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Cacao beans come from cacao trees and while these trees are grown in plantations, they are almost never grown alone. The trees are often planted with big and taller trees in order to protect them from direct sunlight. These trees will often be mango or papaya trees which can grow to be quite tall. The farms also have to pay close attention to the soil in which the tree is planted as this often determines the taste of the bean just like in the production of wine.
It usually takes about 3 – 5 years for the cacao trees to bear fruit. Each tree only produces about a 1000 beans per year which amounts to just 1 kg of chocolate. Not only does this make growing the cacao bean expensive but also costly in time!