The cacao tree is a small evergreen tree native to the deep tropical regions of the Americas. Its seeds, the cocoa beans (that are found inside cocoa pods like the ones featured in this puzzle), are used to make cocoa mass, cocoa powder, confectionery and chocolate. The first European knowledge about chocolate came in the form of a beverage which was first introduced to the Spanish at their meeting with Moctezuma in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519. The beverage made from cacao was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought from the New World to Spain by Dominican friars to meet Prince Philip. Within a century, chocolate had spread to France, England and elsewhere in Western Europe.The three main varieties of cocoa plant are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough, leathery rind about 2 to 3 cm thick filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp with a lemonade-like taste enclosing 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and a pale lavender to dark brownish purple color.