Asia became the 1st recipient of cacáo outside its American birthplace.
Accounts vary but starting in the latter half of the 17th century, a Spanish galleon transported pure Mesoamerican Criollo across the Pacific to the Philippines. Many place the date at 1663. The oldest record documents 1670: a single plant leaving from the port of Acapulco, Mexico, possibly uprooted from the southeast in what was then Tecuanapa. Once safely harbored in the Philippines, cacáo began its global journey, moving westward to Indonesia
One overarching characteristic of chocolate made from Oceanic cacáo is generally pronounced acidity.