Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Coffea species are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. The seeds of some species, called coffee beans, are used to flavor various beverages and products. The fruits, like the seeds, contain a large amount of caffeine, and have a distinct sweet taste.
Herbal teas, also known as herbal infusions and less commonly called tisanes, are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water. Oftentimes herb tea, or the plain term tea, is used as a reference to all sorts of herbal teas. Many herbs are used in herbal medicine. Some herbal blends contain actual tea.
Theobroma cacao is a small evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. Native to the tropics of the Americas, the largest producer of cocoa beans in 2018 was Ivory Coast, at 2.2 million tons. Its leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, 10–50 cm (4–20 in) long and 5–10 cm (2–4 in) broad.
Hot chocolate, also known as hot cocoa or drinking chocolate, is a heated drink consisting of shaved or melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener. It is often garnished with whipped cream or marshmallows. Hot chocolate made with melted chocolate is sometimes called drinking chocolate, characterized by less sweetness and a thicker consistency.
Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce black and green tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree.
Theobroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that is sometimes classified as a member of Sterculiaceae. It contains roughly 20 species of small understory trees native to the tropical forests of Central and South America.
Chocolate cake or chocolate gâteau is a cake flavored with melted chocolate, cocoa powder, or both.
Erythricium salmonicolor is a species of fungus in the family Corticiaceae. Basidiocarps are effused, corticioid, smooth, and pinkish and grow on wood. The fungus is a commercially significant plant pathogen which has become a serious problem, especially in Brazil. Erythricium salmonicolor causes Pink Disease, most commonly in Citrus, although E. salmonicolor has a wide host range including rubber and cacao trees. Pink Disease causes branch and stem die-back due to canker formation. The cankers are recognizable by gum exudation and longitudinal splitting of the bark.
Moniliophthora roreri is a basidiomycete fungus that causes frosty pod rot disease, one of the most serious problems for cacao production in Latin America. This disease and together with witches’ broom disease and black pod rot constitute the cacao disease trilogy. It causes serious losses in southwestern parts of South America; spores are dry and powdery and are spread easily by water movement, wind, or movement of pods; disease spread is highest during periods of high rainfall.
Xiphinema insigne is a plant pathogenic nematode infecting tea. They are known to infect cacao trees.
Cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Caulimoviridae that primarily infects cacao trees. It decreases cacao yield within the first year of infection, and usually kills the tree within a few years. Symptoms vary by strain, but leaf discoloration, stem/root swelling, and die-back generally occur. The virus is transmitted from tree to tree by mealybug vectors. It was first discovered in Ghana in 1936, and is currently endemic in Togo, Ghana and Nigeria. Over 200 million trees have already been claimed by this disease, which has prompted Ghana to launch the most ambitious and costly eradication effort of any country in the world against a viral plant disease.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
Corallomycetella is a genus of ascomycete fungi in the family Nectriaceae. Species of Corallomycetella are tropical, and are characterized by the formation of brightly colored rhizomorphs of their rhizostilbella-like asexual morphs. These fungi causes a number of plant diseases including 'violet root rot' of Theobroma cacao, root rot of Carica papaya, and 'stinking root disease' of several tropical woody plants. Two species of Corallomycetella are recognized: Corallomycetella elegans C. Herrera & P. Chaverri and Corallomycetella repens Rossman & Samuels. Corallomycetella jatrophae is now classified under Corallonectria.
Theobroma bicolor, known commonly as the mocambo tree, jaguar tree, balamte, or pataxte, among various other common names, is a tree in the genus Theobroma, which also contains the better-known Theobroma cacao. It is found in Central and South America, including stretches of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Raffaele Ciferri was an Italian botanist, agriculturalist and mycologist.
Badnavirus is a genus of viruses, in the family Caulimoviridae order Ortervirales. Plants serve as natural hosts. There are 67 species in this genus. Diseases associated with this genus include: CSSV: leaf chlorosis, root necrosis, red vein banding in young leaves, small mottled pods, and stem/root swelling followed by die-back. Infection decreases yield by 25% within one year, 50% within two years and usually kills trees within 3–4 years.
Cocoa necrosis virus (CoNV) is a plant pathogenic virus of the genus nepovirus that infects Theobroma cacao en natura causing cacao necrosis disease. CoNV is considered synonymous with Strain S of cacao swollen shoot virus. Unlike Cacao swollen shoot virus, it is not transmitted by mealybugs nor vectored by aphids, beetles, or leafhoppers that also commonly infest cacao. It is serologically, distantly related to Tomato black ring virus and very distantly related to Grapevine chrome mosaic virus.
Euwallacea fornicatus is a species complex consisting of multiple cryptic species of ambrosia beetles, known as an invasive species in California, Israel and South Africa. The species has also been unintentionally introduced into exotic greenhouses in several European countries. As the rest of the ambrosia beetles, E. fornicatus larvae and adults feed on a symbiotic fungus carried in a specific structure called mycangium. In E. fornicatus, the mycangium is located in the mandible. The combination of massive numbers of beetles with the symbiotic fungus kills trees, even though the fungus alone is a weak pathogen.
