https://apnews.com/baff1010d38146a8b94780bbd229a9a3

NEW YORK (AP) — New research strengthens the case that people used the chocolate ingredient cacao in South America 5,400 years ago, underscoring the seed's radical transformation into today's Twix bars and M&M candies.

Tests indicate traces of cacao on artifacts from an archaeologic site in Ecuador, according to a study published Monday. That's about 1,500 years older than cacao's known domestication in Central America.