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On a cacao plantation in Barlovento, Venezuela, a banner hangs behind a pile of cacao seeds as they dry in the sun. The banner reads, in both Spanish and English, "Welcome to Barlovento. Land of high cultural level and Afro-Caribbean traditions."

A maroon-colored Criollo cacao pod hangs in the leafy branches of a cacao tree, ripening.

A hand holds a mature cacao pod that's been picked from a tree on the plantation. The mature pod is an almond-shaped fruit, wider than an adult hand and yellowish-orange in color.

The yellowish-orange flesh of the cacao pod is peeled away to reveal the white seeds inside.

Removed from their pods, the cacao seeds, along with the pulp of the fruit, are fermenting in a wooden bucket on the plantation.

A closer look at the fermenting seeds shows the natural liquid that escapes the seeds and starts the fermentation process.

A student intern at the plantation gathers the fermented cacao seeds together to dry them in the sun. She collects them into small piles to make it easier to protect them from the rain, and spreads them in an even layer on the cement.

The plantation owner, at left, shows a volunteer how to flip the cacao seeds as they dry on the cement. Each pile is labeled with a white piece of paper marking the number of days it has been drying.

The volunteer flips the seeds with a rake to help them dry evenly.

The plantation owner prepares to roast the cacao seeds, pouring the dried seeds from a wooden bowl into a metal pot over an open fire.

The metal pot holding the cacao seeds sits over an open fire, propped up on two concrete blocks. The flame below the pot is kept low.

Visitors to the plantation gather around a bowl of roasted cacao seeds to remove the papery membrane from the outside of the seeds.

A close-up of the roasted seeds provides a closer view of the winnowing process. The seeds vary in color from a deep red to a dark brown.

A visitor to the plantation holds a dark brown cacao seed in her hand. The seed, which has been dried and roasted, is about the size of a silver dollar coin. Its shell has been cracked open, revealing the nib inside.

A metal hand crank machine sits on a table on the plantation, ready to grind the roasted and winnowed cacao seeds. In the background, busy hands continue winnowing the seeds.

A visitor turns the metal hand crank to grind the cacao seeds into a paste. She braces herself against the table and leans into the crank, demonstrating the tremendous effort needed to grind the seeds.

A thick brown paste of ground cacao oozes out from the machine as the metal hand crank is turned. A pan holding roasted seeds sits in the background, ready for grinding.

As the plantation owner turns the metal hand crank, the cacao paste falls into the tin container below the gears.