This is the stuff that chocolate is made from.
Samples are from the Hilo Open market.
These are the seed pods of the cacao tree. The seeds inside are dried and fermented to begin the process that results in chocolate.
"The Aztecs apparently regarded cacao as being of divine origin ('Theobroma' means 'food of the gods').
They used the tree's beans as currency - 100 beans would buy a slave, 12 beans the services of a courtesan and 10 beans a rabbit."
This is what the inside looks like:
http://www.pbase.com/image/44393544