Cocoa Beans

Cocoa beans (also known as the brown dye) are a primary color dye used for making cookies and brown wool. When the Minecraft 1.3 update rolls out, they will be found on Cocoa Plants, which grow on the side of jungle trees.

Farming
Note: This section only applies for development snapshots 12w19a and later; this feature will be implemented in Minecraft 1.3. The player is able to plant Cocoa Beans on the side of jungle tree logs. The Cocoa Plant has three stages of growth. During its first, the pod is small and green. In the second stage, the plant is bigger and colored tan. In its last stage, the pod is even bigger and orange. When destroyed in the first two stages, the plant will only yield one Cocoa Bean. When destroyed in the third stage, it will give three Cocoa Beans. Bone meal can be used to immediately mature the Cocoa Plant to its last stage of growth. When Cocoa Beans are grown on jungle tree logs moved by a piston, they will become harvested.

History
Cocoa beans were initially introduced in Beta 1.2, 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. (53% chance) Also as of Beta 1.4, brown sheep naturally spawn which made obtaining brown wool easier. In 12w16a, cocoa beans are obtainable in bonus chests. In 12w18a, cocoa beans have a small (0.5%) chance of dropping from destroyed jungle tree leaves in a similar fashion to red apples, making cocoa beans a renewable source of material for the first time. Cocoa plants provided an additional way of obtaining them in 12w19a.

Jeb said during his Dreamhack presentation that cocoa trees are pending. Cocoa beans are among the rarest obtainable items on old worlds (after cookies) as they can only be found in dungeons generated after Beta 1.4. The use of cookies as a 'trophy item' gives cocoa considerable value on unmodified servers, even more so than diamonds. With cocoa beans now being obtainable from jungle trees in 12w18a, they are no longer as rare.