If you haven't already heard, the world is facing a chocolate shortage. Part of the reason is increased demand, as Chinese taste buds awaken to the delicious treat. But part of the reason is climate change.

Cacao is a fickle plant. The trees grow in shady areas of rainforests within 20 degrees of the Equator. They require just the right water, soil, temperature and tending. It takes at least 5 years for them to produce fruit.

More than half the world's chocolate is grown in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, but climate conditions there are changing, explains a study by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

Analysts are predicting “the longest streak of consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years.”

So what can be done?

According to shortage Magazine, farmers are investing in a high-yield cacao hybrid (not genetically modified) that was created in Ecuador in the 1970's by a cacao breeder named Homero Castro. Known as CCN-51, it doesn't require shade early in life and is tolerant to disease and a greater variety of climates. Unfortunately it doesn't taste very good, and has been described by top chocolate connoisseurs as “acidic dirt.”

According to the magazine, however, there are some high-yield disease-resistant plants that taste really good.

“These cacao strains, called R-1, R-4, and R-6, have one significant improvement over CCN51: They taste really good. In 2009, beans of two of the strains, R-4 and R-6, were acidic dirt. Both won prizes—R-4 for its ‘sweet, floral, and fruity notes,' and R-6 for its ‘nutty and woody notes, with undertones of brown fruit.'”

But is that the solution? Decreasing the biodiversity of chocolate to maintain supply? According to choco-ficionados, there are least 10 different varieties and 40 different cultivars of the cacao plant, possibly more. Humanity deserves to taste them all.