Where does chocolate come from?

These days I seem to be needing more chocolate than other days... I do think my chocolate intake is higher than the average anyways, but it is my No. 1 comfort food these days and for some reason (like transitioning, little sleep, language study) my need for comfort is high right now.

Anyways... the other day our neighbor told me that her husband had gone to pick up chocolate and they were going dry it and then sell it to buyers who then again sell it to a chocolate factory on another island.
I got all excited, imagining our front yard smelling amazing and me even getting to try some of the chocolate?

Well, two days ago our neighbors were laying, what looked like nuts, outside on mats to dry.

Much to my disappointment, chocolate beans that are drying do NOT smell the same as chocolate that we buy in the store. It is actually not a nice smell at all, weirdly enough it reminds me of when Max sweats - same smell - true story - no idea why.

  Did you know that this is were chocolate comes from? I didn't. Learning something new every day.

On a different note, we know we have been very bad at updating this blog lately, but we will try to go back to what we used to do, when it was usually just a short blogpost with one picture every day (if internet permits us).