Coffee and Cocoa
Continuing our discussion of two important tree crops
Welcome to Our Trees 2026 Edition. As we make Our Trees into a leading publication, we will publish more stories on a regular schedule: 4-6 stories per month, and notes several times per week. Our subject matter will be broader, especially on the uses of trees. There will be more opportunities for you to participate in discussions and to tell us what you want us to present. Some of our content will now require a paid subscription. We will keep subscriptions affordable, at $5/month or $35 annually.
Subjects coming up: coffee and cocoa (continues); theanine, a beneficial amino acid found in tea; juniper, a most useful tree; sacred trees; adaptation vs acclimation; trees are not really green, are they?; the magic numbers of tree growth; and plenty more.
This is the second in an ongoing series of stories about the products we get from two imporant tree crops, coffee and cocoa. The first story about coffee is here.
Although they come from opposite sides of the world, coffee from Ethiopia, cocoa from the upper Amazon, they have a great deal in common. Both are from the fruits of small, understory trees or shrubss; both are rich in phytochemicals (plant chemicals) which help defend the tree from pests and pathogens and have health benefits to humans; both are grown industrially far away from the forests where they originate; both are produced in systems that impoverish and exploit workers; and both can be obtained from producers that pay their workers well and treat them fairly. It will take several stories to explain all this, so let’s get started with cocoa.
