Beyond Cacao: The Wider Theobroma Family
- Jun 22
- 2 min read
Legally, there is no real chocolate without cocoa, but did you know that there’s more to the “food of the gods” than just Theobroma cacao?
On one of our previous visits to the CATIE tropical research station in Costa Rica, we had the opportunity to see several lesser‑known Theobroma species up close — including two that have recently attracted interest from the specialty confectionery sector for their potential use in chocolate‑like products positioned with distinctive, origin‑driven storytelling.
Theobroma grandiflora — better known as cupuaçu — is often regarded as Brazil’s national fruit. While Brazilians mainly enjoy the fragrant cupuaçu pulp, it’s also possible to make a chocolate‑like product from the seeds called cupulate. The result is remarkably soft and creamy, almost like a ganache. This texture comes from the fact that cupuaçu butter is much softer than cocoa butter, due to its far more complex and less symmetrical triglyceride profile.
Theobroma bicolor — also known as jaguar fruit or mocambo — is native to South America and sits at the other end of the spectrum. It produces seeds with a higher‑melting‑point fat than cocoa butter. When processed into a chocolate‑like product, the result is noticeably firmer with a slightly waxy texture. Unfortunately, bicolor isn’t grown commercially, so securing enough volume for confectionery applications is challenging — making it difficult to launch products at any meaningful scale.
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