margaret suran wrote:
>
> There is a drought in Africa, cocoa beans are dying and the
> price of cocoa (and therefore chocolate) is going up. (

Cocoa beans are dying? They were going to die
anyway, during fermentation and roasting. :-)

If the cacao trees were dying, that would be
more serious. :-)

There was a rumor like this a few years ago,
and it didn't happen then. I'm not going to
worry about it this time. If anything, it's
probably just a story created by traders trying
to goose the price.

Africa produces the cheapest grades of cacao.
I'd be more worried about instability in
Venezuela, which produces some of the highest
grades of cacao.