Whats up with chocolate?

The entire history of food production is one that throws me into a speeding ship's propellers. I cant fathom how much trial and error went into getting our daily and luxury food habits in place. If the memes were to be true then tonnes of our ancestors died trying out toxic and poorly prepared food while their kins or accomplices watched and took notes. What to eat and what to not eat probably was a result of millions of humans watching nature and trying new food by themselves.

One of the craziest food to exist is chocolate. Have you ever seen how chocolate is made? It really gets my mind running in circles. The entire process from seed to packing is simply exhausting. It is a meticulous process and very intricate, too. Who even came up with that? I wonder if there were errors, repeatedly, in reaching the point of edible chocolate.

Just imagine. The first step is to actually cultivate the cocoa plant and then realize which parts of it is edible. Historically, seeds have not been the greatest nominees for food. The fruit or plant was. So coming up with the idea of using a cocoa seed is simply mindblowing to me.

That is just the start. The seed is then treated and dried. Then it is fermented and nowadays done in a 3 step process. After that it goes through some other processes which I cannot even recall. Matter of fact, I am not fully sure the steps I mentioned are in that very order.

At the end it is to be mixed with milk to create milk chocolate. I think the insides of the seeds are used to make the final chocolate. Like how is it possible that someone went through all that trouble and came up with this incredible food! Simply mindboggling.