Cocoa Beans

Cocoa Beans (also known as the Brown Dye) are a material used for making Cookies and brown wool. Cocoa Beans have a dark brown, patchy texture. Cocoa Beans were initially introduced in the Beta 1.2 update, but were not able to be obtained without an Inventory Editor.

As of Beta 1.4, Cocoa Beans were formally brought into the game as a reward found in dungeon chests. (80% Chance) Also as of Beta 1.4, brown sheep naturally spawn which made obtaining brown wool easier.

Notch has hinted sometime in the future they will be able to be grown. Cocoa Beans are among the rarest obtainable items in the game (after apples and cookies) as they can only be found in dungeons generated after the 1.4 patch. The use of cookies as a 'trophy item' gives cocoa considerable value on unmodified servers, even more so than diamonds.