Central America, Caribbean Islands & northern coast of South America
Ancestral breeding grounds for some of the most flavorfully-rich cacáo – Criollo. Unlike the contiguous Amazonia, cacáo in Caribia grows in comparatively discrete isolated pockets. Research confirms the century-old suspicion, & openly speculated about by E.E. Chessman in 1944, that relates Criollo in South America to that in Central America, making their genetic distance even closer than their geographic proximity.
Ethnic & Geographic Mix of Modern Mesoamerica (courtesy of CATIE, Costa Rica)