The Dark Side of Chocolate's Sweet Tooth The recent study on cocoa yields reveals a climate threat that's been hiding in plain sight: heavy rainfall, not heat or drought, is the biggest constraint on cocoa harvests.
This finding shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the tropics and their mercurial weather patterns. Cocoa trees are notorious for their sensitivity to extremes.
Too little water causes them to shrivel up; too much leads to fungal diseases that drown them.