The fleshy white coating covering the seeds inside cocoa pads make for a tasty treat.

Lovers of hot cocoa, now made from powder, are to have the new option of a 'chocolate bar' developed by the Cocoa Industry Board (CIB).

Naburn Nelson, CIB secretary/manager, said the bar will be made from the traditional cocoa beans, which have been processed for modern convenience.

"You will get a bar of the chocolate and drop it in a cup of hot water, stir, and you get the chocolate tea," he said.

Jamaicans tend to use the word 'tea' to indicate a hot beverage.

The CIB is developing the marketing plan for the bar, reports government news agency, JIS.

The chocolate bar will be sold locally and overseas, and promoted as a health product.

"Cocoa, especially our dark chocolate, contains some of the highest qualities in terms of anti-ageing products," he said.

It is also edible in its solid form, and will be marketed as a treat for children.

"This product will go across all age groups," said Nelson.

"The mature consumers normally want their hot tea while the children, on the other hand, will want their chocolate bar to eat," said Nelson.

Cocoa earned Jamaica $170 million in the crop year just ended September. The board, which markets the product internationally, is keen on exploiting the product to boost revenues.

Test samples of the chocolate bar have already been sent to countries such as Canada and the United States

"The number of calls that we have been getting from persons enquiring about when the product will be available for export has been awesome," said the CIB manager.

The CIB is also working on another commercial venture: The upgrading of one of its factories in St. Mary to become a tour site for lovers of Jamaican cocoa and its by-products.

The tour will focus on the processing of cocoa beans.

The main cocoa-producing parishes are St. Mary, St. Catherine, Clarendon, and St. Thomas, but farmers in the western parishes of St. Elizabeth, St. James, Westmoreland and parts of Trelawny also produce the crop.