5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

White, dark, milk, bittersweet, semisweet - whatever your chocolate persuasion, it's easy, delicious and even healthy(!) to be livin' la vida cocoa.

But how does that perfectly unassuming cacao bean make its merry way into shiny foil wrappers around the globe? We'll let you in on a little secret: It doesn't involve tiny orange-faced, green-haired men.

Here to raise the bar on your level of chocolatey understanding is Ray Major, the head of the development team at Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.

Five Facts About the Origin of Chocolate: Ray Major
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Arch West, the Frito-Lay marketing executive credited with inventing Doritos, passed away of natural causes last week at the age of 97, and his family plans to honor his legacy in a lovingly cheesy way. The Dallas Morning News reports that at his graveside, service in Dallas, Texas on October 1, the family will be "tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn," according to his daughter Jane Hacker. "He'll love it," she continued.
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Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.

•  Man vs. machine: Grocery store edition. More self-service checkouts are getting bagged in favor of personal contact. - USA Today

• How 'bout them apples...in your cereal bowl? - Serious Eats

• Are students still living off ironed grilled cheese and microwaveable ramen, or is there a deeper education cooking? - Guardian

• The marketing genius behind Doritos, Arch West, has passed away at 97. His family will properly send him off the only way they know how: by sprinkling Doritos in his grave. - The Dallas Morning News

• The Phoenix Diocese is in hot (holy) water with some of its constituents after restricting Communion with actual wine. - The Arizona Republic

Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to get our grub on, we listen up.

Fall is new everything season! And that includes sodas. So unless you’re a kid in a school district with a soda ban in effect, you should check out these amazing drinks. School kids can try them after class.

Avery's Beverages
The Connecticut-based company has been around for 100 years, making small-batch sodas with well water and cane sugar. And then there’s their ‘Totally Gross Sodas’ line. The Toxic Slime is a bright blue mix of ‘blue raspberry’/orange/lemon. Bug Barf is green, made with kiwi and pineapple. The newest Gross flavor is the passionfruit and lime Fungal Fruit. I understand that these sodas actually taste good but I’m not touching Kitty Piddle Soda, which is yellow, under any circumstances.
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Deborah Feyerick is a CNN correspondent. See part one of this series Witnesses to Hunger: A portrait of food insecurity in America and read producer Sheila Steffen's $30 grocery challenge

Six-year-old Juvens Lewis jumps on the scale, his tiny body lost in a flowing hospital gown. He weighs in at 37.2 pounds, the size of an average 4-year-old. Giggling, he heads back to his examining room as sounds of children filter into the busy hallway. All are getting check-ups at Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic, which treats underweight and malnourished kids.

“People think about acute malnutrition and they may look at Somalia. What we see is chronic malnutrition, stunted growth, kids that are the size of a 1-year-old when they’re 2 years old,” says Dr. Megan Sandel who treats Juvens adding, “They’re not going to be able to make up for that for the rest of their lives.”

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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Get your flapjacks flippin' - September 26 is National Pancake Day!

Grab your knife and fork and dig into a short stack of your favorite pancakes! Whether you frequent the local pancake house or whip up some batter for the griddle on your own, enjoy breakfast all day long.
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Pssst! Got a sec to chat?

We are utterly thrilled when readers want to hang out and talk – whether it's amongst themselves or in response to pieces we've posted. We want Eatocracy to be a cozy, spirited online home for those who find their way here.

Consider the daily Coffee Klatsch post as your VIP lounge – the primary comments thread for readers who'd like to chat about topics not related to the articles we're running. That way, everyone knows where to find each other, and each post's comments section remains on topic.
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