I bought some whole cacao beans today
in a Mexican-food supermarket. The beans
themselves are from El Salvador.

I assume these are fermented and dried, but
not roasted. They are easily chewed, with
a nice texture. They have a strong and pleasant
chocolate taste.

The directions on the package say to toast
and peel the beans, add cinnamon, and grind
them, with about 1 tablespoon of the ground
material per cup of boiled water.

I'm surprised at the variation in the size of the
beans and color. Most are a light brown,
but some are almost black, with a wide range
of color between those extremes.