Seventy percent. That’s the figure that kept running through my mind as I stared at the landscape outside the air-conditioned van.

The cocoa powders are alkalized with baking soda.

According to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), roughly 72% of the world’s cocoa production occurs in West Africa, with Latin America accounting for another 18% and Asia and Oceana shoring up the remaining 10%. So for North American chocoholics, there really is no such thing as locally sourced chocolate.

If it weren’t for chocolate milk, there might be some people — perhaps dear reader, even you — who wouldn’t drink much milk at all. Indeed, chocolate milk is a perennially bright star in the dairy firmament, and with fall’s ushering in of the new school year, its glow is bound to grow brighter.