Anyway, cocoa beans are found inside cacao pods, which grow on trees.

In the video, he cuts open the cacao pod to reveal what resembles white corn on the cob:

As someone with trypophobia, the look of this is extremely unsettling!!!

The beans — or you could call them seeds, I guess — are covered in a white, mucus-like coating that tastes sweet. In the video, it is explained as tasting like a mix between a Jolly Rancher and a lychee fruit. Who knew?!

And, when you cut one open, there is a really cool swirl design:

So, why do we all have this vision of a fresh cocoa bean being brown in our heads? Well, that’s because we’ve seen the beans after the fermentation process — where they turn brown — and are ready to be made into chocolate.

To summarize, cocoa beans go from being slimy and white to dry and brown before being made into chocolate.