it was slowly moved by humans to other places in south and central america to farm. early kinds of another type have also been found in what is now venezuela. the scientific name, "theobroma", means "food of the gods". the fruit, called a cacao pod, is shaped like an oval, 15–30 cm (6–12 in.) long and 8–10 cm (3–4 in.) wide. it gets ripe from yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1 lb) when ripe.