If you're wondering why your friends never told you about Black Sapote, aka "Chocolate Pudding Fruit," it's time to reevaluate those childhood friendships. Next to the cocoa bean -- which goes through a rigorous process to become the actual chocolate you're familiar with -- Black Sapote is perhaps the only fruit that comes close to tasting like mouth-heaven chocolate.

When ripe, sapote bears a deep brown color and can be eaten fresh, scooped straight from the skin. Many praise its chocolate pudding consistency and taste (take note, gluten eaters) and its low-fat, high vitamin C benefits. While sapote hails from eastern Mexico, Columbia and Central America, you can also find it being cultivated in other parts of the world, like Australia, the Philippines and Florida.

Of course, the more clever have created mouthdrool recipes that use black sapote as a chocolate substitute:

Chocolate Sapote Cake with Kumquat Orange Marmalade

Recipe: Fragrant Vanilla Cake

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Black Sapote Chocolate Pudding Fruit

Recipe: Organic Gardening

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Black Sapote Mousse

Recipe: small town chutney

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Black Sapote Cream Meringue Pie

Recipe: KUMU AINA FARM

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I know, I know. You've got the feels.