the story of chocolate in brazil is rich and full of unique tidbits, just like a favorite truffle - the country has had a significant share in the production of the cocoa bean since early times, and it is also said to be where the cocoa tree was first discovered. 

two wild strains of the tree were first discovered in the amazon forest - the forasteiro cocoa tree, believed to have migrated from the amazon basin, and the criollo cocoa tree, stemming from the northern region.

nowadays, there are three large cocoa-producing regions in brazil, including in the amazon basin, espírito santo, and bahia, where roughly 70,000 tons of cocoa are produced each year - in total, brazil creates about 150,000 tons of cocoa per year, though during good production years this figure gets as high as 350,000 tons.