The Missing Cocoa
July 31, 2009
A month ago we spent a week in the Space Coast area of Florida. Perhaps you saw the related blog articles: Chocolate in Space and Caffe Chocolat.
Today I was looking through some photographs and realized that I had taken a picture that I wanted to share with our readers. While we were staying in Titusville, we had the opportunity to drive up and down the Atlantic coast. Usually we were in search of interesting sights and nice beaches.
Of course, no chocolate lover's experience would be complete without a visit to the city of Cocoa. It was fun just seeing the name on signs, like the one posted here.
The beach was not covered in cocoa powder. The streets were not paved with chocolate liquor. I didn't even see cacao nibs being used as mulch around flowers and shrubs. It was Sunday so the visitor's center wasn't open for us to ask about these things.
My primary question then, why is the city called Cocoa?
With a little research here's what I found: No one really knows how the city got its name. You'd think someone would have recorded it for future visitors, but that is not the case.
The City of Cocoa celebrated its centennial in 1995. That means that it considers its beginning in 1895. Yet only 30 years later, in 1925, the Cocoa Tribune published several reader-supplied accounts of how the city got its name. Apparently they forgot in only 30 years time! I guess they just weren't thinking about the inquiring minds of Chocolate University Online students and faculty.
Anyway, one reader said that Captain R.C. May recommended the name at a town meeting in 1884. At Captain May's suggestion, the group present chose the name "Cocoa" for the town's association with the Cocoa plant. Another story suggests that a woman was inspired by a box of Baker's Cocoa and her suggestion was adopted.
Yet another account suggests that along the bank of the Indian River there was an old woman who would provide hot cocoa to the sailors as they went by. The sailors knew a good thing when they had it, so as they passed, they called out for "cocoa, cocoa" until the woman supplied them once again.
I guess the origin of the name doesn't matter as much as the fact that it is called Cocoa, thus making it a fitting destination for chocolate lovers.
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