Carob is the long brown pod of a Mediterranean tree, and also the dark powder people make from those pods. The taste sits in the same neighbourhood as chocolate — sweet, roasted, a bit woody — but it is not chocolate and it does not come from the cocoa tree. People who cannot eat cocoa, or who want a sweeter powder without the same kick, sometimes drink carob or bake with it. The pods themselves can be chewed as a sweet snack in the countries where the tree grows; they are dry, sticky-sweet, and full of seeds. Another quiet life of the word is in food factories: a gum from the seeds (often labelled locust bean gum) thickens ice cream and sauces. In English it is a plain, slightly health-shop word, not a poet’s word.

角豆、長角豆（種子膠常標成角豆膠）